Local Food in Edmonton

I'm incredibly passionate about sourcing and eating local food.  I believe that the current conventional food system is far from sustainable and that the quality of conventionally produced food has plummeted to new lows.  I am vehemently against genetically modified foods and I refuse to support the system that embraces them.  Mainstream, conventional food production is a very broken, corrupt system....  Rather than complain about that, I'm simply withdrawing my money from that system and I'm resolutely marching forward to do something about it by taking action close to home.

Last night I attended the monthly Edmonton Permaculture Group meeting and thoroughly enjoyed hearing from a few local food producers.  The theme of the evening was "How we can access local food and why we need to".   We are fortunate to have an ever expanding resource list of where to buy local food from here in the Edmonton area.  Slow Food Edmonton and Organic Alberta are great resources to get you started!

Of all the choices out there, let's not forget that the simplest solution is often overlooked. It's economical, incredibly convenient and dead easy to have fresh, nutritious, local, organic food ON YOUR DOORSTEP simply by planting a garden.  With just a small time investment and the sun's generous donation of energy, you can easily supplement your local weekly food purchases with your own high quality organic food.

If you've never gardened before and have nobody in your life who can show you how, here are a few opportunities for you to get started by learning through some experienced local permaculturists:

Claudia @ Wild Green Garden Consulting

Anita @ On Borrowed Ground

And let's not forget the local folks at Shovel and Fork who have a "superfantastic" lineup of courses INCLUDING basic gardening as well as many other lost art skills from beekeeping to butchering...  do check them out!

If you are new to the Edmonton local food movement, I encourage you to click on those links above to get in touch with some wonderful local people doing some truly amazing things.  Alternatively, stop by the Old Strathcona Farmer's Market on Saturdays and shop local!