I’d love to say I’m the kind of person who can wander into the farmer’s market without a plan, pick up the freshest, local ingredients, then come home to make a fabulous dinner. Sure, sometimes I get lucky, but more often than not I end up overwhelmed. Ooh, that fresh basil would be perfect for pesto—but wait, do I even have pasta in the cupboard? You get the idea.

To me, it’s a whole lot easier to plan a few days’ worth of meals, make a shopping list, and hit the grocery store. But most of the produce grown in the United States (and sold at your local megamart) travels an average of 1,500 miles before being sold. And since I strive to keep my food miles as low as possible, the farmer’s market it is. Fortunately, I found a new tool that helps me support local food while still allowing me to plan ahead: the Eat Local calculator from the National Resources Defense Council. There, I can enter my state and time of year and get a whole list of fruits and veggies I’m likely to find at the farmer’s market. So when I know that basil and tomatoes are in season during early June in central Texas, I’ll be able to make sure I have that penne on-hand for a yummy pesto pasta salad.

-Marygrace, KIWI staff writer

Depending on where you live, you might see strawberries as a spring thing. But here in New Jersey, I mark the appearance of local strawberries as the start of summer fruit season. It won’t be long now before the farmers market stalls are flooded with raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and then (my favorite!) peaches and nectarines.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to strawberries, which are popping up all over the place in those cute little green boxes and baskets. Usually when I go to the market, I’m tempted to buy a ton of them—after all, the season isn’t very long, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts!

Quite unfortunately, the seasonal availability of strawberries is a lot like a box of berries’ lifespan—short. Case in point: yesterday morning I was slicing up some fresh strawberries to accompany my morning porridge. I noticed I had about two servings’ worth of berries, but since I was the only one eating them, the rest would have to wait til tomorrow. When I came back this morning, however, each of my remaining strawberries had grown their own little white fur coat of mold.

The moral of the story, of course, is not to buy less local strawberries. Instead, just eat them faster! If you really get tired of having the plain old berries, try one of these ideas:

• A spinach salad with sliced strawberries
• Strawberry compote served warm over vanilla ice cream
• Chocolate-covered strawberries (getting fancy!)
• Homemade strawberry jam
• A strawberry-pickle smoothie

Just kidding about the last one! What are your favorite ways to eat strawberries?

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer