Eating Good From Your Hood

Creating new and improved dinner party menus for all of your picky friends doesn't just mean reading up on every food trend and style, it means knowing every foodie trend. The herbivores’ dishes can’t be like the omnivores’, and certainly keep them away from any Atkins-obsessed full-on carnivores. Luckily, there's a buzzword they can all get behind: locavore.

Sometimes spelled “Localvore,” these eco-friendly eaters only buy goods from farmers and growers in their area. Just as our tree-free Evite invitations cut gas prices for mail delivery, ecophiles can rejoice that buying locally means fewer gas-guzzling jumbo trucks on the roads. Plus, it cuts mass production's pollution, chemicals and waste while helping small farms compete with big business.

The restaurant industry is eating this trend up, as more chefs can be spotted perusing their nearby farmers’ markets in the early morning hours. But it's also a trend that the rest of us can embrace. Websites like Local Harvest list farmers’ markets, family farms and other sources across the U.S., and sites like Locavores have recipes and networking information — all to make sure that going green never goes out of style.

Comments

In addition to locally produced fruits and veggies, you can increasingly find organic and local wines. Farmers Markets are great places to find all sorts of fresh and delicious foods and drinks.

Cool stuff, says this pesky pescetarian. I knew about my local farmers' markets, but I had no idea how many other organizations were in my area until I went to that Local Harvest site. I'm now one step closer to living la vida loca.