While trying to simplify and make chores and life more streamlined, modern technology has also, unfortunately, helped cut the ties that kept us close to the land and close to our communities. “Farm-to-Fork” hasn’t always been a cute concept for a dinner, it used to be the only option. In an effort to live more simply and healthfully, we need to go back to the land and celebrate the delicious food options it gives us, ditching the processed mock food, and embracing the bounty of the land with our local communities. Eating farm to fork also has SO many benefits, not only for your body but also for your community.
It’s Healthier:
Eating items that come straight from the source like all of the produce, meat, dairy, and eggs you can get from Woodside Farms’ Farm Stands, is actually filled with more nutrients than most of the food you’re able to find at your local supermarket. This is mostly due to the fact that buying food locally allows it to be grown and harvested with peak ripeness in mind. When produce needs to be flown in and stored before purchase, it’s often picked well before it’s actually ripe. It then sits around in storage and begins to lose a lot of its potent health-giving chemical structures. Likewise, livestock that is raised and slaughtered locally tends to be associated with a farmer who has a direct relationship with the processors. This allows them to oversee and guarantee quality. Perdue or Tyson aren’t able to do that. Eating a farm to fork lifestyle also pretty much guarantees the removal of processed food items from your diet. Processed food items are linked to the majority of chronic diseases currently plaguing the U.S. and other highly industrialized nations. When we take the time to eat real food and not too much of it, we’re investing in a relationship with food that will sustain us healthfully for the rest of our lives.
Eating Farm to Fork Helps Diversify Your Meals:
When you eat farm to fork-style you have to go with the seasons. For instance, you usually can’t find a tomato in the middle of February when you eat farm to fork in this neck of the woods. This means you roll with what the soil is giving you. If it’s a big rain year like last year, you may not get that many tomatoes at all, allowing you to savor the few juicy ones that make it to your dinner table. But if it’s a year like this one, you’ll have the corners of your home busting at the seams with tomatoes. Eating with the seasons is the perfect way to feed your body exactly what it needs when it needs it – no guessing required. It also helps keep the recipes cycling through, allowing for lots of diversity and creativity.
Better For The Environment:
The majority of the food you’ll find in your local supermarkets or chain restaurants is coming from thousands of miles away. It requires trucks, planes, boats, and trains to get to you, and that’s not even taking into account the heavy machinery that large commercial farms utilize to rob the soil of its nutrients to grow the food and then again to store their products before shipping them, or the large factories used to process the food items as if its food for robots instead of food for humans.
If you’d like to ditch mechanized, bland food and instead start to celebrate local cuisine options, you could start by visiting your local farm stands, investing in a herd share, and visiting us at the third installment of our Native Plate Series with chef Devon Hammer on Saturday, November 20th from 11 am-1 pm. Come see how easy and tasty farm-to-fork can be! Chef Devon will be spicing up his menu with farm-fresh ingredients grown here on the farm by our community, for our community. Check out the event page at for more information and to purchase your tickets today! We can’t wait to see you all!
