I saw an ad for a local greenhouse lately, they were selling tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and all kinds of veggies.
I decided to check them out and ordered some tomatoes and lettuce.
I am so glad I did that.
The tomatoes I got were big fat red ones that actually tasted like tomatoes.
They made me remember how much I like tomatoes.
The lettuce made me see that lettuce is not just something you put in a salad to give it some colour, it actually has a flavour of its own.
I was so used to the tasteless products the big grocery stores sell us that I had forgotten how some things should taste.
Those big grocery chains get their products from so far away that the veggies have to be picked before they get a chance to develop their flavour.
This greenhouse is so close that their veggies get to grow and develop until the day they are delivered.
I hope they can keep their business going because I really like the idea of having a flavourful toasted tomato sandwich in the middle of January.
I think this mess the world is in right now is making a lot of us realize that we are way too dependent on the big grocery stores.
I know a lot of people are going to try and grow their own gardens this year. I hope that they find the wonderful flavour of homegrown veggies is worth all the hard work, and keep it up next year too.
I hope others will take advantage of places like local greenhouses and markets or even the Hutterite Farms. They have great veggies too.
Meat is the next thing we need a local source for.
There are farmers all around us.
I am sure that some would be willing to sell meat.
Then we would need to find a butcher to cut and wrap the meat.
In the old days, there was a butcher in every town, but now we might have to travel a bit to find one.
The only thing that worries me about all this homegrown stuff is that we might be taking business away from local grocery stores.
We could make up for that by buying all our other needs there instead of rushing off to the giant stores to buy in bulk.
Maybe the small stores could buy from the local people too.
We might be surprised by what we learn from sticking together and helping our neighbour by buying from local and small business people.
We just might find that we are not just making their life better, we are making our own lives better too.
by Lois Perepelitz
