Why You Should Make Eating Local Your Resolution This Year

Some choices transcend New Year’s resolutions. For people like Sunrise Organic Farms co-founder Andrew Gibson, growing and eating locally, with regard for the environment, is a lifestyle. “The #1 thing is to eat locally,” Gibson says, for so many reasons. 

“Organic has a lot less carbon footprint, for the most part, than conventional farming,” he explains. “Basically, not having your produce on all those trucks with all that diesel or on all those 747s with all that jet fuel; that’s the best thing you can do. Plus, you’re just helping local farmers. That’s keeping your produce local so you have access to stuff if there are ever shortages across the country. You have a farmer next door that you’ve been supporting whose business is still doing okay, so they’re not shutting down.” Local, organic, and sustainble aren’t just buzzwords for Gibson and Sunrise Organic Farms. 

This week’s organic farm box features yoshi bok choy, a different variety than last week’s win win choi. Yoshi is a bit smaller, with a green rib, as opposed to win win choi’s white rib. Gibson tried yoshi for the first time just the other night. A chef sautéed the leafy green vegetable with cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs, plating with sea bass. “I loved it because instead of something like wilted spinach, it had crunch to it,” he says.

Our latest selection also includes rainbow carrots, Napa cabbage, cilantro, red little gem lettuce, red onion, shallots, gold acorn squash, baby spinach, and passion fruit. 

Rain continued to fall last week, meaning Sunrise couldn’t plant anything in muddy fields, though farmers managed to accomplish limited harvesting for customers. “Rain is a necessary and wonderful thing because we need it to keep going and for all the aquifers to be replenished,” Gibson says. “At the same time, as far as production and being able to get things in the field and out of the field, it causes lots of trouble.” This week, that involves tending to extra weeds and grass that have cropped up. Ultimately, Gibson readily accepts this rainy tradeoff. He says, “I’d rather not be able to harvest for a couple weeks and be able to keep growing for the next couple of years.”