Going on About The Farmer's Market-Again

Sorry, I know I just blogged about the farmer's market, but this one was a little different and I wanted to feature one particular booth here for you.
We ALL went this time since it was the Spring Fling in downtown Akron.  Most of the booths were at the Akron Library but there were a few across the street in the Akron Art Museum.  I told each of the kids that they had $5 to spend, hoping it would get them a little more involved in the whole Farmer's Market Shopping Experience, but it turned out, they all really liked it.  Well, really liked it might be exaggerating.  The didn't complain and seemed content to be there.  That's the most I can really hope for with any shopping trip.  Caden bought some

apples, Evan bought some cider (which was REALLY good for cider in April!), Vince bought some popcorn, Ellie ended up with nothing, but was OK with that (shocking, I know) and Olivia got eggs.  I bought a leek, 4 heads of leafy lettuce and a bunch of Siberian Kale.

I really expected Evan to be more on par with the kids, but he seemed to enjoy himself too--to my delight!  He bought 8 pastured beef patties which we'll grill next week.  To make this more than just a post about another trip to the farmer's market I'm going to tell you about the farm where we got the eggs and the beef.  It's Brunty Farms in Akron.  Their products include, eggs, lamb, turkey, chicken, pork and beef.  This is it!  I think this is the locally raised meat I've been looking for!  They participate in the farmers markets, but they also have a store where I could go each week and just buy what I want!  Well, as long as they have it in stock.  This is the adjustment I need to make to be a more local consumer.  My old method of planning meals for the week, THEN shopping needs to flip around to shopping then planning then probably shopping  again to get what I missed the first time around.
They also have drop points, so I wouldn't need to drive all the way to Akron.  There's one in Canal Fulton, which is MUCH closer than driving to Bath Twp! If you click on the link you can sign up to be part of their buying club, which will only give you info about what's available and drop off locations, it doesn't commit you to buying anything.
In addition to the store and the drop points they also have a CSA which includes:

I'm excited to see if I can get this to work for our family.  I'm going to have to do a little research and budgeting and see which plan will work best for us (I didn't add it above, but for an additional cost you can have the chickens cut up for you.  Evan watches enough cooking shows I'm sure he can just grab a cleaver and cut up a whole bird though, right Ev?)

So here's the down side.  Suddenly your food has a face.  When buying it at the grocery store you're eating a red blob in a shrink wrapped tray.  Here, they have pictures of their flocks and herds.  They KNOW their animals and talk about how they're humanely raised in pastures and how their hogs are allowed to forage.

I don't want to eat these guys!  I want to cuddle them!  LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE!!!  But, I'm not going to eat them.  Evan is.  My choice is to cuddle, his, and MANY others, is to well...you know.  If you're going to eat meat I guess this is the way to go. It's sure as HELL safer than eating grocery store meat! Safer for both you and the animals.  OK, ending here.  Starting to rant a little about eating meat.  Sorry, I try not to do that.  One last picture though.

Seeing the little piggies made me think of these little guys.  They're Adara's babies-a Save A Mom dog.  They were born a few weeks ago.  Don't they look like the little piggies?!? So cute!  I'm not going to foster any of these guys or we'll have 3 dogs.  Or 4.  Or 5...