Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

cherry tomatoes

Hanging in the window of a vacant storefront in downtown North Adams was a small, white sign. It said:

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

This is not the sort of sign that usually hangs in a shop window in North Adams. I did a double-take. And then I promptly whipped out my phone and entered the time and date for this event. I sure as heck wanted to know my farmer. (Well, I do know my farmer; he’s Don at Caretaker Farm. But certainly there are others, and I don’t know them…yet.)

News travels slow here in the Berkshires — at least it does for me — so it took me some digging to find out what this event was all about. Headed up by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and inspired by the USDA’s recent Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign, our very own local KYF event will be an opportunity to discover where you can get locally grown or raised food here in the Berkshires year-round. Local growers, producers, and purveyors will provide samples, and local author Amy Cotler will be around to sign copies of her book, The Locavore Way, whose cover illustration is so wonderfully, cutely appealing, I want to get it printed on a little button to wear on my jacket.

Now, I probably don’t have to tell you that food grown in your own community tastes better, is better for you, and helps to support an industry that — especially here in Berkshire County — is as vital as it is invaluable. Please join me at this event.