Earth Hour 2015 – Eating Locally
Like Megan said in her last post, this month our focus is on supporting local food produce growers and providers. We have chosen this as our focus because that is the theme of Earth Hour 2015 in Australia.
As many of you would know, Earth Hour will be held on Saturday 28th of March, 8:30-9:30pm local time. Earth Hour asks people, businesses, councils and cities to turn their ‘lights off’ for an hour to raise awareness and start conversations about global warming.
Earth Hour was started back in 2007 in Sydney and has now grown to be a worldwide movement. LiveKen supports Earth Hour and encourages everyone to ‘switch off’ and to participate in any events that are being held in your local area.
For instance in my local area, the Campbelltown City Council is holding a community produce swap and showing a documentary called ‘Where does my food come from’ for Earth Hour 2015. There are also many other events being held around the country and you can find registered events on the Earth Hour website and you can even register your own.
Have you previously participated in Earth Hour or intend to this year? We would love to hear what your plans are and encourage you to talk to your friends and family about Earth Hour to raise awareness. You may even be surprised how many people are planning to switch off their lights.
Local Food
Sourcing your food and produce locally I believe is a good choice. You will generally be buying foods that are fresher and more sustainable because they haven’t needed to travel as far to reach you. Also buying local supports your local growers and farmers which benefits the whole community. These along with many other environmental, health and economic reasons is why people tend to source food locally.
We would love to hear your reasons behind why you source your food locally or if you don’t.
Local food is easy to find once you start to look with many stores priding themselves on their local produce. A green grocer in my area even has a map painted on a wall near the registrar of where they source their food.
Farmers markets are also a great way to find fresh local produce – you may be surprised how many you can find in your area with a little bit of research. They are also a great place to bargain especially with fruit and vegetables that are in season.
Recently I have been sourcing my fresh produce different – it is delivered to my door! It is part of an online delivery service provided by Aussie Farmers Direct. They source all Australian products and deliver fresh fruit, vegetables, diary, meats and breads straight to your door, with more products added to their delivery service regularly.
For me, this is not only convenient and time saving it ensures fresh local produce and offers a huge variety options to the shopper. If you want exactly the same produce in every order or if you would like to be surprised with one of their in season boxes, I would recommend trying them or at least looking into similar options in your local area.
Have you tried delivery services before? We would love to hear about your experience and if there is anywhere you would recommend.
Eating from Your Garden
Another great option is to grow your own produce. It could be big or small and will be limited to what time and space you have to do this. Megan has been growing her own fruit and veggies with varying success for a few years now and thoroughly enjoys it (for more see her last post).
I have been meaning to start up my own garden for a while now and am looking forward to starting. When I do, hopefully this year I will share with you all my successes and many failings – which will be plenty I’m sure.
Do you grow any of your own food? Please share with us your experiences and tips.
We encourage you to think about sourcing your food from local producers if you do not already and please take part in Earth Hour this year to raise awareness about global warming.