A health­ier you starts with eat­ing fruits and veg­eta­bles every day. But did you know that pur­chas­ing those fruits, veg­eta­bles, dairy and meat locally makes not only you health­ier, but your com­mu­nity as well? Or that buy­ing those same prod­ucts as organic has the same pos­i­tive result? Buy­ing local means your gro­ceries don’t have to be trans­ported great dis­tances result­ing in lower car­bon emis­sions (cleaner air). It also helps sup­port local farm­ers, which in turn sup­ports your community.

There are sev­eral ways to buy local within Howard County includ­ing Farm­ers’ Mar­kets, Com­mu­nity Sup­ported Agri­cul­ture (CSA’s) sites, pick-your-own farms, road­side farm stands and even the local pro­duce sec­tion of many gro­cery stores.

CSA’s “sell shares” whereby a mem­ber essen­tially owns a piece of the farm and receives a por­tion of the har­vest. The pro­duce is fresh, local and often organic. While buy­ing organic can tend to be more expen­sive the rewards can be plen­ti­ful. Organic farm­ers restrict the use of dan­ger­ous pes­ti­cides so the food that ends up on your plate is bet­ter for you and packs more nutri­tional value. By lim­it­ing the use of pes­ti­cides, organic farm­ers cre­ate less haz­ardous runoff and pro­tect the soil from the addi­tion of harm­ful chemicals.

Howard County Farm­ers’ Markets

Another excel­lent way to find local pro­duce and sup­port our farm­ers is shop­ping at Howard County’s Farm­ers’ Mar­kets. They fea­ture the season’s fresh­est locally-grown pro­duce, baked goods, fruits of the sea­son, flow­ers, trans­plants, organ­i­cally grown pro­duce and spe­cialty items. http://www.hceda.org/agriculture/buyLocal.aspx?details=markets

Howard County CSA’s

Please note that the facil­i­ties listed here are pro­vided for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only and do not rep­re­sent any endorse­ment by Howard County Government.

Breezy Wil­low Farm is located in West Friend­ship, Howard County offers a wide range of “value added” prod­ucts as part of its 24 week “From The Land & The Hand” shares CSA pro­gram. Eggs, cheese, Mary­land Maple syrup, breads, pies, noo­dles etc. are included as well as fruits and veg­eta­bles from neigh­bor­ing farms. This pro­vides vari­ety and bal­ance to the weekly assort­ment. Breezy Wil­low pro­duces veg­eta­bles, berries, honey, herbs, jams, goatsmilk soap and nat­ural body prod­ucts. The CSA starts early June with full shares for a fam­ily of 4. Mem­bers may pick up at Breezy Wil­low, con­ve­niently located off Rt.32 & 70 or other loca­tions. To sub­scribe call RJ Caul­der @ 410−442−1807 or email RJCaulder@aol.com. More infor­ma­tion on line. www.breezywillowfarm.com.

Gor­man Farm, Lau­rel – CSA grower of a vari­ety of pro­duce. Dis­tri­b­u­tion is located at the Gor­man Farm road­side stand at 10151 Gor­man Road in Lau­rel. http://www.gormanproducefarm.com

Howard County Grow­ers LLP — is a CSA coop­er­a­tive of five farms and two pro­duc­ers, offer­ing sub­scribers a vari­ety of prod­ucts includ­ing veg­eta­bles, fruit, bread, herbs and flow­ers. A 16-week veg­etable sub­scrip­tion runs from June thru mid-September. Areas served include Colum­bia, Elli­cott City, west­ern Howard County and north­ern Mont­gomery County. Call 410−489−0139, or email: howardcountygrowers@yahoo.com.

Jas­mine Farm CSA — located in Glen­wood, Howard County, is expand­ing its deliv­ery to include Bethesda (Tues­day) and Gaithers­burg (Sat­ur­day), as well as offer­ing weekly on-farm pick up on Wednes­day and Sat­ur­day. The farm is also increas­ing its CSA mem­ber­ship to 80 shares, with an 18 to 20 week sched­ule begin­ning early June. Gus and Tag Neshawat grow a wide vari­ety of organic veg­eta­bles, herbs and fruits includ­ing straw­ber­ries, rasp­ber­ries, black­ber­ries, peaches and pears. Call 410−489−9589, or email: jasminefarm@access4free.com. (Cer­ti­fied Organic)

One Straw Farm CSA — offers a 24-week share of the har­vest; pro­gram begin­ning in early June. For more infor­ma­tion online visit: http://www.onestrawfarm.com/csa.html (Cer­ti­fied Organic)

Pheas­ant Hill Farm — offers con­ve­nience by mak­ing deliv­er­ies to numer­ous farm­ers’ mar­ket loca­tions includ­ing Mont­gomery County, NIH in Bethesda , Sil­ver Spring and Gaithers­burg begin­ning mid-May. Deliv­ery arrange­ments may also be made for Howard, Car­roll and Fred­er­ick Coun­ties. Located in Mt. Airy, the farm pro­duces chemical-free veg­eta­bles; weekly shares include locally-grown sea­sonal fruit. Rasp­ber­ries may be picked at the farm by appoint­ment. Full or half shares are avail­able as part of a 21-week sub­scrip­tion pro­gram. Con­tact Mar­jorie Sat­ter­lee at 410−875−3319, or email: msatter195@aol.com.

Sandy Spring CSA — serv­ing Howard and Mont­gomery Coun­ties. The sea­son runs 25 weeks, start­ing in May.  Pick-up in Howard County on Sunny Spring in Colum­bia or at the Howard County Con­ser­vancy (Mon­tjoy Barn) in Wood­stock.  Local, organic veg­eta­bles with optional fruit, flower and herb shares. Con­tact Erin John­son at 301−438−3927, or online: www.sandyspringcsa.com.

Shaw Farms CSA — offers a 20-week share of the har­vest; pro­gram, begin­ning in May. Pick up is at the farm, located in Colum­bia. Con­tact Brian at 410−660−7046, or email: brian@shawfarmcsa.com. For more infor­ma­tion online visit: http://www.shawfarmcsa.com/ (Cer­ti­fied Organic)

Organic Gro­cers

Please note that the facil­i­ties listed here are pro­vided for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only and do not rep­re­sent any endorse­ment by Howard County Government.

David’s Nat­ural Mar­ket: http://www.davidsnaturalmarket.com

Mom’s Organic Mar­ket: http://www.myorganicmarket.com

Roots Mar­ket: http://www.rootsmkt.com

Also look for cer­ti­fied organic prod­ucts at other gro­cery stores through­out the area.