Carrots, shallots, lilacs, lacinato kale, rhubarb, asparagus

It’s been about a year since I started looking into eating locally and seasonally. I don’t quite remember what started it all. Was it an article on supporting local organic farming? A TED talk on sustainability? What’s this C-S-A thing I keep hearing about? It may have been an impassioned archived blog post or two from the likes of smitten kitchen about the taste of an August tomato.

Although I hadn’t thought about it that way before, I knew exactly what she meant. Suddenly it all clicked. It all made sense. I had grown up picking summer tomatoes from my mother’s garden. I remember hauling zucchinis the size of my leg up the back lawn to the kitchen for dinner. I like to tell people I was eating kale before it was cool, because some of my fondest memories of summer dinner was eating wilted kale with garlic over pasta on the deck overlooking mama’s bountiful garden. Every year (still!) my mom and I get up early one morning in June, drive 45 minutes to a local farm and pick strawberries right off the vine. They're still warm from the sun and they taste like the absolute essence of summer. I already had all the puzzle pieces rolling around inside me, they just needed to click into place.

I haven’t looked back --- eating and cooking seasonally and locally has led me to gain new perspectives, forage a whole new life path, and help to solidify my passion in food. I couldn’t do it without having such lucky, easy access to one of the best farmers’ market in the city. So what I’m really saying is:

Happy 45th birthday GrowNYC! My life wouldn’t be the same without you!