Eat fresh. Eat local. Eat in season.

Top 10 reasons to buy local:

1. Locally grown food tastes better. Food grown and sold locally is crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor because it is picked less than 2 days before it reaches your hands. Produce flown or trucked in from California or Chile spends a week or longer in transition from field to plate, enough time for sugars to turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce to lose vitality.
2. Local produce is better for you. Studies show that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly once harvested. Food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest is more nutritious than "fresh" produce that spends a week on a truck or supermarket shelf. Locally grown food, purchased soon after harvest, retains its nutrients.
3. Local food preserves genetic diversity. Local farms tend to grow a large variety of plants, instead of only a limited number of varieties that can withstand the harvest and marketing process. This variety provides a harvest all season long, an array of brilliant colors and flavors, as well as preserves the genetic material from hundreds of years of human selection.
4. Local food is GMO-free. Since biotechnology companies currently only license to large factory-style farms, local farmers don't have access to genetically modified seed, and most of them wouldn't use it.
5. Local food supports local farm families. Direct markets, selling directly to consumers, cut out the middleman allowing local farmers to receive the full retail price for their food. With commodity prices at historic lows and farmers getting less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar, supporting local farms mean that farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love.
6. Local food builds community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.
7. Local food preserves open space. As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. Lush fields of crops, meadows of wildflowers, and wild open landscapes will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.
8. Local food keeps your taxes in check. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, as opposed to suburban development. On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend 34 cents on services.
9. Local food supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued and diversity is welcomed. The habitat of a farm, with fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings, is the perfect environment for many species of wildlife, including bluebirds, killdeer, herons, bats, and rabbits.
10. Local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you are helping to ensure that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, abundant, farm fresh food.

Farmer Profile:
David Pitre and Katie Kraemer-Pitre

TECOLOTE FARM
David Pitre and Katie Kraemer Pitre met their agricultural equivalent when they met one another. David is the son of a Louisiana rice farming family and Katie comes from six generations of citrus growers in Southern California. David and Katie met while in college in Santa Cruz. After several farming adventures in northern California and in the glacial Matanuska Valley of Alaska, the couple moved to Austin in 1992 to start their own farm. They purchased land 15 miles east of downtown Austin near Webberville where they began Tecolote Farm. "Tecolote" means owl in Spanish and honors the owls that lived in the trees on the farm before David Pitre and Katie Kraemer moved in to begin their life as Central Texas farmers. Aside from the owls, the only thing on the land at the time was a 25-foot well and acres of fertile Blackland prairie. Katie and David have since added 3 greenhouses, a shop and office, a house built in 1922 and 3 children to the farm.

Tecolote Farm is now a successful, certified organic farm growing over 100 varieties of vegetables on 10 acres of land. The farm features an unusual array of vegetables, many with origins in Europe and the Middle East, alongside more traditional American varieties. "We grow varieties chosen exclusively for taste, unlike the generally bland varieties found in grocery stores which have been chosen for their looks or ability to store for a long time," says Katie. "We always harvest within 24 hours of sale, and we love delivering our produce straight into the hands of the consumer!"

Seasonal Sensations:
Looking for ways to tempt your taste buds? Find out what seasonal sensations are available now at your local Central Texas farmers' market:

LOCAL FOODS BY SEASONAL AVAILABILITY

				Early	Late
		Winter	Spring	Summer	Summer	Fall
		(Dec. to Feb.)	(Mar. to April)	(May to July)	(Aug. to Sept.)	(Oct. to Nov.)
FRUIT & NUTS	Blackberries
	Figs
	Melons
	Peaches
	Pears
	Pecans
	Strawberries
HERBS	Basil
	Cilantro
	Dill
	Mint
	Parsley
VEGETABLES	Arugula
	Asparagus
	Beets
	Broccoli
	Brussels Sprouts
	Cabbage
	Carrots
	Cauliflower
	Corn
	Cucumbers
	Eggplant
	Garlic, Green
	Garlic, Mature
	Green Beans
	Greens, Chard
	Greens, Collards & Kale
	Greens, Mustard
	Leeks
	Lettuce, head and leaf
	Potatoes*
	Onions, Spring
	Onions, Yellow/White/Red
	Okra
	Peppers, Sweet and hot
	Pumpkin
	Radishes
	Spinach
	Squash, Summer
	Squash, Winter *
	Sweet Potatoes *
	Tomatoes
	Turnips

* Although potatoes, winter squash, and sweet potatoes grow in warmer months, they store well and can be eaten throughout the winter.