LAKE COUNTY – No farms, no food! Eat fresh, buy local. Know your farmer. Food miles … We have all heard the slogans, but what it really boils down to is taking responsibility for our actions in everything we do.

When we eat in season and are aware of where our food comes from and what process it has gone through to become our meal, we become conscious eaters. There is freedom in knowledge and power in choice.

 

For your convenience and freedom of choice, there are now farmers' markets open five days a week, from Tuesday through Saturday, around Lake County.

Lake County Farmers' Finest sponsors the new Wednesday evening market at Library Park from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the longstanding Saturday morning market at Steele Wines from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

 

The other fine markets can be found on Tuesday evening in Hidden Valley, Thursday evening in Middletown and Friday evening at Redbud Park in Clearlake.

 

Please support your farmers who get up early, work in all kinds of weather, pick at peak ripeness and drive out to present fresh local products for you at these markets with a smile on their faces.

 

It is a lot of work and this kind of passion and dedication deserves to be rewarded. Please keep farming a viable occupation and join us at any or all of these markets as often as you can.

Supermarket food may be a little cheaper, but much of those savings are supported by poor wages and geared to be loss leaders to get you into the store.

 

Independence means freedom of choice and the right to control your own life to the extent that it does not affect others' right to the same. We have a right to know where our food comes from and the right to demand to know its contents. At a certified farmers' market you will always have access to the person who grows what you eat.

 

Cornelia Sieber-Davis works with Lake County Farmers' Finest.