Eleventh Annual "Eat Local!" Expo

Eleventh Annual "Eat Local!" Expo at the Shawnee Civic Center

The threat of a bit of bad weather was no match for the Food Circle's kick-off to the season today. Looming forecasts for multiple inches of snow were increasingly ominous. But the expo was raring to go at 9:30 anyway and there were patrons and locavores galore from the get-go.

transplants

sprouts

chives

There was so much green and so much growing. So many farmers and families selling so many great goods. It was a happy bustling place. While perusing the products, I found it easy to think all spring and possibility while ignoring the precipitation that was dampening the out of doors. In between stints of doing my part at the CSA Coalition table, telling anyone who would listen about Community Supported Agriculture, I ran around from booth to booth, snapping pictures and buying things. Buying a lot of things. I had a stash of cash in my wallet which I figured would be more than enough to buy a bit of everything. By the end of the expo, I was left with 15 cents. That is, 15 cents and two heavy bags full of local, local, local.

jams and jellies

tiny tractor and bags of flour

sold out at the end of the day

snow

The snow had hit pretty hard by the time I left at the end of the expo. So I gathered up my goods and trekked very gingerly out into the slushy parking lot, hoping not to slip with my bag of local treasure. I'm anxious at the thought of what hindrances this inclement weather may bring to the local farms. But what a relief that so many were still able to come out today.

And now I am ready for something delicious.


My Inventory:
- 5 pounds local, certified organic, whole white wheat flour - Acme Grain, Soaring Eagle Farms, Edgerton, KS
- flax bread - Bread of Life, Stewartsville, MO
- rosemary farmstead sheep's milk cheese - Green Dirt Farm, Weston, MO
- jam (triple berry, white peach, jalapeño, and strawberry & rhubarb) - Golden Ridge Farms, Osawatomie, KS
- Raw Pecans - Golden Ridge Farms, Osawatomie, KS
- green eggs from free-range Araucana hens - Karbaumer Farms, Platte City, MO
- chives, green onions, spinach, and mustard greens - Huns Garden, Kansas City, KS
- mixed salad greens - KC Center for Urban Agriculture, Kansas City, KS
- raw honey - Ambrose Bee Pharm, Kansas City, MO
- mustard with sorghum - Sandhill Farm, Rutledge, MO

***Want to see more pictures from the Expo? Click here to see the whole set on Flickr. ***