Hi, I’m Sara!
I don’t live on a farm, but I do enjoy farm-to-table meals in my own home, every day. And I want to show you how you can too.
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What is Farm-to-Table
Farm-to-table means the ingredients the meal was made with came directly from a farm, without passing through middle men such as wholesalers, distributers or grocery stores.
From the farm directly to your table.
For a moment there I think we all thought we had to find a farm-to-table restaurant in order to have a farm-to-table experience. I know I did, but that’s just not the case.
You can create fresh-from-the-farm meals in your own kitchen. Even if you don’t have a garden, or live on a farm, or have hours to spend creating a meal!
Why Farm-to-Table Matters
I’m on a mission to revitalize people’s interest in the food they eat and where it comes from. There is joy in this connection that I believe we’ve lost through the industrialization of our food sources.
Here at Fed by the Farm you’ll find simple recipes made with whole food ingredients that are sourced from local farms and farmers markets, foraged from the land or wild-caught.
The meals we’ll share together aren’t fussy, or complicated. Good food doesn’t need to be. When you start with quality ingredients, simple meals aren’t boring, they are delicious and deeply satisfying.
When you start with quality ingredients, simple meals aren’t boring, they are delicious and deeply satisfying.
My Journey to Being Fed by the Farm
It’s a story you might recognize yourself in.
A couple years ago cooking had become drudgery for me – the thing I did to have food to eat, but it felt like a chore.
That’s when, after staying at a Bed and Breakfast while on vacation in late 2020, I had a life-changing experience. The owners of the bed and breakfast embraced locally-sourced foods and cooked for their guests with these ingredients. And damn the food was delicious!
There were eggs from the neighbor’s hens each morning, homemade yogurt from a friend, blueberries that grew just up the road, homemade granola and homemade bread.
It was so quaint. At the time I was buying all my food at the grocery store. But this experience had me wondering if there were local food options where I lived.
When I returned from that vacation I searched for, and found, farmers and makers in my own community and started buying my food from them. Something changed for me when I became more connected to the ingredients I was cooking with.
Washing the dirt off the carrots, evidence that they were pulled from the ground just hours before, organic produce that looks perfectly imperfect, meeting the farmers who are feeding me, seeing their passion for doing things as close to how nature intended as possible.
I noticed one day that cooking and sourcing the ingredients to cook with, had become something I really enjoyed! It was no longer drudgery. Today it is one of my greatest joys!
I noticed one day that cooking and sourcing the ingredients to cook with had become something I really enjoyed.
This inspiration around food and connection actually started many years prior when I spent a year living in France. You can read the full story about my journey to being fed by small farms over on the blog.
Why I Created Fed by the Farm
I created Fed by the Farm to share the joy of being more connected with the food we eat, and raise awareness about the small farms in communities all around the United States.
I’m fortunate to live in southwest Florida where our farmers market season runs from October until the end of June. During those months I buy almost 100% of the produce I eat directly from local organic farmers at the market.
In summer I travel a lot, to North Carolina, Canada and a few places in between. I’ll bring you along as I find farms to shop while traveling, and cook up farm-to-table meals in different states.
I’ll also show you how to recognize real farmers at the farmers market.
What You’ll Find at Fed by the Farm
- Simple whole food recipes
- Sourced from local farms, foraged or wild-caught
- Mostly gluten-free
In addition to recipes, I also share everything I’ve learned, and continue to learn, along my journey from being fed by the grocery store to being fed by the farm. Such as how to find grass-fed beef and farm-fresh eggs near you.
My Priorities Around Food and Recipes
Ease – I don’t know about you, but for me, recipes with 15 ingredients and 10 steps are not my idea of a good time. I learned years ago, while living in France, that creating delicious and healthy meals does not need to be complicated or labor intensive. With quality ingredients that taste great on their own, less can be more. I’ll bring this to the recipes I share here.
Creating delicious and healthy meals does not need to be complicated or labor intensive.
Organic – Whenever possible I favor organic produce or produce grown using organic practices. The way I see it, if someone held out a handful of green beans, sprayed them with Roundup, then offered them to me – I couldn’t ever let them sit on my counter long enough or clean them well enough to stomach actually eating them. So when I’m shopping for produce at the farmers market, I choose to buy from those farms that are certified organic or who use organic farming practices.
Pasture-Raised Meats – These days, pretty much all of the meat I cook at home is pasture-raised and purchased from small farms. I get pastured meats and grass fed beef at the farmers market and can also chose delivery if that were more convenient. It feels good to support small farms that I know treat their animals well, let them roam outdoors all day and slaughter them as humanely as one could.
You can read the full story about my journey to being fed by the farm in the blog.
I’m so glad you’re here and look forward to sharing and cooking with you!
Sara
