Page 68 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2018

DININGGUIDE mooooovin’ on up EATING HEALTHIER WITH
FARMT TABE
AND ORGANIC FOODS story and photos by Julian Brunt
Farm to table is much more than a trendy idea. In fact, it’s a life style change that can lead to better health and delicious food. It’s also the way our grand and great grandparents lived every day. Local foods, grown by farmers everyone knew, purchased in season, and ripe just off the vine, were the norm, and they would have been shocked to find out-of- season strawberries or fruits that were not grown locally at the Piggly Wiggly.
If you were from a small town in those days, you may have grown and raised a fair amount of the food you fed your family. Many people
had gardens and kept a few chickens for the eggs (the hen that didn’t lay anymore just might become Sunday’s fried chicken) and if you had an acre or two of land, then a cow
would keep you in fresh milk, butter and buttermilk.
The produce you did buy at the store would absolutely
not have been shipped from Mexico or South America. Locally grown food is harvested at the peak of ripeness, not two to three weeks early, as is required for a longer shelf life and shipping times, so there is truth to
the idea that locally grown produce is also more delicious.
Please don’t get me wrong, today’s modern grocery stores are things of wonder. There are hundreds of foods that would not have been available in the old days, and improvements are being made to offer better quality produce. Some stores, such as Rouse’s, have signs that tell customers which foods are locally sourced.
Organically grown foods are also becoming more common. If a farm is USDA certified organic, you can bet they have
been rigorously investigated by the USDA to make sure they comply with the very strict rules. The process is
so difficult there are just a handful of organic growers in the state, with P&J Nursery the only local source.
Stonnington Farm in Perkinston is the only American Grass-fed Association Certified Beef Farm in Mississippi that markets to the public. All- natural, premium grass fed beef is raised on the 376-acre farm owned by Michael and Katie Stonnington.
If you want to offer your family the freshest and
most delicious foods, a local certified market is the best bet. A certified market ensures that each vendor is making
or growing what they sell. Other markets, sadly, allow vendors to buy from produce companies and sell it off the back of their trucks, giving the
Dale Stevens of Sand Ridge Farms showing off a piglet to the Fenton family.
68 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • May 2018
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