Is this the end of farmer's market season?

Funny you should ask: No, it isn't the end of the season at all. We have many farmer's markets in the area that now stay open all year. It is Labor Day weekend, though, and every year, I notice that Saturday morning market traffic drops off considerably after that.

Now, I get why that happens. School has already started, and so have soccer/T-ball/football/track practice. Scouting trips will be cranking up, and all those chores that busy lives involve will start getting funneled into a few available hours on a Saturday morning.

But the food being grown around us doesn't stop. Fall brings apples, scuppernongs, greens and winter squash. In this climate, a lot of things we get in summer keep going right through Thanksgiving.  And sometimes, we get a short return of a few spring crops. One local farmer I know sometimes get a second burst of asparagus when the weather cools off again.

So this is just a short message to plead: Remember your local growers. Their crops and their bills don't stop at the end of August. There are starting to be more options in the fall and winter for buying local food, like weekdays at the Atherton Mill & Market, or local meat deliveries at stores like the Common Market. You can ask the food producers you use regularly if they're doing off-season CSAs, or making mid-week deliveries somewhere.

Or you can team up with a couple of friends and take turns having one person do the local-food shopping on a Saturday morning. Remember that we have a database of farmer's markets in the region surrounding Charlotte, including the ones that are open all year.

 There are ways to make it work. Keep the good stuff in your life. It makes eating more fun.