If you can’t grow it yourself, buy local!
Buying locally grown food is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your community.
For one thing, the food is fresher, more nutritious and oftentimes grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. For another, spending your food dollars in state keeps local farmers in business. The 2015 update to The Economic Impact of Rhode Island Plant-based Industries and Agriculture estimates annual produce sales at $238.9 million, supporting 2,563 jobs in Rhode Island. Lastly, buying directly from growers at farmers markets puts a human face to those who work to feed us (and vice-versa!).
You can buy locally grown food raised by SCLT-trained growers at farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands and many of Rhode Island’s best restaurants. (CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture: customers subscribe in advance for weekly “shares” a farm’s produce throughout the growing season.)
Here are some of our favorite CSAs and farm stands:
- Big Train Farm
- Blue Skys Farm
- hocuspocusfarm.com
- www.moonrosefarm.com
- muckandmysteryfarm.com
- Pak Express Farm
- Sanctuary Herbs of Providence
Farmers Markets
Produce grown at City Farm and other SCLT properties can be bought at several farmers markets. Look for the City Farm booth at the Lippitt Park/Hope Street Farmers Market.
SCLT-trained farmers sell at the Broad Street Farmers Market, Armory Park Farmers Market and the Sankofa World Market. Farmers we’ve trained, and/or grow on SCLT land, also sell at the Farm Fresh Year-Round Farmers Market.
Farmland in our state costs more per acre than anywhere else in the U.S. Your support for SCLT enables us to conserve and lease land to farmers who would otherwise not be able to grow food for us.