Local schmocal

There are many fad diets out there. There are many that completely eliminate food groups. I am just not the kind of girl who can do that. If a diet states in its rules that I will never be allowed to eat lima beans again, then I will suddenly crave lima beans like a hormonal pregnant woman. Okay, so I may be a little off about the lima beans because I will never crave them, but I will tell you that I have never craved an apple so badly as when I tried the Adkins diet. A diet that eliminates whole grains, fruit, and most vegetables but allows you to have all the butter you want just doesn't seem healthy to me. Call me crazy. 

One thing that I will never be able to eliminate from my diet is dairy. A) I love all things dairy and cannot picture my life without it. B) It's good for you. And C), I grew up on a dairy farm and just cannot fundamentally support a diet that would jeopardize that livelihood for some farmer. In fact, I love local dairy farmers so much that I have recently started purchasing milk from Alaskan farmers. There are only four of them. I have to pay over a dollar more per gallon of milk when I do, but it is worth it when I know that the milk I buy is coming from the cows that I see when I drive around. I'm also a sucker for the "little guy" and I would always rather buy something from a small family business than a large corporation. My goal this summer is to buy all of my produce from local farms. Okay, so all might be pushing it, but I'm going to aim for at least most of my produce from local farms.

This is my dad and my girl checking the fence line on the farm where I grew up. It is now for sale. 

Excuse me while I go cry. 

The one thing that makes me feel okay about that is that some other kid will get to grow up on a farm the way that I did. It's just one of those things that the heart and mind will have to agree to disagree on.

Anyway, if I can't support the farms in the area I grew up in, I can at least make sure I support the ones in the place that I now call home. And speaking of supporting the locals. My DH and I just watched documentary on beer ( I know, we are weird. We like documentaries.) and I have one local thing that I think everyone can agree on that is better that the giant corporation's.
You guessed it.
Beer. 

Now go support your local economy and buy some beer.