Farming or growing, either way it's local

I like to plan and play out the narrative of my food story: how far has my food travelled, where did it come from, who are the farmers. I have a strong desire to know my food story, and I do try to instill this value in my teachings about food.

I have a garden at home, and I have school gardens which my students would be working at this time of year. I work in the school garden once a week and share the workload with a team of volunteers. My home garden is not quite ready yet but I do have seed starts which currently reside in my cold frame outside or under the grow lights in my spare room. I have a nice start I have green onions, leeks, and rhubarb, and the greens are coming along nicely, but it is not enough produce for the week of meals, so I did my Saturday morning routine shopping for groceries.

In our community, in in one hour time span, I can visit several farmers and purchase all Vancouver island food for cheaper than the grocery stores. In our off-season out of country produce comes cheaper than we can often produce it - crazy, isn't it. When having to purchase out of province or country foods I look at the environmental footprint of producing and transporting the item prior to considering if I really need a food item that is not in season locally.

How do you make your food purchasing decisions? What is your food story?