By HEATHER BAUGHMAN

baughman@crescent-news.com

Joan Dye Gussow, a former professor of nutrition and education at Columbia University, challenged people in northwest Ohio on April 11 to eat locally at least once a week. The challenge was not to eat at a local restaurant, but rather eat foods that were grown or produced locally ... in an attempt to eat healthier and put an end to the enormous cost that arrives with foods that travel cross-country or are imported from other countries.

Gussow was one of the keynote speakers at the "Everybody Eats" program at Northwest State Community College. She practices what she preaches by eating from the garden she grows at her home in New York.

But not everyone has a garden, or enough food to sustain them year-round.

So where can local food be found, especially before the growing season gets started?

A majority of the farmland in northwest Ohio is dedicated to commodity agriculture with local farmers mainly growing corn, soybeans and wheat, however, there are several niche-market farmers who grow food for the table and sell their products at roadside stands, local farmer's markets or even in local grocery stores. There are also several food manufacturers that help stock the shelves of local retail stores.

Annette Hoeffel, manager of marketing and advertising at Chief Super Market Inc., said the company purchases produce items seasonally such as tomatoes from Stryker farmer Ed Ruffer, apples from Pennington Farms Orchard in Wauseon, and sweet corn, cantaloupe, tomatoes and pumpkins from Lughibill Farms in Lima.

Non-produce items that can be found in stores year-round from local producers include milk and dairy products from Arps Dairy of Defiance; Eversweet Butter, Napoleon; tortillas from Perez Foods, Holgate; G&W Pizza, Archbold; wine from Stoney Ridge Winery, Bryan; deli meats from Cooper Farms of Van Wert; and more.

"Chief is a locally owned business, and we want to work together with other locally owned businesses," Hoeffel said. "Local business is the cornerstone of the community. This is one of the ways that Chief is a good neighbor in the communities we serve."

Along with featuring local products in its weekly advertisement and using signage in the store to denote local foods, Chief also works with Ohio Proud, a marketing program of the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Division of Market, that identifies and promotes Ohio's food and agricultural products.

At Ohio Proud's website, www.ohioproud.org, are listings of Ohio's farmer's markets, giving people an opportunity to locate fresh meat, produce, plants and more close to home. Some listings include the organic foods available at rural Oakwood's Nothing But Nature, which offers annuals, apples, beans, cucumbers, herbs, honey, squash and tomatoes; and Defiance's Sherry Honey Farms, which has a year-round roadside market and sells jams, jellies, eggs, baked goods, honey and vegetables.

C/J Natural Meats, located in rural Defiance, is also listed with Ohio Proud. "There are a ton of benefits of buying locally," said owners Ralph and Sheila Schlatter. "In today's 'unsecure' world of food and how it is processed, it is nice to know where the food you are eating came from. You have a connection to the food that you are eating. It is more than something to fill your stomach with. You get a fresher product that is better for not just you but also for the environment and the economy."

Too, "If someone buys locally, that dollar that they spend there will get spent more times at other local places. Therefore, that dollar does more good being spent locally than it does at a national chain store because it stays and multiplies."

On their farm, the Schlatters produce beef, pork, lamb, broilers (meat chickens), eggs, turkeys and cheese. "We are a grass-based farming system," the Schlatters explained. "Everything is raised on pasture. We are not certified organic, but follow organic practices."

The Schlatter family, which also includes their three children, Kyle, who works with the dairy cows; Brian, who is the cheesemaker; and Renae, who works in the retail store, sell their products in their on-farm store (the cheese is also available at Foods for Living in Defiance and Stoney Ridge Winery and Our Daily Bread in Bryan).

"The majority of our customers are middle-class families who are concerned about their health and well-being," the Schlatters said.

Another online resource for locating local foods is the new website, www.ohiomarketmaker.com, which identifies and links producers with retailers such as restaurants, grocery stores and more.

These days, roadside markets "seem to be hard to come by at times," said Ohio State University Extension Defiance County educator Bruce Clevenger. "Most of (Defiance County's) 208,000 acres of agriculture is mainly commodity agriculture. ... We have, over the last many years, concentrated on those larger commodities. But that doesn't mean that there's not a market in that niche area," he said, adding that it "takes an entrepreneurial marketer to go that direction."

With the local growing season just around the corner (or here in the case of asparagus and rhubarb), the farmer's market is a great way to take advantage of local produce.

Though traditional farmer's markets are only offered once or twice a week, Clevenger said, he hopes "the customer will follow that vendor back to their homes, back to their base business and purchase (produce from them) other times of the week, especially during the peak seasons."

The convenience of a grocery store offers consumers the ability to purchase a banana or lettuce 365 days a year, but it is also important to take advantage of local produce when it is in season here.

The local farmer's market in Defiance County will be held at the Northtowne Mall's main entrance on Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. from May 31-Nov. 1; in Hicksville in the Johnson Memorial Library parking lot (116 W. High St.) on Tuesdays from 7-11 a.m. from May 20-Oct. 28; and in Sherwood at the old elementary school (on U.S. 127, south of Ohio 18), on Fridays from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. from May 16-Sept. 26.

In Henry County, a farmer's market will be held Saturdays in front of the Henry County Courthouse, downtown Napoleon, from 8:30-11:30 a.m. from June 14-Oct. 18.