BEST AND WORST PLACES FOR LOCAL FOOD

Lawn Starter has an intriguing question for you: Do you LOVE the locally-sourced food where you live or is your best option for fresh food the Walmart down the road? A new study ranked the “best cities to eat local food,” and it considered factors like community-supported agriculture, farm stands and markets, bakeries, butcher shops, and seafood markets. Plus craft breweries and wineries. And as it turns out, you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the local food in Portland, Oregon.  Portland is #1, partially because it topped the charts on the number of “U-Pick” farms. Baltimore is #2, followed by Alexandria, Virginia, Washington, D.C, Minneapolis, Seattle, Boston, Madison, Wisconsin, Providence, Rhode Island, and Vancouver, Washington. They considered 200 of the largest cities in the U.S., and the WORST for local food was Anchorage, Alaska.  But eight of the bottom 11 were all in Texas.

I think we’re pretty lucky around the tri-states’ area with our food and restaurant selections. I know a number of places for great pizza and burgers, but it’s our specialty restaurants that really make it a great area for food. In Winona and LaCrosse there are a food co-ops that are spectacular and you can’t go far without stumbling into a custom cheese or meat producers. Add to that the local taprooms and distilleries and you’ve got a great area for wining and dining!