How Sustainable and Local Eating Has an Impact in My life

Sustainability and eating locally have been a huge part of my life growing up. When I was younger and when I am home from school, my mom cooks every meal and you can bet they are all cooked with fresh and almost always organic ingredients. My mom knows all the local farmers markets and she tries to hit all of them every week. Just down the street at pine park, she buys her fresh produce. She won't buy it anywhere else because the difference in taste is so obvious from the chain grocery stores. The other farmers market she attends is downtown in the strip district. This one is by far our favorite because it has locally raised meats and freshly caught fish (yes, fish from western Pennsylvania). In addition, she loves it when my dad and I go out and catch dinner. Everyone in my family loves to fish and a couple times a year, we go out and catch as many trout as we can. We have a giant fish fry with everyone in the family and the neighbors. These are some of my favorite nights every year. I've been raised in an Italian family so you could say food is a pretty big part of my life. I've tried a lot of different dishes and there aren't many that are better than the ones my family can cook. With that said, I'm very used to the locally grown ingredients and I don't think I would be able to get used to a diet without them.