OM GROWN FOODS

Locally Grown Organic Vegetables--

The Sunflower Marks the Spot!

We received our first share of vegetables a couple of weeks ago from OM Grown Foods, a combination of two farming families near Ferrum, Virginia, who have joined forces to provide top quality organically grown vegetables. They sell shares of their vegetable crop each season, and plant accordingly. Every Monday the shareholders pick up their vegetable bag loaded with the week's harvest. You never know exactly what you'll get, only that you're receiving a huge bag of fresh, beautiful produce to feed your family for the coming week. They also share recipes through email of their favorite ways to use the different vegetables.

Several of the vegetable share-holders living in Martinsville take turns picking up the vegetable bags each week, since it's a little bit of an adventuresome road trip to wind through the countryside, especially if it's your first trip—no cell phone coverage if you're lost. It almost seems appropriate to go back to pre-cell days to pick up these great organic vegetables from a local organic gardner.

Our first bag contained spinach, collards, bok choi, asparagus, mixed baby salad greens, and arugula. I'll have to admit, I didn't even recognize

the collard greens. They were beautiful little young leaves that could have been eaten raw right out of the bag. And the baby bok choy looked like something from the produce section of an upscale green grocer. I've grown asparagus myself and had to leave the beds when we moved, but never has asparagus tasted so good. In other words, I'm in vegetable heaven!

It really does matter what we put into our bodies for fuel. Knowing where our food comes from and that it has been grown with the TLC that will promote my family's best health is important. There was news last week that linked ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) with the pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. Children who tested positive for a pesticide byproduct had roughly twice the odds of being diagnosed with ADHD according to a study appearing in the The Journal of Pediatrics (http://www.jpeds.com/ ).

It's early in the season, and the gardens are ready!

A simple pasta with sauteed greens, tomatoes and pancetta was our first Om Grown Meal--DELICIOUS!