Organic eats at the Common Ground Fair

A fabulous cocktail party Friday night (thanks David, Vanessa and Lauren!) delayed our departure last Saturday morning for the 33rd annual Common Ground Country Fair. But eventually Adam and I hit the road for Unity, a tiny college and farming town in the central part of the state.

The celebration of natural living always draws a big crowd, and the day we showed up so did 26,000 others. We all wanted to check out such things as the state's only organic farmers market, the renewable energy demonstrations and the angora bunnies and pygmy goats.

Without a doubt, the food court is the biggest attraction at the fair. The walkways along the concession booths were jam packed throughout our visit. By closing time many stands had run out of popular items.

The fair's vendors use local and organic ingredients whenever possible, and the emphasis is on freshly prepared whole foods. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free offerings abound, without forgetting fair staples including organic fried dough and locally grown french fried potatoes.

I snapped these photos of a few of the booths we sampled from:













Even with food everywhere and more than 700 talks and performances, my favorite thing about the fair continues to be finding myself surrounded by natural foodies as far as the eye can see.

Eat your way to a greener earth

In light of today’s big holiday, here are 3 tips for eating with the earth in mind:

1. Eat local foods
Support farmers’ markets, buy locally-grown in grocery stores and grow some of your own food. Locally grown food is fresher, more nutritious, supports the regional economy and travels fewer miles.

2. Eat organic
Plants, animals and humans are part of a complex web stretching from the soil to the sky. When this web is assaulted by things like pesticides and chemical fertilizers, everything in the system gets sick.

3. Eat more plants
Meat, dairy and eggs are luxury items made cheap by artificial price supports, government subsidies, lax regulations and deplorable farm conditions. We pay the full cost with obesity, heart disease, world hunger, water pollution and climate change. Eat more plants and you’ll be giving the earth (and your wallet) a break.