© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A New Year's Resolution Guide To Eating Healthy

Knitting Iris/Flickr Creative Commons

Along with the New Year come resolutions to change our habits. My resolution is to eat more fresh local foods through our garden and to support local farmers.

We always have a veggie garden but this year we’re expanding it to more of a year-round endeavor. While we can grow herbs in the kitchen, we’re also planning to grow salad greens in a cold frame which is like a miniature greenhouse. By collecting extra heat from the sun, we’re able eat fresh greens earlier in the spring and later into the autumn.   

According to the American Garden Association, in the past couple of years, twenty percent more people are growing their own vegetables. If you’re new to veggie gardening, look for community classes so you can learn about growing and harvesting techniques. 

Local foods also are on the rise as many grocery stores and restaurants are sourcing their ingredients nearby. During the growing season you can find a farmers' market almost every day of the week. In Fort Collins there is even a Winter Farmers' Market that provides many local foods from the growing season.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms offer memberships to support local farms and farmers. Members pay for shares of the harvest which can be anything from bread to eggs to meat to veggies. The members get weekly allocations of food directly from the farm. Some CSA’s offer working memberships where you can help on the farm and grow the food. 

In Colorado, it will be fairly easy to keep my resolution. We have more and more farms geared to local food production. These farms include dairies, grain growers, meat producers and vegetable growers. The Western Slope is home to a variety of fruit growers.

I like to eat, so this may be one of the easiest resolutions to keep.

Tom has been offering garden advice on KUNC for almost two decades. During that time he has been the wholesale sales manager at Ft. Collins Nursery, Inc. Since January of 2005 he has been the owner and operator of Throgmorton Plant Management, LLC., a landscape installation and maintenance company as well as a horticultural consulting firm. He lives in northern Ft. Collins with his wife and two kids.
Related Content