Sharon (did I call you Sorcha?), I'm glad you have a choice. Lots of folks just don't any more; it's getting harder and harder.

We have this huge swap meet locally, and it's spawned a local trend of having these little light-wieght stand-up carts that fold up and you leave them in the back of your car. Very handy for big shopping at the farmer's market, especially if you want melons or winter squash! But these little guys are everywhere now, and very popular with the aging crowd and mom's with toddlers who want to keep a hand free to hang on to their kid.

If you are in rural or semi-rural country, I highly recommend checking out Community Supported Agriculture. Small farmer's benefit from a steady source of income and don't have to compete through distribution with the mega-farms in Chile and Mexico, and you get incredibly fresh produce -- usually picked that morning. Most grocery store produce is at least a week old. Some farms deliver; other's have various local drop-off points, and their customers get to have a say in what crops they plant.

So Cal gets blamed for being la-la land, but this kind of stuff really goes on in No Cal. We even have a local small dairy that has decided to give up selling to the big milk brands, and has gone back to home delivery of morning-fresh milk!