1. Pledge to spend $10 a week or more on locally produced food. If every household in the county spent $10 a week locally, it would generate $7.5 million annually for the local economy & for family farmers.

2. Shop at a local farmers market.

3. Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) 4. Support local restaurants and stores that carry local foods. Encourage the manager of your favorite store or restaurant to source locally.

5. Plant a garden and grow as much of your own food as possible. Container gardens and raised beds make the most use of small spaces.

6. Learn what foods are in season and try to build your diet around them. Get a copy of the “Mesa Verde Directory,” which lists local food sources in your area. “Growing Partners’ Harvest Calendar” also lists available wild plants. game and cultivated foods.

7. Preserve what you can’t eat today. Drying, canning or preserving foods can make them last for winter. Buy cookbooks rich in vegetable recipes so you have resources for bumper crops of zucchini and tomatoes.

8. Use season-extension methods to lengthen the natural growing season.

9. Get dirty. Join or start your own school or community garden. Contact the Garden Project of Southwest Colorado or visit the SASCO website for a list of more than 20 school and community gardens in our area.

10. Learn more and get involved in local, state and federal policies that affect local food and agriculture.

– Courtesy the Sustainability Alliance

of Southwest Colorado