My first experience with buying fresh vegetables from a farmer came early. My mom packed us into the station wagon one hot summer day. We drove out to the lake on the still-unpaved road and along the way, stopped at a farm stand, a plywood hut, really, just sun protection in an open field, really.

Buying local isn't just about food, even if the local 'code words' (you know, the language that suggests fresh and wholesome and all things good-for-you, ones like organic, sustainable, CSA/community-supported agriculture, locavore, green, whole food, free-range, humanely raised, flexitarian and the like) glibly fall from our lips if not as often onto our plates. But let's start there. Please know that unconventional thinking is NOT about dictating my own value judgments. It is simply to provoke conscious consideration, discussion and decisions about our individual buying decisions. Do I hope to jar our thinking a bit, to bump us out of our comfort zones, to make us challenge our own decisions? You bet.