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I love homegrown food. And I really love being the one doing the growing. Or the idea of it anyway.
If you ask me which TV show I’d like to model my life after, I would tell you about a charming 70s sitcom from the UK. In Good Neighbors, or The Good Life, as it’s called in the UK, Tom and Barbara Good (played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) have had it with the rat race of modern life, but love their suburban house and neighbors. So they go all in for self sufficiency. They grow their own food, keep a goat, pigs, and chickens, and ingeniously use methane to power their home.
Tom and Barbara may have green thumbs, but their tiny farm runs on good humor and sheer determination. In my Cinderella continuation novel, however, I gave my girl in the glass slippers a unique gift. The narrator of Glass and Feathers works magic with her hands in the earth, bringing plants to life with her touch. And though her stepmother forbids her to use her gift, she takes a savage pride in doing it anyway.
I would like to say I am magically powerful like my narrator, or hard-working like the Goods, but sadly, I am neither. I love to plan my garden, and even plant it. But it’s all about the weather, really. I’ll even weed when it’s cool. Unfortunately, though, I struggle to get outside when it’s the littlest bit hot.
I like going to farmer’s markets, too, but these days I’m even more of a homebody than I used to be. So now local farmer’s markets come to me. Market Wagon is an online farmer’s market bringing local providers together and delivering to customers. Every week I check the website to see what’s available from the farms in my area. I usually buy produce and sometimes dairy products, but there is also meat, prepared food, spices, tea, even candles and soap.
I make my order by the end of the day on Tuesday and set out the reusable tote from the week before on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the delivery driver exchanges my empty tote for a full one containing my order. I can subscribe to items I want every week, like my favorite spinach or apples, but there’s no obligation to order every week. This time of year, there’s less in the way of produce, but there are always lots of things to choose from.
So have a look and see if Market Wagon operates in your area. If you can’t be delivered to the ball in a pumpkin carriage, maybe the pumpkin can at least be delivered to you!
Lissa Sloan is the author of Glass and Feathers, a Cinderella continuation novel that is already getting praise on Goodreads! Check it out.