Easy Ways to Eat More Sustainably This Fall

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As the summer weather comes to an end and leaf bags begin to line the streets, it's beginning to feel a lot more like fall. With that also comes a new season for produce, and (surprise!) new opportunities to eat more sustainably ;) Eating sustainably can mean buying locally sourced food, growing a garden, or ordering from restaurants that prioritize using local and organic goods, One of the easiest ways to eat more sustainably is buy local and seasonal groceries and produce. But figuring out how to get local food and what's in season can be difficult! So here are my best tips on where and how to buy local and seasonal food <3 

The easiest way to buy local and seasonal? Go to farmers markets! 
There's dozens of farmers markets located all across Austin and Travis County Area, Even on cooler days, visiting your local farmers market can be a great way to get local food, buy from cool small businesses, and support your community. And you can bring your dog! what's not to love? ;')
By area, here are my personal favorites:
North-central Austin: the Texas Farmers Market at Muller (Sundays, 10-2).
Far North Austin/Cedar Park: the Texas Farmers Market at Lakeline (Saturdays, 9-1)
Sunset valley/south: Barton Creek  Farmers Market, (Saturdays, 9-1) and also SFC Sunset Valley Farmers market (Saturdays, 9-1)
East Austin: Boggy Creek Farm, (Wed-Sat, 8-1)
Downtown: SFC Downtown Farmers Market (Saturdays, 9-1)

If your looking for something a little more hands-off, try CSAs: 
For when you don't have time to visit farmers markets, there's many austin-area CSAs (Community supported agricultrues) that sell weekly or monthly boxes of seasonal produce from local farms. Local Harvest  is a great website for finding a specific CSA group that fits your personal preferences for what kind of foods you want and there's tons of options on there, but Johnsons Backyard Garden is great because they offer home delivery and sell to most of the greater travis county area.  

For people who don't have time to find recipes that use in season produce but still want to eat locally and seasonally, theres a reallly awesome company called Trashless that sells locally-sourced grocery store items (everything from BBQ sauce and hummus to tortilla chips), local baked goods, pre-packaged meals, and (most bodaciously) meal kits that come with all the food needed to cook a meal and even the recipe! 

How to shop seasonally at your go-to grocery store
So what IS in season right now anyway, you ask? Here's how to find out! Its pretty easy to shop sustainably at any grocery store as long as know what's in season near you. Here is a really great website where you can look at anywhere in the US and it will tell you whats in season for every month (pretty cool, right?). Right now the highlights are apples, beets, citrus, figs, and melons :)
This is also a great general list of seasonal produce in Texas:

Happy fall!! I hope you enjoy the cooler weather, and hopefully buying some tasty seasonal produce ;)