Eat local in July: where's the butter?

I have to confess, when I said lunch was 100% local, I stretched the "local" a bit. I used Organic Valley butter, which has several NC dairy farms as members, but evidently makes its butter all from Wisconsin milk. I had planned to get Maple View Farm butter at the NC State Farmers' Market that afternoon. But alas, my dairy supplier there had quit carrying butter. No local butter at another health-food store or at Whole Foods, although Whole Foods did have the Maple View milk.

So let's take a moment to praise grocery stores, middlemen, and middlewomen. I prefer to buy direct from the farmer when I can, but I love the convenience and wide selection of a real grocery or co-op. These stores allow farmers to focus on farming, not running a store. Groceries also make shopping super convenient: with one place to go and one financial transaction, you can be done for the week. Many grocery stores are open early and late, even 24/7, which lets people who work on market days still buy local food.

Whole Foods improved its labeling of sources a few years ago, now differentiating between local, regional, U.S., and other. The NC grocery chain Harris Teeter has finally followed Whole Foods' lead by emphasizing local and regional food. My HT put a farm-stand display at the front of its produce section, heaped with local foods. They both still carry California melons when NC melons are abundant, but they are moving in the right direction.

I'm having trouble getting local peanut butter, too, but that's a topic for another post.