Besides, at what other job is grocery shopping considered an acceptable use of your time?

But now that I’ve been using it for a few months, I’ve noticed how it’s changed the way I buy food.

Guaranteed Availability
There are a few items at the farmers market that have become favorites, things that are often sold out or missed when I’m not the very first one there (which would be never). By ordering online the sellers reserve it for me and, voila, no disappointments or surprises.

Saves Money
Since I shop at the grocery store midweek, I can shop from my local farmer’s market at the same time that I’m making my grocery list. The extra planning helps me stick to a budget while keeping our pantry filled for our family of five with as much local product as possible. No impulse spending!

More Variety
But what really surprised me is the variety that our vendors list online. Let’s face it: some vendors have better displays than others. Or meat and other perishables are packed in coolers and it’s hard to tell what’s available. But with Local Orbit, it’s all out there to see. And some vendors list online but don’t attend the market, so ordering online is the only way to get it in our area. That’s the way it is with my lettuce, and now I’m such a fan of his stuff that it’s painful to run out and buy anything else.

I still enjoy shopping at our farmer’s market and visiting with the vendors that have become friends over the last few months. I usually find one or two things that I didn’t buy online. And my kids love to spend a couple of their dollars getting snacks. I get to enjoy the farmers market and feel good about supporting my local economy, but collecting my food is much simpler – especially with three kids in tow.

From guest contributor Rebecca Noffsinger: My grandfather, Howard Wing, with his three children: my aunts Norma (the blond on the left) and Martha (the braids on the right), and my father Paul Wing on his father's lap steering.

I put my first organic garden in several years ago. My plans were pretty ambitious, so my father agreed to help on groundbreaking day. He drove 120 miles from our family’s small dairy farm to bring the rototiller and bales of straw I needed. We spent the day working together.

We butted heads a little bit. He is firmly planted in the conventional farming world, with its nutrient rations and chemical controls. Now as Dad helped spread bone meal and greensand on the fresh soil in my yard, there was some grumbling going on. Where are you going to get your nitrogen without any N-P-K? Are you sure you don’t want to Roundup to get rid of weeds?

And with a new convert’s hubris I explained to him the reasoning and science behind going chemical-free. I was quite sure of myself, telling him that the way he had been doing things for 50 years was all wrong. After a while Dad quieted down.

As we were spreading the groundcover seed, he said thoughtfully, “My dad used to plant buckwheat,” and told me what he could remember of how my grandfather farmed when my father was a child. My heart jumped. His firsthand knowledge was a goldmine to me, and for a time we talked on common ground. This was my heritage being handed to me. But there was a bit of sadness to the conversation; a connection had been lost. Because the old ways had been abandoned as useless so long ago, Dad couldn’t recall enough details to help with my garden. It was simply a piece of our family history.

Then I wondered, did the history just repeat itself? Was I scoffing at my father’s flawed methods the way he had walked away from his father’s unseen wisdom? In 50 years would I wish that I had remembered some of the science and reasoning behind the way my dad farmed? A glimpse of my arrogance was turned back to me. Even though I believe that sustainable, organic farming practices are the ideal, could there be some merit in what the other side has to say?

A breath of fresh air has renewed the nation’s farming outlook. With focus on a regionally distributed food system that draws from smaller farms, there will be a need for new farmers and new ideas. Though this is an exciting prospect, I hope that our generation is wise enough to keep existing farmers in the fold. We need to engage them in the conversation, encourage them to convert to sustainable methods, and to support them financially in doing so. And for those that choose to stay with what they know, I hope that we treat them with respect, even if their methods are wrong in our eyes. After all, we have not walked in their shoes, and their experience with the land is too rich to lose a second time.

My father is retired now and my brother has taken over the family farm. He has made his own changes, but stays largely on the same conventional path that was laid out before him. I spoke to Tom recently about why he does things the way he does: conventional vs. sustainable, local vs. co-op market pricing. “We do a lot of different things to try to stay alive,” he said. Some of it is considered sustainable, some of it not. “But the thing you have to remember”, he reminded me, “is that farming is a complex thing. There really isn’t one right way to do it. We’re just trying to hold on to what we have.”

Rebecca Noffsinger originally posted this on her blog Finding Food For Five.