Real People Eat Local

Olivia, an elementary school student living in Maryland, spoke to Local Mix about her love of local food, especially from her own garden:

"Butternut squash is one of my favorite foods, so I decided to plant it. I wasn't like my brother, who wouldn't eat anything that's orange. I like vegetables. And the butternut squash makes butternut squash risotto.

"It's sort of fun to take care of the garden. We do it every summer. You have to water it every day, when it's really dry. We don't spray at all. We pick off caterpillars and other things. We tie red ribbons to keep the birds away.

"It's fresh -- like the salad we're growing right now. I don't normally like salad. But I know ours is fresh and it's still good-tasting. We're growing greens like spinach, cabbages that look like lettuce, and kale, and sugar snap peas, and cantaloupe that accidentally sprouted from the compost. We'll probably grow tomatoes and butternut squash again, but they're not in yet. I planted the greens all by myself.

"I like the food at the farmers' market too, especially the honey. I liked the gooseberries there last summer. After we bought them, we went on a bike ride and ate them."