This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Locavores Don't Have to Wait Until Spring

The Barrington farmers' markets won't be open for several months, but an artisan butcher shop features locally grown food.

I like the idea of being a locavore; that is, eating foods produced nearby. 

Barrington is fortunate to have three farmers’ markets that run through the summer months and well into the fall. In the winter months, however, the best thing Barrington locavores have going is Persimmon Provisions, the artisan butcher shop on County Road.

When I stopped in last week, a cheerful young man informed me that they’d just gotten a pig from Round the Bend Farm in Dartmouth. 

Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A pig.  Now, that’s something you don’t hear very often. 

For those of us accustomed to buying anonymous cutlets wrapped in cellophane, it’s a little unsettling to remember that there’s a specific animal involved.  But if you’re going to eat meat, anonymity is not necessarily the best policy.

Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

When you purchase meat at Persimmons Provisions, the employees can tell you where it came from.  Lamb comes from Round the Bend Farm, pigs from Pate’s Pasture in Jamestown, beef from Black Bird Farm in Smithfield, Mass.  Some of the local farms are closed during the coldest months, but Persimmon also gets meat from co-ops in Vermont and Oregon.

Local is preferable, but when that’s not possible, knowing where it came from, and quite a bit about how it was raised, is a good Plan B.  

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?