Fresh Food Straight To Your Plate!

With consumers worldwide becoming increasingly concerned about climate change and its threats to their environment, there's an increased push to consider not just what we eat but also where it comes from. And buying locally grown and sourced food (even if it's just a portion of your weekly grocery shop) holds many benefits for the environment and your health.

Locally grown food creates critical economic opportunities for our local community, provides health benefits and helps to reduce environmental impact. It also helps bring the community together and gives people the chance to make a difference.

In Newcastle (and Lake Macquarie), we're fortunate to have local food suppliers that enable us to buy great food direct from the people who farmed (or caught) it.

Newcastle Farmers Market (held every Sunday at Broadmeadow) and Lake Macquarie Farmers Market (every Saturday at Stockland Glendale) enable you to buy groceries directly from the farmer – from the person who grew, nurtured and made the product. At the farmers market, you not only get to meet the producer, but you can also ask about how and where it's grown or made and how best to store or use it.

It's an experience that cannot be replicated, with farmers tending to their crops and timing their harvests to ensure your produce is as fresh as can be on the day you purchase it.

A regular at 'The Farmers' is our local Commercial Fisherman's Cooperative, whom you'll also find at Wickham and Swansea. Here you'll find sustainably caught, fresh local seafood. The "Co-Op" was formed over 75 years ago to serve local commercial fishers' needs by providing fuel, ice, gas, cold storage, mooring facilities, transport and the marketing of the daily catch of seafood either locally or in Sydney.

More than 130 shareholder members work independently in their fishing businesses, either in the estuaries or on their fish/prawn trawlers, depending on their individual endorsements. They're all providing the freshest local seafood to the Co-Op 365 days a year!

Why not cook up a tasty treat for your family this weekend utilising local produce from both the markets and the Co-op?

For upcoming Farmers Market dates, visit www.newcastlecityfarmersmarket.com.au or www.lakemacquariecityfarmersmarket.com. au, and for opening hours at the Fisherman's Co-Op, visit www.fishcoop.com.au.