Instead of reaching for that package in your supermarket, which often comes from corporate farms or factory animal farms thousands of miles away, make friends with your local farmer at your city’s farmer’s market this summer.

Organizations like Slow Food, Field to Plate, Chiefs Collaborative, Local Harvest, and Fair Food America are trying to educate consumers about where the food they eat comes from and how it’s being grown and harvested. These organizations advocate making connection with the people who grow your food. They suggest that people should buy locally grown foods from farmers markets or directly from growers and ranchers. They suggest reading labels at your supermarket and looking for certified organic, grass-fed, sustainably caught, and fair trade foods.

More importantly, these organizations suggest eating foods in season when their flavors are at their peak. This also means that in order to enjoy strawberries in December, you will need to freeze them in June or make preserves.

Amanda Archibald, founder of Field to Plate, says, “If you are eating off the land, there are no decisions you have to make about vitamins and nutrition, or getting too much of something.” What she says makes sense. It’s sound nutrition. And, local food in season tastes so much better than something picked green and shipped halfway across the world.