We are lucky. The next time you get in your car to drive somewhere, turn down the radio, put down the cell phone, and take a moment to look at your surroundings. If you live in Western Loudoun, or Eastern Fauquier, or even Western Fairfax, you are likely to see some fields. Perhaps filled with rows of corn, at this time of year, baking in the sun and turning drab yellow, readying to be milled into feed or hung by a door for Thanksgiving. Perhaps there is a herd of beef cattle, grazing, nursing, scratching one another on the forehead. Llama. Emu. Soybeans. Horses. Pumpkins. A pond filled with migratory Canada geese. Maybe it's not a field, but a backyard with a garden. Colorful flowers. Red ripe tomatoes. The last of the year's broccoli heads.

When you see these wonders of the Earth, think about how lucky we are to live in an area where this is all possible. Where not only the land and the weather support such biodiversity, but there are people who are willing to work for it. Money invested. Sweat invested. Dirt on their fingers. People who are passionate, patient, and persistent. Who are not deterred by drought. Or torrential rains. Or insect infestations. They do not give up, but keep on doing what they love for themselves and for us. Many of these people work 80, sometimes 90 hours a week. And they do not make a lot of money. They know the importance of tradition, hard work, loyalty, and mostly, food.

These are the people whom you meet at the farmers' market. Or through community supported agriculture programs. They provide us – the consumers, the public – with local, sustainable, often naturally grown and produced fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses and wines. Before this growing season comes to a close, conduct a taste test. Go to a farmers' market (to find one, check LocalHarvest.org) and purchase a peach, some lettuce, grass-fed beef, free-range chicken or eggs. Then visit the local grocery and purchase the same mass-produced version. Take them home and prepare them the same way. You will taste the difference. Tree-ripened versus shelf-ripened (and sometimes gassed). Grass-fed and open range versus pen-raised and grain-fed (and often pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormone). Eating locally can be an acquired taste, but it's one that is good for us all.

Outstanding

Around the country, more and more movements and organizations and businesses are popping up to promote locally produced and sourced foods. Over Labor Day weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner presented by Outstanding in the Field at Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, Va. Outstanding in the Field was founded by chef and artist Jim Denevan more than 10 years ago in Santa Cruz, Calif. Jim and his staff travel the country on a 1960's bus, setting up long tables in fields, ranches, dairies, vineyards and community gardens for outdoor dining experiences that are meant to reconnect the general public to the land and people that produce real food. The ingredients are all sourced locally and paired with local wines for a five-course sensory overload. The Monday night I attended, we made it through the farm tour unscathed before we were relegated to dining inside Ayrshire's beautiful stables due to not-so-cooperative-but-welcome rain showers. Diners sit and are served family style, which encourages discussion and engagement, often with strangers. Farmers and ranchers and winemakers sit among the guests. OITF staff answers questions as they serve giant plates of food. On this evening, the chef was Bryan Moscatello of the Washington, DC, restaurants Zola and Potenza. The standout dishes were the first course of heirloom tomato and mascarpone ravioli, Riesling braised leeks, shaved bourrée cheese, and "the whole hog" course, consisting of braised belly, sliced porchetta, smoked hocks, sage sausage and mustard bbq ribs, local greens, vegetable pickles and long, decorative and delicious mustard crackers. I thought I had died and gone to pork heaven.

Learning

This year, I have taken a lot of time to get to know many farmers and ranchers in the area. Because of this, I have learned an inordinate amount about what it takes to grow food. The troubles. The rewards. Why tomatoes don't always ripen when they're "supposed" to. Why chickens lay more eggs in the summer than in the winter months. The difference in taste between a Striped German and a Green Zebra. The enormous yield you can get out of a 3' x 6' plot. And why I shouldn't be eating fresh asparagus in October. I have also learned this year that people genuinely want to be connected to the food they eat, that they want to know where it comes from, and that they know that they should be eating fresh and buying locally. But what I've come to realize is that people also genuinely feel they do not have the time, the means, or the knowledge to make those things reality. Therefore, they resort to convenience and pre-packaged and prepared. They lack the self confidence to take what they learn from the newspaper or television and apply that knowledge in the kitchen.

As I tell people every week at a cooking demonstration I conduct at the Georgetown Whole Foods Market's indoor farmers' market, "No, really! This is easy. You CAN do this at home!" Some believe me, and they purchase the ingredients I use from the farmer I go with, Suzanne Smallwood of Smallwood's Veggieporium in Berryville. I am encouraged by those people, as well as the people who first cringe at the sight of something I've made (for example, fried green tomatoes with pesto mayo) but who come back for seconds. Learning is about trying something you've never tried, asking questions, making mistakes, never giving up, and many times, just listening.

Celebrating

For the second year, I have helped the Middleburg Business and Professional Association organize Celebrate the Harvest Week. This year, the week of September 25 – October 4, the restaurants of Middleburg, The Plains and Upperville will recognize the year's bountiful harvest by offering special dishes on their menus featuring fresh and local produce, meats, cheeses, wines and other edibles. The goal of the week is to connect local farmers, vintners and food artisans with the area's restaurateurs, who can bring their products to the public in delicious ways.

Through Celebrate the Harvest Week, we want to bring the diversity of the region's harvest to you, through our local restaurants. We would like you to understand and experience the economic, nutritional and environmental benefits of eating locally produced foods. According to a study conducted by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, the state's agricultural sector would grow from generating $2.69 billion in business annually to $4.34 billion annually if every household in the state spent $10 each week on local produce. Obesity rates in this country have increased from 18.3% of the total population in 1998 to 25.1% in 2008, with many experts blaming our extra poundage on poor diets that include foods high in processed sugars and a lack of exercise. Eating fresh foods, walking around a market, or visiting a pick-your-own farm can help all of us get the nutrition and exercise we need to stay healthy. Environmentally, most local farms are small operations that implement sustainable practices for survival. Plus, the food does not need to travel far from source to table.

This week, try to visit a local restaurant and be thankful for a minute for all that we have.