Ahhh, fall is in the air, indeed. The crisp coolness, the changing foliage, the switch from T-shirts and flip flops to sweaters and scarves. Personally, I love fall; it’s my favorite season and always has been. There’s something about the changing weather around this time of year that just gets me so excited! Perhaps its because I associate both my birthday and Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) with fall. Or because I grew up in the middle of the woods, and there is nothing more beautiful than being surrounded by the red, orange and yellow foliage of autumn. Either way, I simply love this season.

One of my absolute favorite things to do in the fall when I still was younger was to go to the farmers’ market every Sunday with my mom. We would head into town to the municipal parking lot that the vendors took over every weekend, buy cups of steaming hot cider, and stroll by the stands a few times to see what looked particularly good. Of course, the strolling usually took a while, because we would inevitably run into millions of people we knew. After perusing for a while, we would stop to buy all of our fresh, organic produce and meat for the week. There was also this farm that sold beautiful dried wildflower wreaths; we always bought one for our front door each year, and even used the idea for a crafts project at one of my birthday parties. We would stop at the bakery vendor and buy a loaf of bread with sun dried tomatoes and garlic on top and my weekly treat–the most delectable lemon tarts on the planet. Yum.

In my town, the farmers’ market is a huge deal. Nearly everyone does their produce shopping there, because the food is all locally grown and most of it is entirely organic. Plus, who can resist such delectable looking fruits and vegetables? I certainly can’t. They just look so good they make me want to eat as much as I possibly can. And you should, too!

The trends are showing that more and more people are buying organic, local food–an attempt to eat healthier. Farmers markets experienced a growth of nearly 50 percent from 2001 to 2006 and are continuing to grow, and the organic food industry has risen from sales of $1 billion 1990 to $20 billion in 2007.

The benefits of buying organic are obvious (no pesticides/herbicides). Buying locally grown food is also important, however, and many people fail to take this need as seriously. But with local food, first off you are supporting local business, second off, you know exactly where it is coming from, and third off, it takes less fossil fuel to get to you, and fourth off, it is more fresh when it arrives on your plate (because it’s not being shipped from hours and hours away). There is something so enticing about fresh, local, organic food. It somewhat mimics fall–so crisp and exciting!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I discovered a farmers’ market in Davis Square, right next to my campus! It comes every Wednesday through November, and I am most certainly going to be taking advantage of it. Look up farmers’ markets in your area and take advantage of yours, too!

Note to self: Organic? Local? Fresh? Can’t go wrong.

Lily Berthold-Bond grew up in a chemical-free zone and has struggled her whole life to understand and accept this non-commercial lifestyle. Now a sophomore at Tufts University, she has embraced her green life and hopes to share its possibilities with the rest of her generation.