How to Buy the Best Organically Grown Local Produce

A sensory feast awaits you in Martindale’s produce department. Seasons come and go: winter, spring, summer, autumn and with them sights, sounds and smells of natural vegetables, herbs, and fruit. Local produce provides the ultimate in freshness. We offer it when in season, and 100% of our produce is organically grown. Envision bright, cherry-red tomatoes; deep green rainbow chard standing at attention; fragrant spearmint that sends you floating throughout the store. Colder months find multi-colored squash of all shapes, root veggies, tasty mushrooms and more.

During the growing season, most of the produce that tingles your senses is not only organically grown – it’s local – from farms less than 100 miles away. And the good news: our local farmers deliver produce to Martindale’s the same day it’s harvested. During the cold winter months, most of our produce comes from warm weather regions – and yes, it’s all organically grown!

Meet Our Farmers

At Martindale’s, we cherish our long-standing relationships with local farmers and deeply value what they bring to our community. By continuously fostering these connections, we ensure you receive the freshest produce available. Here are some of the local farmers who deliver to us most days each week:

• Lancaster Farm Fresh: A conglomerate of over 100 Amish farms in Lancaster. All produce from them is organic, and they maintain strict animal welfare standards. Lancaster Farm Fresh provides us with a variety of unique local fruits and vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes like Blue Beauties, Black Beauties, Cherokee Purples, and German Pinks, as well as distinctive squashes such as Zephyr and Patty Pan, and seasonal items like okra and a variety of peppers (habanero, ghost, Carmen, and Escamillo).
• UNFI Fresh: A large distributor supplying organic fruits and vegetables. Their offerings range from local produce like butternut squash to international delicacies such as papayas from Mexico, ginger from Peru, and avocados from various regions.
• Vigor Greens: A USDA-certified organic grower of microgreens in Swarthmore. Kinga Dziembowski, our neighbor, has turned her passion for organic microgreens into a successful venture. She began selling her microgreens at Martindale’s Natural Market last year, offering our customers nutrient-dense, delicious, and incredibly fresh produce from a truly local source.
• Robin Hill Organics is a family-run farm founded by a husband-and-wife team in the fall of 2017. It is dedicated to providing high-quality organic food to its community. Situated on the historic Garrett Mill Farm in Willistown Township, Pennsylvania, the property is preserved through a conservation easement by the Willistown Conservation Trust, ensuring its protection from development. The family works together to cultivate and deliver the healthiest, certified organic vegetables straight from their farm to your table.
• Indian Orchards: is a charming, family-operated orchard five minutes from downtown Media, PA. For over 108 years, this local gem has been dedicated to growing sustainably and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. The orchard features heritage apples from 100-year-old trees, peaches, and plums renowned for their flavor and juiciness. Additionally, it offers fields of unsprayed blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Nestled amidst a verdant old forest, the orchard is home to native pawpaws, persimmons, figs, and Asian pears. Now in its fifth generation, the family continues to use sustainable and pesticide-free methods, ensuring every tree, bush, and fruit is lovingly tended by hand to produce the finest quality and best-tasting varieties.
• Paradise Organics is on 5 acres of lush, green farmland in Paradise, Pennsylvania. Founded by Chris Petersheim in 1980, the farm has been organic since day one and continues to be operated by Chris and his family. In the early days, Chris sold his produce at a roadside stand, but by the 1990s, he also expanded to distribute produce from other organic farms. In 1997, he co-founded Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO) to ensure the integrity of organic products through education, inspection, and certification services. Chris’s lifelong passion for organic farming is evident in his work at Paradise Organics. The farm’s crops, including favorites like lettuce, beets, kale, chard, collards, cabbage, scallions, squash, cilantro, and parsley, are Certified Organic.
• Four Seasons Produce is dedicated to partnering with local organic and conventional growers during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Situated in the heart of Lancaster County, PA—a region renowned for its fresh produce and agriculture—their facilities often receive deliveries from neighboring Mennonite and Amish farmers by wagon.
• Several smaller local farmers also provide us with delicious, organic produce. Their dedication to sustainable farming ensures a steady supply of fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables. This collaboration supports the local community and promotes healthy eating.

Why Buy Local Produce?

The simple answer: it’s fresher, healthier, tastes much better – and it’s all organically grown. When you stop to think that farmers not far from your home plant, grow, harvest and deliver that produce you’re preparing, it makes it all the more special and tasty. Close your eyes and salivate to tart apples with locally farmed raw milk cheese, local cucumbers with local biodynamically farmed yogurt, or local radishes with fresh local guacamole. Find it all here.

Besides being fresh-picked and grown just right, what sets our produce apart is the care and concern our produce department places in prepping and displaying each apple, cuc, or leafy green you see. Meet the caring individuals who keep our fresh produce items looking their best until you meet and greet them.

Other reasons to buy local:

• Better for the environment – reducing shipping miles reduces the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
• Safer – Tomatoes, bananas and pears picked off-season are often artificially “ripened” with ethylene gas.
• Preserves green space – local farmers are less likely to sell their land to developers if their farms are profitable.
• Encourages young farmers to enter the field and sustain this wonderful movement.
• Good for the local economy

Shopping for fresh produce at friendly markets like Martindale’s might be just the ticket you need to feel healthier, protect the environment and keep our local farmers in business.

 

What It Is and Isn’t

However, whether you’re a true-blue locavore or new to shopping for local produce, it’s good to know what local produce is and isn’t and how to shop for local produce in our neck of the woods. There’s local produce and then … well, read on.

The term, “local produce” has no clear definition and is unregulated. Some states and chain supermarkets consider produce to be ‘local’ if it’s shipped within state lines, no matter how large the state – think Texas!

Local produce also does not necessarily mean that it’s grown on small family farms. For example, oranges grown in California are considered local, regardless of the size of the farm.

Our local produce currently comes from under about fifty miles. How fresh is that! Under the care of our Produce Department manager, Tracy, incoming fruits and veggies look their very best when you arrive and are sourced from reputable farmers. Look for the tags indicating which items are local throughout the year.

 

Does Local = Organic?

Local is not necessarily organic. When you shop at local farmers’ markets or stands, make sure to check the labels or ask whether or not the produce is truly organic.

All of Martindale’s produce – fruits and vegetables – are organically grown, whether it’s local or not. When you shop here for produce, you don’t have to worry about reading labels to ensure purity.

 

For the Freshest Local Produce

The secret to buying local produce is to shop for produce that’s in season. Here are a few examples of in-season produce by month in our region. Keep in mind that weather can affect the start of the growing season. Additionally, our local organic farmers inform us that the organic harvest arrives a bit later than conventionally grown produce. Who knew? Therefore, the following are early estimations.

• First signs of spring – rhubarb, garlic and scallions
• May – asparagus, lettuce and kale
• June – blueberries, strawberries and cucumbers
• July/August – melons and sweet corn.
• July – October – broccoli, tomatoes
• winter – greens, root vegetables

 

Online Tools for Easy Shopping

• PA Preferred Seasonal Calendar displays fruits and vegetables and months they are in-season in chart form.

Remember that organic produce ripens up a bit later than conventional, so add some time to the guide, above.

Next time you shop at Martindale’s, shop our produce section. There is no shortage of variety with our fruits and veggies. In addition to our local produce, we sometimes offer exotic fruits and vegetables. Be sure to check out our produce department throughout the whole year!