Here is a quick guide to finding slow food in the Rochester region. Note that while much slow food is local, and much local food is slow, they are not equivalent. A cabbage produced by a large-scale commercial farmer using conventional techniques with pesticides and chemical fertilizers may be local, but it is not Slow Food! And locally-roasted shade-grown coffee from an organic small family farm in Central America is Slow Food but is only partially local. What follows here is a guide to Slow Food that is also local to the greater Rochester FoodShed.
The main sources of local food are grocery stores, especially Abundance and Lori's, and the farmers markets which are listed here, and, of course, farms. The best farmer's market in the winter is the Brighton Market, which has an extensive selection of foods all year round! There are also some smaller stores that carry some local items, including Red Bird Market in Fairport, Pittsford Dairy in Pittsford, and and others to be added soon. Please contact us about other places. There are also many farm stands in the area, but we haven't attempted to catalog them yet! Please send us information on any good sources we have missed.
Check out our page on where to find local foods generally available in the fall.
As we move through the winter, it becomes more difficult to find locally produced ingredients, but there is still a wide range of products available. For instance, the Sunday Brighton Market this week has certified organic chicken, many varieties of potatoes, sweet onions, shallots, and garlic, many varieties of organic apples, celeriac, rutabaga, red onions, eggs, lettuce baskets, certified organic carrots, beets, green kale, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, green and purple cabbage, red leaf lettuce, hardneck garlic, spring mix, arugula, pea shoots, cilantro, parsley, and winter squash, beets, carrots, parsnips, shallots, kale, winter squash, spring mix, bac choi, and frozen corn, strawberries, rhubarb, and turkey, certified organic 100% grass fed and finished beef cuts including roasts and steaks, some pasture-raised pork, Cornish game hens, Pekin duck, apple cider molasses granola, jams and jellies, granola, granola bars, and pickles!