We have a terrific orchard nearby that has a store where you can get, in addition to bags or bushels of apples and peaches, pumpkins, gourds, squash, corn, shelled lima beans (I love you, bean lady!), cabbage, heirloom tomatoes all grown locally. I don't can much of anything any more, I freeze or dry. I got myself a nice, big dehydrator last year. They also sell the best tomato plants I've ever bought, lots of heirloom varieties, grown by a local farmer. Meats and cheeses from a couple of local farms. They sell some canned items they do themselves including a peach habanero salsa that the spicier the better fan here loves.

It's one of several nice farm stores but there are a couple that are buying the same tasteless stuff the grocery stores sell.

I really believe everybody who has any space at all should get a bushel or more of a good keeper apple, wrap each apple in a piece of newspaper and store them in wooden bins (the best) or even newspaper lined cardboard boxes in a cool basement or garage where they won't freeze. They'll wither a little but you'll have good apples until spring.

The best way to get a lot of something - apples to beans - is pick your own farms or orchards. My mother and I used to pick a dozen or more bushels of apples every fall, some to store and a lot for the apple butter she and her friends made the old fashioned way in a big iron cauldron outside. I swear the smoke made it taste better. Your state agriculture department should have lists of pick your own places.

I drove through one of the local towns today that had a sign up about a farmer's market once a week with local stuff. I need to check that out. Most of the farmer's markets here peter out because they don't have nice, local produce.