Month 7: May, not out of the woods yet

This will be a short post, since I've already discussed May problems recently. We broke down and got outside our circle, even
for fresh produce. We've been practically living off the organic butter lettuce (from Newcastle CO) and spinach (CO growers), and
Honeyacre hothouse tomatoes, cukes and peppers from Wiggins. I'd have been forced into the Safeway for the anonymous greens (California if not farther away), if I hadn't started the LoveLandLocal food buying cooperative.

As always, high quality meat, eggs, and dairy products are not a problem to find locally.

Finding staples also required going outside the circle; some are available from Colorado: quinoa, millet, several kinds of beans, hard red winter wheat and flour, but others are coming from the Rocky Mountain West.

Myrto Ashe tells me that Boulder is bursting with fresh local produce, at the farmers markets, and Jay Hill farm which will put together an order for you. Unfortunately Weld and Larimer County growers haven't got their late-spring act together yet. It's a chicken and egg problem: they won't go to the trouble of bringing in the early-season vegetables, because it's a lot of work and we won't buy them. Many people don't go to the farmers markets because the vegetable-to-other stuff ratio is so low. How can we turn this into a "virtuous cycle" instead of a "vicious cycle"?
Ideas? (see next post too)