How far did your salad travel to get to your plate?

In the age of the global instant, we diners rarely contemplate the distances the cherry tomatoes, sprigs of alfalfa sprouts or sliced cucumbers in our salads have been shipped, flown and trucked to get to our tables.

Seasons? Few items of fresh produce are ever out of season in the grocery aisle, or at least not that most of us would notice. After all, we live in the land and times of plenty.

As the world turns, so turns our hemispheric appetites, north to south, east to west, to keep our tables stocked with our cornucopia of foods. Growing seasons are always happening somewhere on the planet.

Issues like food quality, unknown contaminants and pesticides, freshness, sustainable economics, transportation's impact on the planet and others wilt in the shine of our amazing global food machine. Eat up.

A growing number of consumers, however, are tuning in to these factors and turning to local food sources whenever they can. They're turning local — as in you could meet the grower face to face, if so inclined.

Chuck Wellborn, one of our great civic impresarios, is in on the trend, joining in with a legion of committed local growers, markets, and enthusiasts to make it easier for you to "go local."

They're working to streamline local market efficiencies and promotion, with assistance from the McCune Foundation and the Mid-Region Council of Governments, among other organizations, and helping to bring local foods back to tables all over town.

Wellborn smiles when he speaks of his own freshly made connection to locally grown foods.

Shrugging his shoulders, he admits: "Growing up in the Northeast Heights, I never appreciated the local food chain. Like most of us, I took food for granted. You bought it at the grocery store, simple as that. Going local has opened up a whole new awareness about how I see food now."

Wellborn, commenting on the seasonality of locally grown produce, says "My wife and I are enjoying locally grown chard and kale right now. We are amazed at the range of choices available to us throughout the year. We are trying new dishes that would never have occurred to us at the grocery store, and we are having fun exploring different things."

Convenience is the dominant factor ingrained in the modern lifestyle. The locally grown fresh food market has evolved dramatically in recent years to provide the consumer with a number of ready options.

At Los Poblanos Organics (lospoblanosorganics.com) people subscribe to a weekly "share" of the North Valley farm's fruits, vegetables and flowers. You can either pick up your produce or have it delivered. Industrious consumers also can work in the gardens while having fun, gaining new experiences and saving money.

The operation isn't purely local. Los Poblanos supplements its harvest with produce from other states, particularly during the winter months. Erda Gardens and Learning Center (erdagardens.org), is an all-local community supported agriculture venture that operates in the summer months.

Eli Burke and his family are entrepreneurial local growers, making the good life from their small acreage in the South Valley. According to Wellborn, an organized grower can generate $40,000 to $60,000 a year per acre of land.

The La Montanita Co-op, the local member-owned grocery store, sends a truck around to local growers to bring the freshest available selections to its shoppers.

More and more local restaurants are also going local, aided in part by the market development work by a number of organizations, activists, and volunteers. The Flying Star and The Range menus offer a number of dishes with locally sourced ingredients, as do the more upscale Zinc, Artichoke Cafe, Seasons and others.

A number of growers markets in New Mexico and around Albuquerque are active at different times of the year, typically during the warmer months. You can find more information about growers markets at farmersmarketsnm.org.

Going local is being curious and aware of the ever-growing options and convenience, and then trying it. All indications are that you will be glad you did.