There’s a growing trend in our country of consumers looking to purchase locally-grown food. Farmers’ markets are becoming more popular, chefs are using local ingredients and consumers are becoming more educated about their food choices.

The are several reasons for this, among them our potentially unsafe food supply (listeria in cantaloupe, e-coli in spinach, for example), but, also, the growing appreciation people have for great-tasting, freshly-prepared food.

This trend is also occurring in Toledo and the surrounding area. One of the youngest and newest farmers in the area is Genoa resident Elizabeth (Liz) Bergman, who operates Sage Organics.

At Sage Organics, Elizabeth (Liz) Bergman specializes in growing pesticide-free produce such as heirloom tomatoes, gourmet salad mixes, cooking greens, garlic and herbs.

For the past three years, Bergman, 27, has been working as an organic farmer with her brother, Henry, cultivating crops and raising livestock on her family’s property.

Bergman, a Cardinal Stritch alum, graduated from Denison University in 2006 with a degree in History (the focus being on Culinary History). After college, she attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While at culinary school, she got to work with exciting new chefs and also spent time with their farmers, allowing her to gain experiences that helped instill in her a passion for quality ingredients.

And then, things drastically changed when, three years ago, she returned home from culinary school after being diagnosed with cancer.

“When I got cancer,” she said, “the importance of local, healthy food became even more important (to me). After going through chemo, I decided that producing the type of food I wanted to eat would my next step.

“I knew others in the Toledo area were looking for pesticide-free food, and I wanted to be able to contribute to our local food system,” she said.

Bergman, now cancer-free, decided to name her farm Sage Organics because the word sage, by definition, means being wise through reflection and experience. Fittingly, she has tried to reflect on her experiences with food and agriculture to help cultivate the farm in an image that suits her values.

Another motivation for Bergman is the importance of supporting one’s local economy. Specifically, buying food, whether it be fruit, vegetables or meat from nearby farms and businesses as opposed to purchasing food that has traveled a great distance and may have been produced in a factory farm (think pigs, chickens and other livestock living in crammed settings, being treated poorly, and, as a result, becoming very sick).

In short, the question for consumers is this: Do you want to support factory farms that produce potentially unhealthy food that has traveled long distances to get to your plate, or do you want to eat something produced by local businesses that is healthier and fresher?

For a better understanding of the issue, Bergman highly recommends the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, which further explains the importance of choosing the type of food you eat.

On the farm’s three acres of land, Bergman specializes in growing pesticide-free produce such as heirloom tomatoes, gourmet salad mixes, cooking greens, garlic and herbs. She also has pasture-raised pigs and raises chickens, turkeys and laying hens. She uses two plastic-covered greenhouses, called high-tunnels, or hoop houses, to produce winter-hardy greens throughout the winter when local produce is at its lowest supply. She also grows and sells, during the winter, salad mixes, spinach, cooking greens and radishes.

Bergman practices what she preaches by selling all her produce at local markets, including the Perrysburg and Toledo Farmers’ Markets. She also runs a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. A CSA program is essentially a farm subscription by which a customer purchases a share of the farm. Through this process, customers receive seasonal vegetables based on what the farm produces, specifically food cultivated during the first harvest. Bergman currently has 26 families who purchase food from her through CSA program.

Three years after her operation began, Bergman is excited to have an impact on the local food community and is looking forward to feeding more families in 2012.

For more information on Sage Organics, visit www.sageorganicsohio.com or email Liz at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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