Thursday we step into a new year. Many pack a list of New Year’s resolutions to take on the annual journey of renewal and, soon enough, it becomes real baggage. Baggage of guilt over unfulfilled goals. Hence, I’ll stick with one that has worked steadily for more than a decade: get more local foods into our diet this year.

Recently, I came across articles I’d written in the mid-’90s about making note where the food on our plates came from and how to make more of it local. Comparing my own diet and awareness then to now, I realize it has become a habit. My husband and I are not at 100 percent, and we probably never will be unless we give up essentials such as olive oil, tea, coffee, citrus and (gasp!) chocolate.

Many of the superb local foods now available weren’t back then. The fact that more exist proves enough people have made local foods a habit that producers can survive. The beauty of it is, the more we consumers support them, the broader their offerings.

Afton Field Farms

Tyler Jones was just a kid selling honey at the farmers’ market in the mid-1990s. Now, “all growed up” and a full-time farmer, he and his new bride just moved onto their own farm property. (He’d been farming at his parents’ place until last month.) You may have met the Joneses at the Corvallis Farmers’ Market, selling chicken, eggs and honey. You can get those at their new farm any time now: 3375 S.W. 53rd St., Corvallis.

They also have pasture-raised pork, finished on acorns and hand-fed apples, available by the piece, as well as half or whole animals for your freezer. Grass-fed beef is also available for order by the piece, quarter, half or whole animal.

Tyler reminds us that it’s more efficient for you and the farmer, as well as more environmentally sound, to stock up on meat as soon as it is butchered. To order, or for more information, contact him at tyler@aftonfieldfarm.com or 738-0127. Tyler apprenticed with Joel Salatin, the farmer featured in Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”

Second Local Foods Cook-Off

The second Seasonal Local Foods Cook-Off is set for Jan. 30. Who says there’s no local food in winter? Turn your best one-pot-meal into a packed-with-local-ingredients winner — be it a soup, stew or casserole. Sign up closes Jan. 26 (or before, if the quota is filled).

Bring your entry to the First Alternative Co-op south store meeting room between 4 and 6 p.m. Jan. 30. Judges are Chef Intaba Liff-Anderson of FireWorks Restaurant, Tyler Jones of Afton Field Farm and James Cassidy of OSU’s Crop & Soil Science Department and leader of the OSU Organic Gardening Club. Winners will be announced the following day at the Indoor Winter Farmers’ Market at the Benton County Fairgrounds. There will also be a “virtual cook-off” at the Farmers’ Market. Learn more at www.tenriversfoodweb.org.

Fresh Sheet alerts readers to the seasonal foods that make the mid-valley such a rich culinary area. Through tips from farmers, ranchers, fishers, cheese-makers and other food producers, as well as chefs and restaurateurs, Chris Peterson tracks what’s flowing from soil and sea to local plates. Readers can contact her at localfood@peak.org.