By MARY ELIZABETH LANG

Special to The Times

If it’s summer in Connecticut, residents can go to any number of so-called locavore dinners to enjoy this year’s crop of locally sourced fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken and seafood.

Most of these are provided by restaurants in cities, while some are offered by large farms that put on occasional country dinners outdoors. Diners generally pay a high price to eat at venues like this, but reviewers sometimes complain that “locally sourced” is often a misnomer.

For example, customers of a New Haven restaurant that claims to offer locally sourced foods said in their breakfast reviews that the blueberry pancakes made from local ingredients were delicious, but that they were accompanied by maple-flavored syrup instead of genuine Connecticut maple syrup, which is easily obtained at farmstands all around the state.

So in 2013, four years after the establishment of the Bozrah Farmers Market, the Bozrah Agriculture Commission decided that the best way to enjoy the fruits of the season was not in an expensive restaurant in Hartford or New Haven but right here in Bozrah, with local cooks rather than professional chefs providing the meal.

And so the Annual Locavore Harvest Potluck Dinner was founded. After a hiatus of a few years, primarily due to the COVID pandemic, this year’s Annual Locavore Potluck was held on the grounds of the Maples Farm Homestead and Park, also the location of the Farmers Market, on Saturday, Aug.t 20.

Chief organizers this year were Molly Lathrop and Amanda Fargo-Johnson, who with Sarah Brush, Abi Christina and Joseph Christina make up the Agriculture Commission.

Admission to the potluck was free to local residents or customers of the Bozrah Farmers Market. All one had to bring was a camp chair and a dish to be shared, one that contains primarily locally grown or raised meat, vegetables, herbs and eggs.

Each person’s dish was labeled with ingredients (also handy for those with allergies) and the origin of those ingredients.

Molly Lathrop welcomed the guests and explained a little bit about how the term “locavore” came into existence. She herself was introduced to it with Barbara Kingsolver’s 2007 book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.”

To be locavores, people have to eat primarily locally produced food; if not directly from the town where they live, at least from within the region. Finding such foods is easier during the spring and summer months, when there is easy access to such foods at farmers markets, farmstands and grocery stores that feature regionally produced foods.

However, many people freeze or can the summer produce for use throughout the winter months as well. Local foods are not only fresher and more nutritious but also use less fuel to transport, benefiting the environment as well as the individual.

The table was laid, and participants piled onto their plates deviled eggs, summer squash casserole, summer vegetables with chickpea pasta, pulled pork, carrot salad, three bean salad, corn chowder, tomato and corn salad, melon salad, sliced watermelon, water and lemonade. Desserts included blueberry pie and chocolate zucchini cake. In previous years, the potluck has also included local wines, venison stew and fish provided by local hunters and fishers.

Talk at the table ranged from local news to recipe exchanges and cooking and preserving hints. Following dinner, there were games, such as Bingo and a water balloon toss, the purpose of which seemed not to be to hit the cornhole target but to see how wet kids could get their fathers, uncles or siblings. Bingo prizes included potatoes, tomatoes, home-canned jam and eggs.

Mary Elizabeth Lang is a freelance writer who says she moved back to New London County to be “closer to my food.”