My kitchen is a disaster...and other downfalls

My kitchen is in a horrible state of clutter.  It's clean, don't get me wrong, but we live in a small house with a small kitchen.  We don't have much storage space.  We really don't have enough storage space for someone who is trying to eat locally and seasonally.  So, my countertops are constantly changing, but are always cluttered with a variety of fresh fruits and veggies, homemade loaves of bread, jars of local honey or jugs of maple syrup.  And I use olive oil and kosher salt so much now that they are permanently residing within arm's reach of the stove.  Pictured is one of my small areas of counterspace as I looked over and saw it tonight...root vegetables, apples, squash, sunflowers, and tomatoes, peppers, and radishes ready to be put away.
A lot of my produce can go right in the fridge, but as I am learning from my CSA farmers, root vegetables and winter squash actually do much better on the countertop, where they will not dehydrate.  My apples taste better when they are at room temperature picked from a clear glass bowl or right from the paper tote sack.  My potatoes, garlic, and onions are just waiting on a round plate to be needed.  And of course, there are always stacks of veggies that I am trying to put away for the winter or just the next meal.  And that leads to the next issue...storing the perishables.
I am not a canner.  Never tried it, and didn't have the time this summer to figure it all out.  Usually I just chop, blanch and freeze.  If you don't understand why anyone would go through the trouble of cooking something for 2 minutes only to plunge it in a bowl of ice water for two more minutes, just try the difference.  Blanching stops the enzymes that would otherwise turn the vegetable bitter and leaves it in its fresh picked state.  YUM!  I don't terribly mind the time it takes, or the numerous bowls of room temp water for washing, boiling water for cooking, and ice water for stopping the c
ooking process, but I lost my deep freeze in the Hillside Ave flood of 2009.  BAH!  Top on my list of wants is a new one (just below that is my hope to someday have a growlight shelf, but that's for another blog).  I hope, next summer to be able to buy produce as it is seasonally available and freeze it for a taste of summer in the colder months.  Instead, this winter, I'll be planning exactly how much of everything I will need to prep and save.
The third, and final (as of now) complication is the time it takes to go from one place to the other to buy the food.  My goal is to go to the supermarket when I NEED to, but buy everything I can from a local farmer or, at least, a local store.  Right now, I love the experience of browsing the Old Country Store for staples (flour, snacks, cooking oils, etc), stopping by the apple orchard to grab an apple (and usually a cider doughnut!), and hitting the farmer's market every Thursday without fail for our weekly shopping.  But, I am a full time nurse, and work takes a lot out of my time.  I hope I can keep up the effort!  Of course, in winter, many of these places will close and I'll be forced to shop the produce aisles again.
Most people who have questioned my plan have listed PRICE as a problem.  I was worried, but at this point, we are coming up below average on our cost for food.  How?  Stores like the Old Country Store buy in bulk and repackage at a lower price (and with less packaging) the things I use often like flour, pretzels for the kids, etc...and most everything at the farmer's markets have a lower price than the supermarkets.  Plus, we have made a special effort to get to know the local farmers.  This sometimes leads to "a little extra" in the bag...once it was an extra pumpkin, once it was free jalapenos for the tomatoes I bought for salsa...best of all, the farmer from our CSA has let us pick an extra helping of what she knows we like best when we stop by and visit the farm.  We ventured out in the rain for kale Sunday and ended up with kale, arugula, a whole bag of apples, the last watermelon (saved just for Kira to pick!) and some sunflowers, too! 
So, for the downfalls of a messy kitchen (which really only bothers my obsessive orderly nature), the need for a plan for storage, and a few extra trips around the local area...we have gotten a great return on our efforts!