As she wends her way each morning among the three garden plots at her home on Summer Solstice Farm, Nora Crist carefully discerns which fruits and vegetables are ready to be lovingly plucked from their soil beds and sold that day.

It's an ability she's been cultivating since she was a 7-year-old girl working alongside her grandfather, the late Sen. James Clark Jr., at the family's roadside stand on Route 108, which is just around the corner from her Centennial Lane property and the family homestead.

But this growing season, the 2009 University of Delaware graduate, armed with a degree in agriculture, is in charge of growing fresh produce for sale at Clark's Elioak Farm. The Ellicott City operation is now run by her mother, Martha Clark, who took over the 420-acre property in 2000.

"I've had some direction, but mostly it's been trial and error," said Crist, who is pleased with her garden's output so far.

The timing of the 22-year-old's official entry into the produce market couldn't be better as the county ramps up its love affair with locally grown foods.

To build on the existing momentum of the buy-local movement, the county will hold its first " Howard County Film Feastival" at Clark's Elioak Farm on July 20. Along with a small farmers' market, the free event will combine a sampling of restaurant fare produced with local bounty and a showing of a 2009 feature-length documentary film called "Ingredients."

Farmers, restaurant owners, chefs, and agriculture experts will be on hand to talk about the connections between supporting local farmers and healthful eating and environmental stewardship, Clark said.

"This event will serve to get the relationship [with consumers] started and hopefully it will then continue," said Clark, who recalled tugging a wagon laden with tomatoes and corn to make door-to-door sales at nearby homes when she was 8.

And it's a conversation that bears repeating, said Kathy Zimmerman, agriculture marketing specialist with the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

Even though demand by county residents has brought about the addition of two new farmers' markets in the county this year -- one at Howard County General Hospital in Columbia and the other at St. John's Episcopal Church on Frederick Road in Ellicott City – bringing the total number to five, not everyone places a consistent priority on eating locally produced farm products, she said.

It's up to local agencies to spread awareness, she said, which the "Feastival" will do in its own unique way.

"On the average, produce travels about 1,800 miles before it reaches a store and is usually picked a week before it arrives," Zimmerman said. "Food that travels for that long has lost a lot of its vitamins and minerals."

Trucking produce across the country and across borders between nations also negatively iaffects the environment through increased fuel use and emissions, she pointed out. And then there are the economic benefits of spending food dollars in local communities.

"Now we're going back somewhat to how our food was raised and sold before," she said. "Many people want to know where their food comes from and how it's grown, and want to support local farmers."

That's where "Ingredients" plays a role, Zimmerman said, adding that it's not an "in your face" documentary, but one that inspires thoughtful discussion.

Billed by producers as the 2010 "Who's Your Farmer?" Tour, the film has been playing at farmers' markets and other venues across the country, according to its website. The documentary stresses the message that choosing to buy local produce in season is more than just a fashionable way of eating.

The filmmakers crisscrossed the country over four growing seasons, visiting the diversified farms of the Hudson River and Willamette Valleys to the urban food outposts of Harlem to interview people devoted to the cause about the challenges they face and their vision for a healthy and sustainable American local-food paradigm, the site states.

Consumers who buy from farmers' markets, roadside stands, pick-your-own farms or community supported agriculture programs are only sold foods that are in season, Zimmerman said, and that is appealing to more and more people.

"Some originally thought buying local was just a fad and wouldn't last," Zimmerman said. "But the trend is continuing to grow, especially since there have been so many food scares in recent years."

With the film's warning that a family farm closes in America every 33 minutes, apprehension about the loss of local sources of healthy food becomes very real.

Christine Lothen-Kline, area extension director for the University of Maryland, supplied county farming statistics that align with the nationwide trend.

There are 335 farms in Howard County, according to the most recent data, from 2007, with an average size of 88 acres and totaling just more than 29,000 acres, or nearly one-fifth of the county's 160,000 acres, Lothen-Kline said.

In 1997, just a decade earlier, there were 369 farms that averaged 112 acres and accounted for 41,000 acres or one fourth of the county's total acreage, she said.

"There used to be a clash between agricultural areas and suburban-urban areas," she said. "Now there's a great symbiotic relationship developing between the two."

Aside from showcasing the film, the "Feastival" will also serve to kick off the county's annual "Farm2Table" Restaurant Weeks, slated for July 26 to August 8, in which local eateries highlight menus that incorporate the area's freshest ingredients.

"Buying local is a movement that is becoming more mainstream," Lothen-Kline said. "But like any behavior change it will take time."

If you go

What: Howard County Film Feastival

When: July 20, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Clark's Elioak Farm, 10500 Clarksville Pike, Ellicott City.

Cost: Admission is free, though a $5 donation will help support 2,000 county families being served by the Women, Infant and Children's program by providing coupons redeemable at local farmers' markets. Registration is required and limited to 100 guests; about 50 spots remain.

Information: Contact the University of Maryland's Howard County extension office at 410-313-2707. For information on the five farmers' markets, go to howardcountyag.org.