Project 365/52
Local Food Challenge
Well, I promised more about our local eating efforts, and look(!) in just happens to be Local Food Month sponsored by my favorite Crunchy Chicken. (By the way, while you are there check out the Diva Cup information. I got mine,...LOVE IT. Beware, click that link only if you're of the female persuasion. If you're male and get squeamish during a tampon commercial...stay far away...w-a-a-a-y TMI!).
We have been trying the local eating thing for a couple of months now. And it's been a challenge for sure! I've decided to buy local or if I can't, than organic (preferably both). Of course, the limiting factor to eating locally is what you can find. Now, I live in Kansas. You would think eating locally out here on the so called fruitful (or is it fruited?) plain would be easy. We're lousy with farmers and ranchers. Overalls and grain elevator caps are de rigeur at the local greasy spoon. However, these farmers raise feed...for cattle...milo, corn, soybeans. And they also raise the cattle...to sell at the livestock sales. We had way more local produce in the Upstate New York area of my previous life. There you had farm stands on every available corner. Come August people had boxes of tomatoes and zucchini at the end of their driveways with signs that said TAKE SOME FREE... PLEASE!!!! I've planted vegetables and fruit this year. Some in a formal vegetable garden, all in neat rows and little hillocks, but most randomly placed in with the flowers in a cottage garden sort of way. I love my flowers with all my little heart, and take good care of them. So, hiding vegetables amongst them is the best way to ensure the veggies survival when it gets ridiculously hot and I try to reverse hibernate. (In six years I've come a long way to adapting to the Kansas summer, but sometimes even walking outside makes me feel like I'm wading through nearly solid waves of heat! Why did those settlers stop here?).
Our local farmer's market is about 20 miles away. So I have the using gas/causing emissions issues when going there. Of course, that is also where all the shopping is, so I try to do everything in one trip so I don't feel so guilty. And just because food is at the farmer's market does not mean that it is organic or even locally produced. Always ask!
Also, eating locally means eating what is in season. The upside is soon as you are getting more than sick of spinach and broccoli, you get to move on to corn and yellow squash. And of course, there is always freezing and canning to carry over some things into the winter. I've got the technique of freezing using the microwave to blanch vegetables down pat. However, I am a canning neophyte and need to hitch up my pants and take the plunge. It's only the fear of giving my children botulism that's keeping me back.
My biggest challenge has been meat. We do get beef, a quarter at a time, from a friend of ours. They are pasture raised and we know his farming practices. He also has buffalo, which is low fat and yummy...but pricey. The farmer's market also has beef and pork. What I can't find is poultry. Yes, I know we have chickens ourselves. Yes, I know that is where those frozen, skinless breasts come from...but our chickens are our friends. And friends don't eat friends unless you're all trapped in an avalanche for six weeks. Plus, I'm not sure I'm up to all that bleeding and plucking (although I deeply admire and respect people who are!). Of course that doesn't keep us from eating their babies (well, their eggs anyways). Our health food store (20 miles away again) has locally grown, organic chicken, but it costs about $11 for two breasts. NOT within my budget. I have been purchasing whole organic chickens at the supermarket as a compromise.
On the topic of food budgets and the cost of organic foods, check out this great article at Mother Earth News. (While your there check out the article on grocery store meat. Eeeew!) Barbara Kingsolver (who spent a year eating sustainably and wrote a book about it that I'm waiting to get it from the library...hopefully it's shorter than The Poisonwood Bible.) suggests that we have the wrong priorities when approaching our food budgets. And in the grand scheme of things, can we really afford not to eat sustainably?
SO, are you going to join us? It's kind of like detective work to find local food, but definitely worth it. I suggest starting your search at Localharvest.org. There you can find lists of local farmers and farmer's markets in your area. Good luck...and if you find a great way to get your kids to eat whatever vegetables are currently in season with out complaint, please let me know!
