21 April 2009

Even the Little Steps Count

I'm beginning my own local food project. But I do emphasize beginning. As I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I am both motivated and discouraged. I want to support local farmers, and I want to lessen my "carbon footprint" as I so often hear these days, but I don't live on or near a farm! I don't even have a yard. In fact, I don't really even have a stable kitchen as I'm moving in a little over a month.

However, I cannot deny the value in small steps. I may not be able to sustain myself or commit to only eating local food, but I can stop by the farmers market for fresh (and better) tomatoes and squash and spring onions. I can buy local honey, which also supposedly helps with seasonal allergies. And I can return to my old favorite - The Produce Place on Murphy Road. Ever since I moved to the other side of town, I rarely get over that way, but they sell all or mostly local produce as well as local milk (which is delicious).

In the chapter I just finished in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver discusses canning tomatoes. I'd love to go that extra mile, but this is where I run into the no space, no time, no way issue. So, I'll settle for doing the best I can with what I've got. I"ll settle for little steps moving in the right direction, and I'll get there eventually.

15 April 2009

Local Food and Supporting Farmers

Confession: I'm still learning and researching the topic.

But... I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and would recommend it to anyone looking for a book on the benefits of eating locally grown food. Barbara Kingsolver and her family commit to eating all locally grown food for an entire year. They make their own cheese from local cows' milk, they grow their own vegetables and buy from local Farmers' Markets, they locate locally produced grain to purchase to make bread, and they even raise their own chickens for both eggs and meat. The book begins in April at the beginning of the growing season. I'm not too much past June, but I'm already inspired.

I'm looking into ways to adapt the ideas she presents and the problems she reports with transporting food across nations and continents into my own food culture. I live in a small apartment far from a farm, so my choices are much more limited than Kingsolvers, but I'd love to see how feasible it is for a single girl, living in an urban neighborhood, to move toward this type of lifestyle. I'll let you know what I come up with.

P.S. The Smoothie for the week is Strawberry Peach. (I'm enundated with Strawberries right now!)