My Local Story

As I mentioned the other day, I think I am finally crystallizing my thoughts on the Eat Local movement.

I heard about it for the first time this summer on the now defunct Pocket Farm blog announcing the "One Local Summer" challenge. I did not find out about it in time to actually join the blog's activities, but they did encourage people who did not sign up in time to go ahead and once a week eat an entire meal made from locally grown products. The idea intrigued me since I was at the start of last year's garden, so I researched local farmer's markets (and I plan to do so again in the next few months, and I'll tell you what ones are good and what ones are not what they seem) and went to a few. I embarked on the project because it sounded fun, and while I don't think I had a 100% local meal every week, I did quite a few--I'll blog about them this summer.

Eating locally in the summer is easy since everything is growing, and as summer wore on, I wondered how people kept this up when things were not growing and there were no farm markets open. One of the things I found out quickly on my Local Summer was that what I was growing and buying beat the crap out of Stop and Shop. I had no idea. I started looking into preserving what I had, and ended up teaching myself how to freeze stuff properly. This was made easier when I found the exhaustive (and fun!) how to can everything website. I toyed with the idea of canning, and I have the Ball Blue Book, but so far I am not quite ready to Go There yet.

So now I have a freezer full of food from the summer, and meat from local producers that I've mentioned before (Abma's Farm and Bobolink) and I have to say I feel happier with my food choices. One of the benefits touted for a local diet is that you are using less oil and gas transporting your food. I like this idea. I commute 45 miles one way, and I am not happy with that--I like my job, and I can't afford to live close to it due to the insane housing market. I don't know that I would enjoy living where I work either. So, eating local is a tiny tiny step, but it is a tiny tiny step that I can take, and if more people took tiny tiny steps, maybe those steps would be bigger.

I do pick and choose things that I still want but can't get locally...like chocolate and coffee. I have stopped buying bananas and pineapple constantly (but I did accept the two pineapples that arrived at work in holiday fruit baskets!) and I am really trying to adjust my diet to the seasons this year...which means apples and pears all winter, and no strawberries until spring and summer. It also means I keep onions and carrots and celery around since these seem to be the case of everything you can make. I've learned how to store squashes and apples without using my fridge since I have a cold but not freezing porch. I cook more, and use pre packed and processed things a lot less...and eventually I'll use none of those...and I feel better because my diet is better. I also think I am spending less overall on my food budget, but that is also a project I've set out for this year. I can go weeks without going to the supermarket, at least.

I doubt I'll ever be 100% locavore. For one thing, I can't guarentee my dairy comes from within 100 miles, but liquid milk tends to end up a local economy anyway. I also can't find anyone milling flour in NJ, so I bend that rule by using my bread machine more. And I still like to get unusual things from time to time (like I found a nice recipe for plantains the other day, and I want to try those out) but they are treats now, and not an every day thing.

So that is my ongoing story. I really don't want to make this a big political thing, and I am not going to go force people around me to join in--I have had enough unpleasant interactions with nearly militant vegetarians (I am an enthusiastic omnivore) that I don't want to become That Chick. But I am happy to share what I have learned and know with anyone else getting started on this road.