I first read about the Locavores and the Eat Local Challenge almost a year ago in an SF Chronicle article. It instantly appealed to me.
I had been floundering, trying to figure out what was seasonal (anyone ever looked at agriculture harvesting tables??). Wandering the farmers markets, I’d clutch my cloth bag and wonder what on earth people did with eggplants. But joining a group of people eating local for a month seemed… I dunno, doable. It also motivated me to get serious and buy a fricking eggplant.
When I started getting ready for August, amazing things happened.
In desperation, I joined a CSA, which I recommend for eat-local newbies. You don’t need to figure out what to buy, when, or what to do with it. You get a box of just-picked produce from a local farm with a newsletter telling you how to store the food, ideas for cooking the food, and farm updates.
I love hearing about what’s going on at the farm. For this white-girl-from-the-suburbs, it’s a revelation. I also like giving my money to the farmers in advance, which helps them stabilize their revenue stream and avoid debt. Now I belong to 3: Eatwell Farm for fruits and veggies, 3 Wise Hens for eggs (hosted by Eatwell) and Windborne Farm for grains (which doesn't have a website).
Friends started giving me books to read, like Coming Home to Eat and Botany of Desire. Coming Home to Eat has been a tremendous influence on me. I started my blog. I joined a food coop. I hosted an “Eat Local” dinner for a big group of skeptical family members. I also started asking how my fish was caught and whether the cows who provide my milk and meat were pastured. I watched The Corporation, a compelling documentary on understanding corporate behavior. You’ll never eat non-organic milk again after you see a cow strung out on rBST, trust me.
Mostly I had fun. I’m no Iron Chef, but it was cool to see if I could make dinner from 2 eggs, 10 zucchini, and some parmesan cheese (answer: zucchini pancakes, topped with a big fat slice of tomato). Yes, I drank coffee. I had a lot of exemptions to keep my sanity.
This May, I’d like to take food production away from the corporations and back into my house. I’ll take fewer exemptions. I recently read Full Moon Feast and I’ll try my hand at a few ancient food preparation techniques. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you in the real world I work for a global mega-corp. So maybe it’s that I just know the beast well enough to fear it.
Suzanne Miller lives in Northern California and writes about her attempts to eat local, grow native plants and live life at www.adjectivenoun.com.
