My food travels far fewer miles than it used to, but boy have I been on a journey. Sometimes I’ve gone on autopilot, but I’m miles away from where I was way back in Spring of 2005.
But, yes, occasionally I’ve coasted. Have you? Take this summer. In a burst of energy last winter I started a vegetable garden (the ne plus ultra of local food). Between weeding the garden, immersing myself in new projects and interests, battling the occasional illness or family emergency, and running after my toddler, my energy for local food lost momentum. I still go to the Farmers’ Market, I get my CSA boxes, I still reach for local foods at the store. Yet…
... I stopped blogging and my taste for culinary adventures took a break. No more attempts at sourdough bread, pickling or complicated recipes. My grain CSA stash keeps piling up in my pantry (what do I do with unhulled Ethiopian barley? Hmmmm). I keep going to back to the same (local food) vendors and recipes to keep things “easy.” My interest in developing a local CSA for grassfed beef and pastured poultry hit a couple of hurdles. Once the time changed and I faced the holidays, I thought “Why hunt down ranchers and herd CSA members when I can stay on this cozy couch and watch Project Runway / Battlestar Galactica / Veronica Mars and order in some (albeit local) pizza?”
Then I woke up a few weeks ago and realized that while I had been on local food autopilot, other people in my town were fired up. It’s exciting to see. There are now “Local Product” signs on some of the bulk and dairy items in my Coop. My fellow shoppers at the meat counter now ask about how the animals were raised. The current issue of our Coop newsletter celebrates the local crops and foods of Yolo County.
What totally caught me off guard, though, was a recent broadcast from the local college radio station. In my day, the radio station was pretty much stoned DJs playing punk rock (enjoyable, but not very informative). Imagine my surprise when I turned it on the other morning to hear college students talking about Jennifer Greene’s grain CSA and brainstorming ways to find local food sources. The college now has a Students for Sustainable Agriculture group. The UC Davis community book project is The Omnivore’s Dilemma. My husband’s employer just turned their cafeteria over to Bon Appetit, which sources local organic food whenever possible. I’m bringing local food to our family Thanksgiving. I check back here to see how y’all are spreading the message in your areas and grappling with local produce.
And for all my mea culpa about standing still on the Eat Local front, I’ve come far too. I eat soooo differently than I did before the first Eat Local Challenge. The cool thing about eating local is that while there is always more to explore and learn, even a little bit of change has (I believe) a great effect on the local economy and zeitgeist.
Before the Eat Local Challenge I didn’t think I would:
- grill a rancher on when his piglets are weaned
- call an olive oil company to ask where their olive trees grow
- make my own lard
- ask a grower where their farm is located - exactly
- grow my own vegetables
- try composting, again.
Yeah, but try taking my Newman’s Os cookies (and my TV) away from me.
Okay, now your turn. What do you do now that you couldn’t conceive of before you got the local food bug?
Suzanne eats in Davis
