Recently I’ve no
ticed articles about people who have vowed to eat only food purchased (or even foraged!) locally. Barbara Kingsolver’s popular book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles her family’s challenge to be locavores for a whole year. I’ve wondered if I could ever do such a thing.But Kingsolver inspires me. Like her family, mine has grown a vegetable garden and fruit trees for many years. We live in downtown Enumclaw, so we don’t grow food on the same scale she does. But we grow enough to supply us with produce for several months. What we can’t grow (we’ve never done well with peaches and apricots, for instance) I buy from Yakima via local produce “stands.” Produce tastes so good when it’s really ripe; it spoils me for those pale imposters that show up in grocery stores out of season.
So what does a locavore do during the winter? Some produce, including carrots, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli, is still in season then. But I try to bypass the other stuff. As Kingsolver says, “Bizarre as it seems, we’ve accepted a tradeoff that amounts to: ‘Give me every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard picture of its former self.’ You’d think we cared more about the idea of what we’re eating than about what we’re eating.” So I practice patience, and forgo the grapes from Chile. I’ll go home and have the grape juice I bottled last September, instead.
Eating local doesn’t end with produce, though. My family has been eating local meat for awhile. Some friends here in Enumclaw have cows, and we eat the grass-fed beef. I know the cattle are grass-fed because I can go to Elmer’s house any time and see them out in the pasture. I pick up the packaged beef from the butcher and I ask about his work. Since I like what I see at the butcher’s store, I go there for other meats. We don’t eat a lot of meat at our house, but I feel confident that what we are eating is well-cared for and humanely slaughtered.
We buy milk from another local farmer. I don’t have to worry about how carefully Tom processes the milk. I can talk to him in person and ask—about his procedures, about recipes, or even about the names of the newborn calves.
We are uniquely blessed here on the Plateau, surrounded by farmers and by outlets for local foods. Our area boasts several seasonal produce stands, our Enumclaw Plateau Farmers' Market opening in 2010, and numerous u-pick farms and CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture farms). Many youth participate in 4-H and FFA, learning to become tomorrow’s farmers. The annual Puget Sound Fresh-sponsored tours highlight farms all around us. Keep your eyes open, and you’ll find our local food options are continually increasing. Ask the produce manager of your grocery store to stock more local foods. Email your state legislator about your support for laws that help local farms.
The following statement by Steven L. Hopp (in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) is enlightening: “If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That’s not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences.”
Well I CAN do that much—or better. I am encouraged to keep expanding my repertoire of local foods. I’m committed to eating more of what’s in season (trying out some new recipes from the afore-mentioned books) and less of what comes from far away. Maybe I’m a food activist too.
(This article was originally published in the Fall, 2008 issue of Mindful Intent magazine.)
Click to order Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
or Full Moon Feast
from Amazon.com
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