Thursday, June 5, 2008

Eating Local

There used to be a blog called Pocket Farm. I adored it. Sadly, the writer decided to close up shop for now (wipes away tear), but I really enjoyed reading her blog about a two city folks taking over a small farm in Maine and starting a new life. She began to eat local and home grown foods and made at least one meal a week from totally local ingredients. Such a good idea could not stay quiet for long!

Last summer as I started to read a wider and wider circle of blogs I began to see more and more mentions of One Local Summer, the 100-Mile Diet, locavores, and a bunch of other terms and I got curious. Turns out that all of these people were trying to find ways to eat more locally grown or raised food rather than mindlessly shop at their local big mart grocery store.

I checked out websites and read blogs and drooled over delicious dishes of beautiful food. The reasons to try and invest in buying local were manifold and included:

  1. You support local farmers, bakers, dairies, butchers and more.
  2. The less your food travels the more fresh it is.
  3. Food is picked at the right time rather than early and shipped or forced out of season.
  4. The less your food travels to your table the fewer gallons of gas it takes to ship it, saving the environment along the way.
  5. You learn what really is in season when it keeps you in touch with the local turning of the seasons.
  6. You meet people!
  7. Excuses to seek out fun new places to shop!
So in the heat of last summer I dabbled but made no commitment to try and accomplish One Local Summer*. But that's all changing! I spent a little time researching over the winter and though I don't have enough information I'm diving in anyway. Over the winter I joined a cooperative farm and my first share is available tomorrow. I am so excited I can barely contain myself.
I am going to try and check out the local farmer's market on Saturday. I've never made it, even though it is about three blocks away - pathetic. But this weekend, in the coming heat I am going to do my best to go and see what goodies I can find.

One-Local-Summer-100-Mile-Diet-Locavore lifestyle here I come!

*Technically OLS is closed because they have all the participants they can handle. But I'm doing it anyway all on my own...

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