How much local/seasonal food do you eat?

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Permalink Reply by idarastar on May 4, 2008 at 12:51pm

Farmer's Markets are awesome! Right now (as of yesterday's market) in Kansas, we have a lot of salad greens, arugula, chives, spinach and green onions. I also bought some radishes. :-)
Most of the foods available right now are just plants. Tomato plants, Bell Pepper Plants and lots of herbs (mint, to name one). In the next couple of weeks, I imagine there will be lots of kale, collard greens, onions, tomatoes, carrots and other foods. Snow peas!
I must stop now. Thinking about local, organic vegetables make me TOO excited! :-)
Even my wheatgrass and barley powders are made in my town. When I have to make/buy cooked foods (for my husband that insists on it) I can get local (less than 100 miles) like bread, tortillas, salsa and spaghetti sauce.
As far as cleaning agents, I get soap bars made in town and liquid from the next city over.
The midwest seems like an awesome place for most foods. Or maybe my diet surrounds around foods from my area. I don't eat too much coastal/tropical foods. Sometimes I do like my mangoes and oranges though. :)

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Permalink Reply by Audge on May 4, 2008 at 1:41pm

I think you hit on a big point --- your diet surrounding around local foods. I think we grow up with so much exotic-ness, that we rely on those exotics as staples, instead of treats. I never thought about what went into my bananas or oranges, or why they are available all year round. It's interesting, as I read Animal Vegetable Miracle, I think that my diet would actually get MORE diverse as I eat more local things. It would encourage me to try lots of new foods that I don't usually consider to be staples for my diet.

Here, at the Farmer's Market, we had a lot of salad greens, and herbs. There were tomatoes but they were hydroponically grown, so I skipped them. We have lots and lots and lots and lots of apples from a local farm all year round... I know it's not typical apple season (mmm fall apple-picking!), but it's a farm that is super close with a ton of varieties and luscious looking apples, so I assume they are late-ripening or the kind that ripens slowly over storage time. (I hope!)

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Permalink Reply by Laurel on May 4, 2008 at 4:27pm

I consider 100 miles to be local. I got that number from a locavore website. It would be pretty easy to eat locally where I live (south GA). We live in a very agricultural region with a long growing season. I am about 60 miles from the coast (if I were still eating seafood), and close to FL (for all my citrus needs). Here in GA, we are most famous for pecans, peaches, and peanuts. Vidalia onions are grown only a few miles away. We also have many dairies where we can get raw milk, as well as organic dairy products and meat. We have a winery nearby that makes wine from local scuppernogs (sp?). I don't know if it is raw or not.
The book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver was absolutely instrumental in making me aware and excited about eating locally. I LOVED that book. I really want to focus more on local eating, especially at this time of year! I don't know how I could give up bananas though...I LIVE on green smoothies! Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by br00k on May 4, 2008 at 7:46pm

bananas! i read somewhere that bananas are actually really hybridized, which made them less appealing immediately. I was doing the banana-green smoothie thing too, but I just replaced it with an apple and part of an avocado if i wanted creamy. (though, come to think of it, avos are hardly local...) southerners have it so easy in the locavore thing! :)

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Permalink Reply by br00k on May 4, 2008 at 7:54pm

to answer the initial thread question as well-

in the winter, i don't eat anything local except for apples and sauerkraut (which makes me sad. I wish there were big greenhouse infrastructures in the north east)
there actually is a giant tomato greenhouse in maine- like 25 acres- but it's hydroponic and not organic so not really of interest.

another, related topic: is the desire to eat local about having lower carbon footprint? or just because it might be better healthwise?

because there was that study that apples from new zealand have a lower carbon footprint than an apple produced locally in certain climates.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1553456/Greener-by-miles.html

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Permalink Reply by Audge on May 4, 2008 at 8:15pm

I think there are multiple reasons for buying locally... Fresh is always healthier, and is shown to have much more nutrients --- and much more taste.

Another is that the money ends up in the hands of the farmer, instead of in the hands of a corporation. I am desperately trying to cut back on the amount of money that I send to corporations and corporate plantations and all that jazz... When I do buy bananas, we buy them at our coop from a small farming community that is far away -- which to me is better than a corporation that is close, when it comes that measurement. It also supports the local economy much more.

Carbon footprint is one, and while I understand how in some ways NZ apples could be less, I try think of eating locally as eating seasonally (and I also eat primarily organic). So I think that an out of season fruit from NY will probably be a larger footprint than an in season fruit from FL for me --- but my goal is to try to eat more seasonally as well, to combine the two. That is just me. I also buy my food from a coop, so it does not go to a warehouse or anything first. Most, if not all, of the local food comes straight from the farm to the coop.

So I think there's always a case-by-case issue, almost. The writers of The 100 Mile Diet even say that it is often case-by-case, and what you think is more important, and why you are eating local, and what you personally can do.

I can sympathize with you --- when I wonder what to eat local in NY in the winter, I am sure it would only be 1000x more of a brain-scratcher for Maine.

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Permalink Reply by Audge on May 4, 2008 at 8:18pm

If you are talking about Animal Vegetable Miracle, it is wonderful, I think. I also think that your local library would have it... Kingsolver's fairly popular and I know my local library had 3 copies (2 of which were checked out!)

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Permalink Reply by Kate on May 6, 2008 at 11:23pm

I love the idea of the 100-mile diet and think eating local is the way to go. I'm in Perth, Australia and we're really isolated from other major cities and surrounded by agricultural areas and then desert. So I typically buy produce from "down south" which is the southern region of our state, and where most of our fruit and veggies are grown. In the "wheatbelt" inland to the east of our city is primarily animal agriculture and what, so of no relevance to a raw foodie. However more people are growing olives and nuts in the region. So it's less than a 2-hr drive to this area for us (and we drive a Prius so we're not giving out as much pollution by going out there!) and we'll visit olive oil farms to buy freshly pressed oil in bulk and we recently discovered a pecan nut farm with the freshest pecans! yum yum yum :)

I actually prefer to go directly to the farmers themselves than to a market, as I can see the property and have a better understanding of the production methods. When I can't do this, I buy from a fantastic organic veggie shop that picks out the highest quality organics they can get, and its all local too.

Eating as a locavore really gets you back in touch with where you get your food from!

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Permalink Reply by bitt on June 1, 2008 at 1:19am

my diet varies considerably based on the season. in summer i can be almost all local and in winter not much. i just read "animal, vegetable, miracle" by barbara kingsolver and it got me thinking to how I can eat more local foods. I know that just because I live in Washington, that California is not really local but it do choose it over other more far-away places.

i plan to use less gas this summer and walk/bike to the local farmer's markets. in theory all i would have to buy other than that are some thing like sunflower seeds and maybe lemons at the store. this will be my summer of local raw!!!!

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