My favorite new word though is not exactly a word: localvore. For me, it just draws up this image of a big long-necked dinosaur lumbering around a farmers market with a reusable hemp shopping bag. Which I love.
A localvore is what I aspire to be. Vermontlocalvore.org offers some pretty compelling reasons for keeping your food dollars within the community. Dramatically reduced fossil fuel consumption, food-borne illnesses, and questionable preservatives and GMO's are enough to pull me away from conventional supermarkets whenever possible. Farmers markets also seem to be the only place to find truly free range, grass fed meat (a post on my obsession with this forthcoming).I have noticed one thing, however: eating locally is enormously difficult. Where I live there is a farmers market nearly every day of the week, but the selection seems sparse, repetitive (do we need 4 vendors selling apple butter?), and even worse: not very local. The southwest is hot, but there is just no way mangoes are in season here. When I finally pin down the vendors that are genuinely local and organic, all I have to choose from are red peppers, lemons, and a beeswax candle. What kind of meal is that?
My problem might be location-specific, but I'm inclined to think it's not. Is it a problem of demand- not enough people at these markets to justify the costs of attending? Or is it a problem of supply, as suggested by this NYT article. Maybe it's both.
i've been trying to be a localvore as well (ps love that word) and it has been *really* hard to find local eggs, yo. there's gotta be some around here and chuck eats eggs every freakin' morning. fingers crossed :)
ReplyDeleteBe patient...it's only March. Most farmers are just now planting their earliest crops (unless they have a greenhouse). Soon your market should have early greens, peas, fresh herbs, radishes, etc. The thing about eating locally is that you begin to appreciate the seasons more. Peas are something to enjoy in late spring and then again in the fall, not a year-round staple. You look forward to each crop's seasonal appearance. June is for strawberries, July garlic scapes, October pumpkins and winter squashes, etc. I love that eating locally helps us appreciate what each season offers...we no longer tend to take food for granted or expect to eat whatever we want out of season (meaning it's been shipped in from a different climate). When you realize strawberries are unnatural in wintertime you really appreciate them all the more while they are genuinely in season.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! I should note though that I live in Arizona so we've been seeing 80 degree weather for months now.... I'm not sure if this changes things or not, I'm pretty new to this. Either way though, I agree also that it changes your perspective.
ReplyDeleteI wondered where you were--especially when you mentioned lemons! Yeah, you would think you'd have a little more selection than what you've got. But who knows? Do the farmers there get irrigation water year-round, or is that limited? Here in Colorado the irrigation ditches see their first water in March (but then we're in Zone 5--nothing's going to grow any earlier). I don't know how they allocate water shares in AZ, but it could be a limiting factor(??)
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