A few tips for the May 2006 Eat Local Challenge

by Jamie S.

In the middle of last year’s Eat Local Challenge, my grandmother became gravely ill. I packed my things and flew from Georgia to Ohio so I could visit her.

I stayed with my mother while I was there. And although there was a lot going on family-wise, I couldn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t continue to eat locally while I was away from home. The only difference was that “local” was somewhere different.

That’s how my mother got sucked into the ELC. Together, we shopped at roadside stands. We took field trips to fruit farms. We reveled in Amish cheeses. We discovered new breeds of vegetables.

So when I got an e-mail about this year’s Eat Local Challenge, I forwarded it to her. It contained the Locavore pledge:

If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

Within minutes, there was a message in my inbox.

“The pledge is very good--lots of options for doing something right,” Mom wrote. “There is not, of course, a lot of local produce to eat around here in May, but I am much better about looking for the sources of milk, eggs, etc., than I used to be.”

What a perceptive couple of sentences. To me, those two sentences speak volumes about the Eat Local Challenge.

First, whenever you buy food, you are making a choice. The Eat Local Challenge is about consciously trying to make the best choices you can. If you can’t find a local source for a particular food, maybe you can buy something made by a small company instead of a multinational corporation. If you absolutely have to have bananas, maybe you can buy organic fairtrade bananas instead of the usual kind. If you want fish, maybe your buddy can yank a few catfish or trout out of the river so you don’t have to buy the tilapia Wal-Mart imports from China.

All of these choices are small, but all of them have far-reaching reverberations. There is always a better choice and a worse choice. Local food is optimal because it supports small farmers and uses fewer of our precious, dwindling resources; but there is always a continuum of choices, from best to worst.

So you can’t fail at the Eat Local Challenge. There are “lots of options for doing something right.”

My significant other reacted similarly to the pledge. In fact, he added his own ending:

If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
If all else fails, at least don’t eat at McDonald’s!

No matter what, there’s something you can do that's positive.

Now, back to what my mother said. Remember her second sentence? “There is not, of course, a lot of local produce to eat around here in May, but I am much better about looking for the sources of milk, eggs, etc., than I used to be.” She’s talking about the progressive nature of the Eat Local Challenge. It is first and foremost a learning process.

No one knows everything they need to know about local foods when they first start the Challenge. The fun--and the eponymous challenge--is in finding out. The learning curve is steep at first, and then gradually it becomes part of you and it’s just a pure pleasure.

Here are some tips to get you started on your May 2006 Eat Local Challenge.

1. Accentuate the positive.

Don’t set yourself up for failure by creating ironclad rules. Focus instead on what you are trying to accomplish. Sourcing anything locally is a success, especially if you would never have thought to do so before.
Every time you buy something from a local producer, you are creating a positive ripple in the local economy. Every time you grow, catch, or make something yourself instead of having it shipped from Chile, you are saving oil and getting fresher, more delicious, healthier food.

2. Get a reality check.

Go to your usual grocery and ransack the shelves looking for locally produced foods. Even in the bleakest of stores, you will turn up something--be it a cabbage labeled “North Carolina Grown” or a pound of bulk sausage from a neighboring county. Whatever it is may be a happy discovery for you. You may turn out to like it and perhaps add it to your routine.
In some stores, your cart may have about two items rolling around in it by the time you get to the checkout. Don’t worry; you have just learned something (in very concrete, unforgettable terms) about how far most food is shipped before someone eats it. You have accomplished something.

3. Ask questions.

Near us, there’s a small old-fashioned grocery that specializes in meat. Recently my friend Lucille got curious and asked the butcher where their chickens came from. She got a more detailed and interesting response than I would ever have thought possible. Hearteningly, the response wasn’t “from Perdue,” but rather “from an independent processor in middle Georgia, and this is how they’re packed and trucked.”
Produce managers in supermarkets can be a great source of information, too. Most of them do the buying, so they can tell you the source. You’ll find that some stores are much more committed to localism than others.
And if you can make it to a farmer’s market on the weekend, a couple of queries can reveal fascinating details about where your food comes from. Farms are interesting. Behind every good meal, there’s a farmer who fought against a drought or a hailstorm or an insect attack. Finding out the story makes the process of preparing and eating food far more pleasurable.

4. Poke around.

Don’t know a local source for flour? Google the name of your state plus “flour” and “mill,” and see what comes up. Contact your state’s department of agriculture or cooperative extension service; both are likely to have resources (online or otherwise) for tracking down local farm products. Check out pickyourown.org and eatwild.com.
Many small-town newspapers carry ads for fruit farms or meat processors. And it’s possible that your colleagues at work have a line on local foods--perhaps they have kids in 4-H, or maybe they’re in the habit of buying eggs from a neighbor. Put out your feelers, and something will turn up.

5. Grow something.

Everyone can grow food, it’s just a matter of scale. If you don’t have the room for a full-fledged garden, plant a window box or a big terracotta pot.
Some crops that grow to maturity (or at least to the point where they produce food) within one month include lettuce, arugula, baby greens, radishes and sorrel. Of course, you don’t need to limit yourself--chances are you’ll want to keep eating locally long after May is over.

6. Take field trips.

Several years ago I joined an excellent Community Supported Agriculture program in a suburb of the Twin Cities. Members had an option of either picking their boxes up at the farm or collecting them at a dropoff point in Minneapolis. I chose the former, and I am not exaggerating when I say it changed me fundamentally.
There is something sacred about connecting your food with the farm it was grown on. I remember those Saturday mornings as the highlight of my week: Parking my car among the fragrant, waving pines, then walking with other CSA members to the barn where the bright, fresh vegetables were mounded on the tables.
To me, field trips are the best part about the Eat Local Challenge. I know everyone is strapped for time, but it is so rewarding to make a family outing to a farm or food processor.
Pick strawberries together, or trade rhubarb recipes with the lady at the farmstand. Visit a local winery. Set up a visit to an artisan cheesemaker and learn how cheese is made. Go see organic free-range pigs rooting around in a field. It will alter the way you think, and when you look back at the things you’ve done this year, it will stand out as a high point.

7. Make every choice count, whether it’s local or not.

If you commit to the ELC, you have to make some decisions about the sourcing of your food. Let’s take coffee as an example. You might take the opportunity to quit your 3-cups-a-day habit. Or you might decide that the world would be a better place without your caffeine-deprived self shouting obscenities at whomever is unlucky enough to pass by. The choice is yours, and as long as you make it consciously, you will benefit by it.
Maggie at My Room with a View recently reported that her husband had tracked down a brand of coffee sold by the Cherokee nation nearby. They’ll be drinking it during ELC--what an excellent find!
That got me thinking, and I started searching. Soon I turned up a link to Koinonia, an intentional community in south Georgia that stood as a beacon of racial equality in the pre-Civil Rights South. Needless to say, I admire these people. It turns out they market fairtrade coffee...and a lot of other good-looking stuff, too.
I see Koinonia coffee as a twofer: It is fair to the workers who produce it, and it’s a boon to a local entity I want to support. This, to me, is what the Eat Local Challenge is all about. You take something in your kitchen that’s questionable at best and replace it with something that actively does good.

There are, as my mother says, “lots of options for doing something right.”

Jamie S. lives in rural Georgia and writes 10 Signs Like This, a blog that's part gardening journal, part cookbook, part sustainable lifestyle, and part short attention span.

Comments

[Suzanne]

What an inspring post. Thank you!

It's amazing what happens when you start reading labels and asking questions about food. You meet people, you try new vegetables, you get directions to farms, you get creative in the kitchen. A lot of fun can be had while contributing positively to the world.

[VI]

Great job/ideas

I do have my some thoughts, perhaps for a post soon, about the Localvores hierarchy. I guess, if nothing else, I'm not so sure I'd put organic over family farm.

The other thing I want to mention, and I've said this before, but one of the best/easiest ways to get local is to give up the idea that fresh is best. We've been trained of late to eat a shipped in peach vs. a canned peach or a frozen peach. If we start to recognize that we do not need products in a fresh state, which is rarely truly fresh (think gassed fruit), then it makes it easier to eat local that has been stocked away.

Still, that's not to get in the way of some great stuff here. Thanks!

[lucette]

Good post. I did what you suggested about the flour and almost immediately found some Ohio-ground flour.

[Alanna]

Terrific post, Jamie ... aren't Moms just the best some times?

[farmgirl]

Awesome post, Jamie. Tickled to see you here. : )

[Geoffrey Hennies]

Thanks Jamie for such a great article. I have been trying for a long time to move toward the ideal of shopping locally first, I was thrilled to see the pledge:
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
If all else fails, at least don’t eat at McDonald’s!

This gives me not only a more specific guidline, but also helps me with priorities. I have had the organics and locally produced reversed and it has challenged me to always be on the lookout for organic sources, but now I will change priorities and spend more time looking for the local instead of sometimes driving miles for the organic.

I found your post as a member of Koinonia. I wish we had met while you were here, perhaps next time. Remember that the garden is doing really well and we have a Saturday morning gardening club. Local, organic, and pick your own!! Call Jim at Koinonia for details.

Peace,
geoffrey/pax

[Anthony Piccione]

Your post is right on. I own and operate a small, boutique winery in Massachusetts called The Neighborhood Cellar - www.theneighborhoodcellar.com. Our first production used both California and Massachusetts grapes, but we are now going to be producing wine with 100% Massachusetts grapes. It has been great working with and supporting our local grower. Our winery believes that, just like food, wine will become much more local as well.

[Annie Juergens Behr]

I love your site. Check out my blog for a slightly different take on the local food lifestyle. I am spending the summer eating foods that have not been transported by motor vehicle (except public buses). I would love to hear your comments. Check it out at: http://trocally.blogspot.com/