Veggie Tales: One Week of Eating Local-Only

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So recently I made a decision about meat. Not that I was going to stop eating it — heavens, no — but that I was no longer going to buy it from grocery stories if I could help it. If I did have to go to a store, I would buy fresh from the meat counter only, but in all I’m hoping to find independent butchers that are reasonably close (or, like, maybe just a little closer than McLean, you know?) and who sell meat from local ranches because, well, why not?

There is a small but strong movement growing in America in which people are giving up transported goods altogether and buying, cooking and eating only locally grown and produced food. Unsurprisingly, this is easier in some places than in others. California has such a large range of climates through its vast and vertical area that it can grow just about anything you could want at any given time (hence why it ships so much of its food to other states). The definition of “local” also changes depending on geography; California is “local” unto itself, wherease someone living in Connecticut would consider “local” to be anywhere between Vermont and, say, Northern Pennsylvania. Places you could drive to in a not-unreasonable amount of time.

After I decided I wasn’t going to eat storebought meat anymore, I looked up the local farmers markets, dairies, butchers and seafood markets/fishmongers within not-unreasonable driving distance. Today I took a nice short drive to the Takoma Park Famers’ Market and bought myself a half dozen Pink Lady apples, a couple bunches of arugula for salad, nice small Yukon Gold potatoes, a couple small butternut squashes, a nice array of yellow and red onions (last red onions of the season!), a soft white cheese called Quark which is like tanger creamcheese, a couple pots of fresh, local yougurt with pureed local fruit and fruit preserves on the bottom (local-only Danon!!), a pound of ground veal and two slim, incredibly fresh pork chops. Oh, and some scones and apple butter. This place — while small and sparse, all things considered — had a whole wealth of interesting food that people eat in the winter all the time, except that we don’t anymore because we forget what “seasonal” means.

So on myway home, I decided that for the next week I’m only going to eat locally produced food. I work (thank god!) next to the Bethesda Women’s Farmers’ Market, which also has locally grown prepared food, so that takes care of lunch. On top of that BWFM also sells produce, bread and meat year-round. The only exceptions — the only thing I will go to a grocery store for — are milk and eggs; eggs because they sell out so quickly at the farmers’ market, and milk because there really isn’t a local dairy I can go to.

So this is day one of the experiment. I’m starving, but I can’t figure out where to start. I will try to keep a diary of this on this blog because… that’s what blogs are for.

Wish me luck!

–Sara

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Filed under food, local secrets

Tags: experiment, farming, food, local, local food, organic, organic food, ranching