Locavore In Training

I don't have a whole lot of time for a blog post right now, but I really wanted to post about what I've been up to since I bought the Best Book Ever. Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved from Arizona to Virginia, and made a pledge to live off of their own land (or the land of nearby farmers) for an entire year. In March, their food pickings were pretty slim - fresh fruit was limited to rhubarb at the first farmer's market of the season - but as the summer progressed, they found themselves up to their eyeballs in tomatoes and squash.

The whole idea of this project - and the greater Locavore movement - is to encourage sustainable farming practices, and to cut down on the amount of fuel that we're guzzling when we buy bananas in Wisconsin (or Virginia). Kingsolver calls well-traveled food "oily."

Going entirely local doesn't seem entirely feasible for me right now, since I don't have a garden, and school will be starting in a few weeks - I'll probably be very grateful for frozen pizzas with ingredients that have been shipped back and forth across the country a few times before ending up in WalMart's frozen pizza aisle . . . but that doesn't mean I can't start making more sustainability-conscious food choices right now.

Which is why I was so excited that it's Thursday - Farmer's Market day in Portage. I walked down to the farmer's market today with $11.00, all the cash I had, intending to get the ingredients for a couple of meals, at least.

I found fresh basil at the first stand I saw - which was very exciting, because somewhere in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle there's a sentence about how actual fresh basil is unbelievably better than even fresh basil that you can buy in the grocery store. (I wanted to type it out for you here but I can't find anything about basil in the book's index - available online only - and I flipped through the book a few times looking for the passage, but can't find it. Besides, you should just read the book yourself!) The most exciting thing about the basil that I bought today is that the huge bunch only cost $1. I would have had to get 3 or 4 of the little plastic containers at the grocery store to get this much basil - and Kingsolver is right, the taste of the fresh stuff is unbelievable.



Unfortunately, I'm not particularly good at comparison shopping at the farmer's market. Yet. I'll get there. Today I shelled out $3 for a single heirloom tomato.



I spent the rest of my money on some early apples, garlic, and fingerling potatoes. I wanted to make Caprese salad, so I had to run to the grocery store for fresh mozzarella, and I decided to stop by the little farm market that's always set up in the Culver's parking lot down the street from the grocery store - I've gotten great tomatoes, blueberries, and a couple of onions and cucumbers from them. The best part is that they're right on the way to the grocery store, so I can get all the fruits and vegetables I need before I spend money on oily produce.

Michael and I did a taste test, comparing one of my $1 Flynt's Farm Market tomatoes with the $3 organic tomato. Michael preferred the Flynt tomato. I think the heirloom tasted a little bit tangier but I guess I'd have to go with the Flynt tomatoes next time.



The Caprese salad is great. Michael did a taste test, and the basil is really so amazing that I had to take it out of the salad and chop it a little smaller to make it less potent. Yum!


I'm not sure how far I can go with eating locally this year, but next summer my dad might expand his garden (which is already producing a ton of squash in addition to yummy beets, awesome green beans, lettuce, and lots of different kinds of tomatoes), and Michael and I will probably buy a share (or half a share) from a CSA farm.

I'm very excited about making environmentally responsible food choices. I guess I'm just going to have to say goodbye to banana bread (and it's too bad because I just found/created a really great recipe for banana muffins using all whole wheat flour - instead of just half - and local honey instead of sugar, plus I substituted flax seed for the oil, and they turned out great - with the addition of a little vanilla and chocolate chips) but I'm looking forward to zucchini and pumpkin muffins in the not-too-distant future!