I want to talk about a couple things with you today, namely, the sudden well of interest I've discovered in myself as far as eating local is concerned. Given that I'm always naming off restaurants and other clues, I may as well just say that Emmy and I live in Madison, Wisconsin, USA (in case that wasn't already clear). For those of you who don't know, we're a few hours north of Chicago, bordered on the west by the mighty Mississippi River, the northwest by Lake Superior, and the east by Lake Michigan. We share state borders with (the non-mitten-shaped part) of Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. I confess I had to look most of this up (the correct spellings, actually), since I am a New Hampshire native, not a Wisconsinite.
What is terroir, you ask? Good question. Leda Meredith, in her 2010 The Locavore's Handbook: The Busy Person's Guide to Eating Local on a Budget she describes it as follows:
"But there is still something about the concept of 'what here tastes like' that intrigues me. Other places have tastes associated with them. If I say 'Italian food' to you, I bet something comes to mind immediately... Those are place names richly associated witht eh flavors, textures, and aromas connected to their cultures. Why shouldn't our place have a taste? You could say New York City tastes like bagls, or some other food that has become ubiquitous and traces its history to the diverse waves of immigration that came through our port. Those foods do belong in the 'what here tastes like' category, as does the magnificent array of cuisines from every part of the world that reflect how international our city is. But hose tastes do not offer a sensory hold on the agriculture of our region, the particular mineral makeup of our soil-what the French call terroir. I am still discovering what here tastes like."
What does Wisconsin taste like? Not just within a 100 miles of Madison, or even 250; what does Wisconsin taste like, from its shores to its rivers to its hills, the Driftless area, the Big Woods, the orchards of Door County? Can any of you, my hungry friends, tell me what "here" tastes like for you? Sweet, savory, meaty--what?
The question of Wisconsin's terroir came up several weeks ago while I was reading the feature article in that week's Isthmus, the city's weekly free newspaper. A gentleman from the area had, just this past summer, done an eating-local challenge for a whole month. What is an eating-local challenge you ask? It's where you set some serious ground rules, with a minor amount of flexibility built in, that for a certain period of time you will only eat foods made within a certain number of miles from where you live. For example:
The gentleman in the Isthmus' article lived in Madison, WI. His food range was 100 miles and his challenge lasted 1 month.
Leda Meredith, the woman I quoted above, lives in New York City, NY. Her food range was 250 miles and her challenge lasted 1 year.
But Kim, you say; firstly, that's unreasonable. What the heck am I supposed to eat? And secondly, why do it? What's the benefit, and what in pity's name am I going to eat when it snows 3-4 months (or more) out of the year?
Well, I reply, that's the question, isn't it? Let's explore those questions.
WHY:
Now, I'm not going to pretend that I've done a bunch of research on this or anything. I'm just starting to read up on how, since it sounds tasty I'm already sold on the why. To break it down, this is what I've gathered,
~Help the enviornment, a.
Most food in the USA is shipped an average of 1,500 miles or about 3,000 if you happen to live in a secluded area like the upper East Coast. If every family ate one exclusively organic-local meal every week, the potential savings per year for the country are in the billions of dollars. Gas is $3.50-$4 per gallon at the pump right now where I am, I shudder to think about how it's going to rise in the next couple of years. How much gas does one of those double or triple Mack trucks take? I thought so.
~Help the enviornment, b.
Pesticides! I know, I know. Who wants bugs in their food, right? But think about it, in commercial agriculture the bone I have to pick isn't about bugs, it's about poison. Do you want that stuff in your mouth (or your baby, if you're heading that route), your food, your groundwater, your air? Not to mention the run-off is highly toxic or that there's a lot of dirty business involved? (Food Inc anyone?) Buying local and organic cuts down on the demand for pesticides to be used, and it's better for you and the enviornment. Who knew? Check out your local library for more, if you're interested.
~Support small businesses!
Meredith brings up a great point about tax dollars going to farm subsidies that don't benefit smaller, family-owned businesses. So how do you change that when boycotts (and avoiding your taxes, yikes!) don't work anymore? (Avoiding your taxes might have worked for Henry David Thoreau, but it won't work for you, don't do it.)
The answer is to vote. Vote, vote, vote! Vote at the polls and with your fork. If you want to see a larger-scale change on the town or city level then feel free to approach your local town hall/office to see how you can campaign to make a difference. But other than that, remember how I said eating locally saves money? It does, and since you know supporting local farms will put money right back into the community, what better way to invest?
(As we used to say in my college town, "It's Keene to shop locally.")
~Great food :)
The food in your supermarket (the produce section, anyhow) has been bred specifically for hardiness and toughness, not really for flavor. Let me give you an example. Those blueberries you spy in January on the shelf, do they even taste like real blueberries? Compare that to the sweety-tartness of those tiny, wild mountain varieties you can pick yourself. Plus, produce in the supermarket has likely been several days in transit and there's no telling how many times it's been handled or by who. This is what makes diseases and recalls difficult today.
On the other hand food that you find at your local co-op, farmer's market, or get in your CSA share is much fresher (and with a higher nutrient content than their store varieties), possibly even picked that morning. Produce starts to lose its nutritional value the moment it's picked, so shortening the time it takes to get to your mouth/favorite preserving method makes for a tastier treat.
Okay, perhaps I've convinced you, gotten you interested a little, or you're certain I've gone off the deep end into Granola Hippie Land. Emmy promises, at my insistence, that she'll let me know if I ever need an Intervention. :)
Keen on learning more? I sure hope so! Pony on down to your local library to find out more about the benefits, and to check my facts, if you like.
This post is getting a bit long, so I'll split up my replies to those pesky questions. Be right back!
xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy
What is terroir, you ask? Good question. Leda Meredith, in her 2010 The Locavore's Handbook: The Busy Person's Guide to Eating Local on a Budget she describes it as follows:
"But there is still something about the concept of 'what here tastes like' that intrigues me. Other places have tastes associated with them. If I say 'Italian food' to you, I bet something comes to mind immediately... Those are place names richly associated witht eh flavors, textures, and aromas connected to their cultures. Why shouldn't our place have a taste? You could say New York City tastes like bagls, or some other food that has become ubiquitous and traces its history to the diverse waves of immigration that came through our port. Those foods do belong in the 'what here tastes like' category, as does the magnificent array of cuisines from every part of the world that reflect how international our city is. But hose tastes do not offer a sensory hold on the agriculture of our region, the particular mineral makeup of our soil-what the French call terroir. I am still discovering what here tastes like."
What does Wisconsin taste like? Not just within a 100 miles of Madison, or even 250; what does Wisconsin taste like, from its shores to its rivers to its hills, the Driftless area, the Big Woods, the orchards of Door County? Can any of you, my hungry friends, tell me what "here" tastes like for you? Sweet, savory, meaty--what?
The question of Wisconsin's terroir came up several weeks ago while I was reading the feature article in that week's Isthmus, the city's weekly free newspaper. A gentleman from the area had, just this past summer, done an eating-local challenge for a whole month. What is an eating-local challenge you ask? It's where you set some serious ground rules, with a minor amount of flexibility built in, that for a certain period of time you will only eat foods made within a certain number of miles from where you live. For example:
The gentleman in the Isthmus' article lived in Madison, WI. His food range was 100 miles and his challenge lasted 1 month.
Leda Meredith, the woman I quoted above, lives in New York City, NY. Her food range was 250 miles and her challenge lasted 1 year.
But Kim, you say; firstly, that's unreasonable. What the heck am I supposed to eat? And secondly, why do it? What's the benefit, and what in pity's name am I going to eat when it snows 3-4 months (or more) out of the year?
Well, I reply, that's the question, isn't it? Let's explore those questions.
WHY:
Now, I'm not going to pretend that I've done a bunch of research on this or anything. I'm just starting to read up on how, since it sounds tasty I'm already sold on the why. To break it down, this is what I've gathered,
~Help the enviornment, a.
Most food in the USA is shipped an average of 1,500 miles or about 3,000 if you happen to live in a secluded area like the upper East Coast. If every family ate one exclusively organic-local meal every week, the potential savings per year for the country are in the billions of dollars. Gas is $3.50-$4 per gallon at the pump right now where I am, I shudder to think about how it's going to rise in the next couple of years. How much gas does one of those double or triple Mack trucks take? I thought so.
~Help the enviornment, b.
Pesticides! I know, I know. Who wants bugs in their food, right? But think about it, in commercial agriculture the bone I have to pick isn't about bugs, it's about poison. Do you want that stuff in your mouth (or your baby, if you're heading that route), your food, your groundwater, your air? Not to mention the run-off is highly toxic or that there's a lot of dirty business involved? (Food Inc anyone?) Buying local and organic cuts down on the demand for pesticides to be used, and it's better for you and the enviornment. Who knew? Check out your local library for more, if you're interested.
~Support small businesses!
Meredith brings up a great point about tax dollars going to farm subsidies that don't benefit smaller, family-owned businesses. So how do you change that when boycotts (and avoiding your taxes, yikes!) don't work anymore? (Avoiding your taxes might have worked for Henry David Thoreau, but it won't work for you, don't do it.)
The answer is to vote. Vote, vote, vote! Vote at the polls and with your fork. If you want to see a larger-scale change on the town or city level then feel free to approach your local town hall/office to see how you can campaign to make a difference. But other than that, remember how I said eating locally saves money? It does, and since you know supporting local farms will put money right back into the community, what better way to invest?
(As we used to say in my college town, "It's Keene to shop locally.")
~Great food :)
The food in your supermarket (the produce section, anyhow) has been bred specifically for hardiness and toughness, not really for flavor. Let me give you an example. Those blueberries you spy in January on the shelf, do they even taste like real blueberries? Compare that to the sweety-tartness of those tiny, wild mountain varieties you can pick yourself. Plus, produce in the supermarket has likely been several days in transit and there's no telling how many times it's been handled or by who. This is what makes diseases and recalls difficult today.
On the other hand food that you find at your local co-op, farmer's market, or get in your CSA share is much fresher (and with a higher nutrient content than their store varieties), possibly even picked that morning. Produce starts to lose its nutritional value the moment it's picked, so shortening the time it takes to get to your mouth/favorite preserving method makes for a tastier treat.
Okay, perhaps I've convinced you, gotten you interested a little, or you're certain I've gone off the deep end into Granola Hippie Land. Emmy promises, at my insistence, that she'll let me know if I ever need an Intervention. :)
Keen on learning more? I sure hope so! Pony on down to your local library to find out more about the benefits, and to check my facts, if you like.
This post is getting a bit long, so I'll split up my replies to those pesky questions. Be right back!
xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy
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