477044 Mon Jan 07 14:40:49 -0800 2008 7 29 Not About Food 0 3257419 [Note: This thread on slow/local food and getting people to adopt it was split from Home Cooking at: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/475223 -- The Chowhound Team]. Okay, I'll bite, too. I won't make something up that I could do, but I'll give my menu for dinner tonight. venison Wiener schnitzel: deer shot by my dad on the land I grew up on (130 miles north of us), bread with crumbs made from locally baked bread (can't vouch for the flour source) mashed potatoes: locally grown potatoes that have been sitting nicely in my newly established urban root cellar, mashed with Minnesota butter and Minnesota buttermilk. sweet and sour cabbage: local storage cabbage (see root cellar comment above). My vinagar is not local, and I guess I could have chosen one of my local honeys for the sweet, but...there it is. Some sorrel sauce for the schnitzel, made with sorrel from my garden and frozen. Cofee and cookies for dessert - sorry about being non-local, but the coffee is Fair Trade shade grown (and purchased from my co-op), and the cookies are...well, Voortman from Ontario, so I guess that's sort of local for you, frug! I am part amused and part enchanted by this movement. Amused, since I have been eating like this since I was a pup; enchanted because the wider world is waking up to such things. I think Making Sense said upthread that some things are not worth living without, and I agree, as I want my spices and olive oils and coffee. But I can and do eat very locally without even much effort. Should I undertake to can, and to get a larger freezer, I could come very close to 95% local without much more effort (well, except the canning.) I often think this movement does put some off (unjustifiably) because it seems so hard and dogmatic. I like the idea of a challenge for folks that don't tihnk about local foods, though - it's a good kick in the pants and possibly eye-opening on how fresh and good local food tastes. For those who are like me and eat mostly local out of sheer habit, we're mostly there already. Let's keep spreading the word in a non-dogmatic fashion. Just rambling, Cay Thu Jan 03 11:36:27 -0800 2008 49525 cayjohan 1 3257613 Sounds delicious! I total agree with your comments about local foods. So many people are just in a rut of eating the same major produce items all year round they don't even bother to think about what the alternatives are when those items aren't in season locally. People would rather buy familiar produce even when it's imported from the Southern Hemisphere than try often weird looking and unfamiliar winter veggies. Of course chowhounds are generally more adventurous than most, but how many people are walking right by the kale and the turnips to buy tomatoes and zucchini. Thu Jan 03 12:15:09 -0800 2008 3257419 10159 Ruth Lafler 1 3259695 cayjohan Thanks for your submission. I can see that with a bit more effort you could design at least one full meal that would qualify under the stringent guidelines of the challenge. Regarding the movement,it is a sensible one. Looking hard on one's table it is often difficult to find any local produce. Most people take for granted or are completely oblivious to the fact that the average molecule of food travels thousands of KM/miles before it enters their mouths ! This of course requires transportation and that requires fuel. The current NA food delivery system is completely unsustainable. With the continueing scarcity of oil ($100+ per barrel today) the cost of transporting the food over vast distances will become restrictive and eventually unavailable as the supplies of oil diminish.and finally expire. Add to that fact that local farmers are being driven out by urban expansion and there wont be a local food supply network to fall back on when oil is at it's end. What will folks do then when their local super markets are unable to get food shipments in? Thu Jan 03 23:41:52 -0800 2008 3257419 151625 fruglescot 2 3270269 Yep, I can design a lot more meals of totally local ingredients except for salt and pepper, and frequently do. I was pointing out by detailing my menu that one can do this without even thinking about "designing" a "local" menu. It can just come naturally, as the best food is local. I never even thought about locavorism when choosing my dishes; only "what's best?" I agree with how sensible the movement is (my amusement only comes from the fact that people HAVEN'T(!?) been doing this all along!); food miles, local farm viability, oil issues - all spot-on concerns for everyone. Still, I worry that a lot of people are frightened off by perceived restrictiveness, and so throw up their hands and don't bother. Hence, my statement about non-dogmatisim. I have plenty of friends who don't want to hear of total local eating ("la-la-la, I can't hear you, it's easier to buy the way I always have been..." and so on) but would most likely make the change to 40 or 50% local if they realized that it's delicious and easy. Maybe that's a challenge I will propose to some of them, come to think of it. Spring's around the corner - farmers' market outings are a good social gathering! I also agree that the movement is very necessary. That's why we live as we do and cook as we do, with the large bulk of our plates being filled with foods as local as possible, and the high-food-mile items being mostly condiments and spices and oils comprising a much smaller and sometimes miniscule volume of the intake. I could say it takes small steps to move toward eating more local, but I want to encourage people to take large and bold steps, while not beating themselves up over salt, pepper olive oil or lemons (Or, name your small, guilty imported pleasure.) Nice thread - I hope it's being read by a wider audience, as many of us here seem to be "in the choir." Local squash and bacon served with local egg omelets tonight! Cheers, Cay Mon Jan 07 12:20:18 -0800 2008 3259695 49525 cayjohan 3 3270543 I think you can get a lot further not even bothering people with "the movement." It just makes sense if you appeal to people for "what's in it for them." Good food, really fresh stuff, a pleasant trip to the farmers' market, helping the "little guy," etc. All of that is common ground. You never, ever get into any political arguments or step on a toe. They don't want to hear it, much less argue about it. The biggest hurdle is that people aren't used to shopping this way - one on one. They're used to impersonal supermarkets, pushing a cart, not talking to butchers, bakers, cheesemongers who ask them how big a piece of cheese they want. Sometimes you have to take them with you a few times. They've eaten at my house, know how I live and now they can do it too without much effort. Heck, they find they actually enjoy it. I think you're wrong about it being "bold steps." It's showing people that their own lives are improved by shopping and eating this way. Baby steps work. Pretty soon they can't believe that steaks taste this good, that eggs are this fresh and produce can be the center of a meal. Before you know it, they're preaching local and taking other people to the farmers' market. This isn't about politics - it's about good food. Mon Jan 07 13:12:14 -0800 2008 3270269 32444 MakingSense 4 3270879 MakingSense, you and I are definitely on the same-thinking page. I do, however, feel a wee bit...shall we say, evangelical...at times when speaking of these isues with my processed-food-friends. Those friends need a push. Those on the fence need what you proposed: "what's in it for them." Still other are already converts and just want to know what other treasures we've found. As for "bold steps;" I've been thinking about this and realize it really is bold steps for all of us. My processed food friends need to make a bold step to buying *unprocessed* food, for example (a huge leap for many grocery consumers in the country, may I point out). I need to make a bold step to move to the next local-eating step (serious canning and freezing for the winter). Other just may need to not be wedded to tomatoes in the northern half of the US in winter, and embrace cabbage instead(a bold step, recipe-wise). I guess bold steps really are relative, but still necessary (the larger climate/oil/food crises looming, not to get too negative... ;-) ) Baby steps do work, but I am convinced they do not work(are not working) rapidly enough in our current situation. If we are "bold" in our restaurant-ordering selections of baby local greens and what-have-ya-for-grass-fed-and-organic-and-local, we should be bold at home as well. Local when we can, organic when we can after that, and, yes, let deliciousness make the argument first, but then tell our friends that that delectibility comes from locally sourced ingredients. I was reading a local article regarding presidential electoral politics and it ( as many national articles recently) cited word of mouth as more important than printed rhetoric as the tour-de-force currently in political decsio -making. Could than not be the same with the local food movement? Word of mouth and the little famliar nudges that go along with such talk? Small steps for some of us, but facilitating bold ones for others we know. Again, loving this thread, Cay Mon Jan 07 14:27:10 -0800 2008 3270543 49525 cayjohan 5 3271752 That political article is behind the curve. People have always been more influenced by what those in their own world are doing than by anything they see or hear in the media. Even with that, change is always incremental. You don't eat one way on Tuesday, throw out everything on Wednesday, and eat completely differently from then on out. It requires an attitude change. Even though we are very much on the same page, we sing a slightly different song. I am a great deal more optimistic about what you call our "current situation," knowing that there are many who disagree about whether there are "larger climate/oil/food crises looming." Surely you must know how divisive those six words can be. I don't even go there. Instead, I choose to do what I can on a personal level. I believe wholeheartedly that eating this way improves the quality of my life and helps others. Easy case to make on a local level. Further, I enjoy introducing my friends to what I enjoy, hoping that it will make them happy and improve their lives too. It doesn't require that they agree with any particular assessment of the world, just that they know that I want them to enjoy life and food as much as I do. If they see that it isn't that hard to switch from crappy processed stuff, they're more likely to. Personal change is what brings about societal change. I can help my friends to make progress by my example. I've been subbing shredded cabbage for lettuce on sandwiches, serving non-lettuce salads, fixing ordinary vegetables in unusual ways. I stopped eating out-of-season foods. What did my grandmother do in Winter? Even if I didn't personally can or freeze the things I serve, I can emulate her Winter menus. Next year, it will be more of my own. It's been an interesting adventure but I've learned a lot and the local vendors are glad to see me. More of my friends and neighbors are shopping this way and we are getting more good shops and vendors. I'm obviously not the only one spreading the gospel. Mon Jan 07 18:22:21 -0800 2008 3270879 32444 MakingSense 1 3329748 I am reading a book entitled Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and JB McKinnon. It is about all of their trials and tribulations with their 100-mile diet for 1 year. A good read and informative. my blog http://www.dinnersforayear.blogspot.com Thu Jan 24 16:54:21 -0800 2008 3257419 155928 eatmyfood