Each Thursday night I'm helping to lead a small group around the issues of food and faith. For the class, we go over to the local Farmer's Market and purchase all local ingredients, and then bring them over to our house where we cook them. As we are enjoying these locally produced foods (and wines) we also discuss some readings around the issues of food that are very challenging. If you haven't read Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" you might want to pick it up. (Then again, you might want to blissfully enjoy your supermarket processed food products and skip the book altogether.) The way we grow food in the United States doesn't seem sustainable to me. It is bad for the environment, bad for the animals that are raised in industrial cesspools, and bad for us to eat. But what are the other options? Here's what we're trying to do.
I shop two or three times a week at a local food store. We are so blessed to have Harvest Fresh just a four block walk from our house. This little market features organically and locally grown foods as much as possible. I can walk there, but the groceries get heavy--especially if you purchase liquids such as milk (or stop at Wednesday Wines and fill up your Storvino for the week as I did in this photo.) I thought about getting one of those carts like the homeless ladies use, you know the ones--wire boxes with a handle and two wheels on one side? Then a red wagon appeared at our house. I do not know where it came from. The other day our friends Rick and Sally asked me if that was their wagon, and I couldn't honestly tell them. (Turns out it wasn't.) It's so nice to be able to grab enough groceries for a few days and not have to get in a car to do so. Robin and I only own one car, so it's really nice to be able to go grocery shopping on foot.
You can go overboard on the whole shopping locally thing, I think. In her book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Barbara Kingsolver attempts to go for an entire year without purchasing any outside food. Luckily she's smart enough to realize that there have to be some exceptions. The most obvious one to me would be coffee. I could easily drink nothing but locally produced wines for a year--if cost were no option. At one point in the book Kingsolver actually considers refusing to eat foods not produced locally, much as a vegetarian does not eat meat. That is the point at which I put the book down and had some pointed words with the author to get over herself (this was me talking to a book, but you get the idea.)
So, I try to purchase locally grown foods to the greatest extent possible, but I don't get manic about it. The "Food and Faith" class has been really fun because it's helped me to focus even more on locally grown foods. It is so cool to buy fresh produce and raw ingredients from the farms that grew them and then serve them in a meal a few hours later. The conversations are also excellent as we struggle together to eat foods that are better for us, better for the animals that are grown to feeds us, and better for this fragile island planet we call home.
Robin and I have also stumbled onto a really fun, frugal night out on the town. We go over to harvest fresh and grab a sandwich (their turkey with cream cheese and cranberry is my favorite.) Then we walk across the street to Wednesday Wines and purchase a glass of wine to have with our little lunch. It's a meal out with wine for under $20. If you really want to be frugal here's a little tip just for reading my blog. Purchase a bottle of wine, have Kathy open it for you (for free) and pour you a couple of glasses. The bottle probably costs around $10 and w sell a glass of it for $5, so you get two or three glasses for free. It's a beautiful way to spend a sunny day in this very beautiful part of God's creation.