Friday, July 16, 2010

Going Local.

My husband Dan and I have been in a quandary as of late. We love food, so much in fact, it's starting to show on our waistlines, but we also realize that we have no idea where most of our food comes from.

What's worse is that we recently realized we have no concept of what is even in season in Seattle throughout the year. We both have the grocery-store mentality: anything we want is available whenever we want it, 24/7.

We cook stir-fry's and pasta dishes brimming with "fresh" spinach, tomatoes and bell peppers year round, but are starting to wonder--is that really normal?

Now, something to note: we are both cheap. This becomes abundantly clear when we are eying our selection of produce, trying to rationalize organic versus non organic. The price difference is staggering, and normally we both opt for the non organic.

Even if we had chosen the organic selection, is that necessarily better for us, or for the environment? Driving a tomato 2,000 miles to my grocery aisle isn't the most helpful for the world, I'm guessing. And when we think about eating local, it seems illogical and expensive. Doesn't that seem strange? To think of eating something from a nearby farm as illogical? We think so.

So we've decided to put ourselves through a little experiment. We are going to eat locally, seasonally and as organically as possible for the next year. We are going to start in the fall, at the beginning of "Autumn", and go from there.

Now, we realize there have been a lot of these experiments--"No Impact Man" being one of the most recent and most pervasive. But one thing that these experiments haven't factored in is this--can you do it on a budget? Can you eat locally and still save money? We plan on finding out.

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