The Seasonal/Local Challenge
(still setting the parameters)
I interviewed the produce manager at my local health food store to find out when the seasonal local vegetables trickle down to nothing. It's grim, folks. Basically, all local sources for produce dry up within the next two weeks. Then there may still be something available from within the state for another couple of weeks, then it's pretty much all from California and Washington. I have to say that I have been counting on being able to get at least some local swiss chard through out the winter. Swiss chard can be put in a great many dishes to add an impressive array of nutrients.
So I now need to make some choices, before it's too late. I think I'll need to plant my own large bed of swiss chard. I don't think it's too late for that. I would need to build a kind of cold frame to protect it from the snow and the more serious frost. Chard is pretty winter hardy, but it still will probably require some protection. I'm now wishing I had planted my fall garden as I had hoped to do, with leeks, spinach, fava beans, garlic (not too late for garlic, but it wouldn't be ready for harvest until next summer anyway), and lettuce. Lettuce there should still be time for, but it would definitely need a cold frame.
The main question is: should I shift some of my few staples to my non-local list? Carrots won't be available here once the farmer's market is over in two weeks. Same with beets. Celery is never local anyway. Is this a cop out though? See, I think it's not all that crazy to get through the winter with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, chard, celery, and beets. You can do a lot with those items. There's plenty of nutrients available to stay healthy and not get scurvy*. Especially when eaten with plenty of winter squash which is generally available from local sources all winter due to it's storability. But if I nix all those things I actually don't know what I would do.
I plan to go to the farm that Vespabelle mentioned and see about buying a bunch of potatoes and onions and storing them in my pantry. That means I can still stick with local sources for those, especially if I can buy a bunch in bulk and find out how to store them for a couple of months. Good. But what about the other items? Opinions, please.
The other option is to stick with the plan as I laid it out and do a shit-load more of preserving for the next two weeks. I can pickle cauliflower. I can do some pressure canning of carrots, beans, corn, and maybe even celery. I could make a bunch of meals ahead of time to cover a couple of months worth of no local produce. I think the first asparagus really doesn't show up until March or April though. That's a long time. That really makes it a four month stretch of all canned and frozen goods.
There is another option, which is to allow myself to buy canned or frozen produce that's made within my state. What this essentially means is that I will still be sticking to my local and seasonal goals, but I just won't have been the sole provider of my preserved goods. This perhaps makes the most sense. I have to admit though, that I really love preserving food and there's pride in filling your freezer and your pantry with your own hard work and to buy from a company what you can make better for yourself feels a little annoying.
I am thinking out loud as I go here. I did just think of a way to not buy celery for four months. I primarily use it in soups. I am counting on making two soups a week for the four months of winter, if I made a soup base (not a stock) where I cooked onions and celery together with just a small amount of stock I could freeze it in portions. I would only need sixteen portions. That's not too bad. I could include carrots in the base too, bought locally, that would at least account for quite a lot of my carrot use. I almost never makes soups without carrots.
What would you do if you were going to take on a challenge like this? How best to maintain the integrity of the challenge while accommodating the need to eat a nutritionally sound diet? The main thing is to find out what it's like to eat locally and seasonally for a year. That is obviously going to impose a more limited diet. The point is that I'm not going to have very many options, and I know that. Yet, even within the parameters I've already set out there are so many minute decisions to be made.
By the way, in case any one still doesn't know it, I'm a vegetarian. (Not a vegan.) I don't eat fish, chicken, or any kind of flesh. I do eat dairy and eggs. There are all kinds of fancy words for different kinds of vegetarians now, but growing up as a vegetarian there was really only one. If you were a vegetarian you didn't eat flesh. I don't eat flesh.
My version of a flank steak is a great big baked potato with butter and cheddar cheese. Or an omelet. I could live off of potatoes. Oh, wait, I actually did for quite a while when Philip and I were first married. It's not a bad life, actually. I'm lucky there's so much dairy here. No problem getting butter and cheese from Oregon. I can always live off of baked potatoes I suppose. Which would be so wonderful...I don't let myself eat them very often anymore because of the whole fattening issue.
I want to hear from you all. Remember: the spirit of the challenge is to eat as locally and seasonally as possible for one year. The biggest challenge being to get through the winter without scurvy. What concessions can I make without defeating the experiment? Speak up, I need help here designing my plan. Whatever you do, don't make suggestions based on how to prevent me from having to work too hard, if you think I should do a bunch more preserving, say so. I'll decide for myself if I can do it or not. Don't be shy, I need your help!
*What every American is secretly worried about, right? That's why every one's eating at McDonald's.
So I now need to make some choices, before it's too late. I think I'll need to plant my own large bed of swiss chard. I don't think it's too late for that. I would need to build a kind of cold frame to protect it from the snow and the more serious frost. Chard is pretty winter hardy, but it still will probably require some protection. I'm now wishing I had planted my fall garden as I had hoped to do, with leeks, spinach, fava beans, garlic (not too late for garlic, but it wouldn't be ready for harvest until next summer anyway), and lettuce. Lettuce there should still be time for, but it would definitely need a cold frame.
The main question is: should I shift some of my few staples to my non-local list? Carrots won't be available here once the farmer's market is over in two weeks. Same with beets. Celery is never local anyway. Is this a cop out though? See, I think it's not all that crazy to get through the winter with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, chard, celery, and beets. You can do a lot with those items. There's plenty of nutrients available to stay healthy and not get scurvy*. Especially when eaten with plenty of winter squash which is generally available from local sources all winter due to it's storability. But if I nix all those things I actually don't know what I would do.
I plan to go to the farm that Vespabelle mentioned and see about buying a bunch of potatoes and onions and storing them in my pantry. That means I can still stick with local sources for those, especially if I can buy a bunch in bulk and find out how to store them for a couple of months. Good. But what about the other items? Opinions, please.
The other option is to stick with the plan as I laid it out and do a shit-load more of preserving for the next two weeks. I can pickle cauliflower. I can do some pressure canning of carrots, beans, corn, and maybe even celery. I could make a bunch of meals ahead of time to cover a couple of months worth of no local produce. I think the first asparagus really doesn't show up until March or April though. That's a long time. That really makes it a four month stretch of all canned and frozen goods.
There is another option, which is to allow myself to buy canned or frozen produce that's made within my state. What this essentially means is that I will still be sticking to my local and seasonal goals, but I just won't have been the sole provider of my preserved goods. This perhaps makes the most sense. I have to admit though, that I really love preserving food and there's pride in filling your freezer and your pantry with your own hard work and to buy from a company what you can make better for yourself feels a little annoying.
I am thinking out loud as I go here. I did just think of a way to not buy celery for four months. I primarily use it in soups. I am counting on making two soups a week for the four months of winter, if I made a soup base (not a stock) where I cooked onions and celery together with just a small amount of stock I could freeze it in portions. I would only need sixteen portions. That's not too bad. I could include carrots in the base too, bought locally, that would at least account for quite a lot of my carrot use. I almost never makes soups without carrots.
What would you do if you were going to take on a challenge like this? How best to maintain the integrity of the challenge while accommodating the need to eat a nutritionally sound diet? The main thing is to find out what it's like to eat locally and seasonally for a year. That is obviously going to impose a more limited diet. The point is that I'm not going to have very many options, and I know that. Yet, even within the parameters I've already set out there are so many minute decisions to be made.
By the way, in case any one still doesn't know it, I'm a vegetarian. (Not a vegan.) I don't eat fish, chicken, or any kind of flesh. I do eat dairy and eggs. There are all kinds of fancy words for different kinds of vegetarians now, but growing up as a vegetarian there was really only one. If you were a vegetarian you didn't eat flesh. I don't eat flesh.
My version of a flank steak is a great big baked potato with butter and cheddar cheese. Or an omelet. I could live off of potatoes. Oh, wait, I actually did for quite a while when Philip and I were first married. It's not a bad life, actually. I'm lucky there's so much dairy here. No problem getting butter and cheese from Oregon. I can always live off of baked potatoes I suppose. Which would be so wonderful...I don't let myself eat them very often anymore because of the whole fattening issue.
I want to hear from you all. Remember: the spirit of the challenge is to eat as locally and seasonally as possible for one year. The biggest challenge being to get through the winter without scurvy. What concessions can I make without defeating the experiment? Speak up, I need help here designing my plan. Whatever you do, don't make suggestions based on how to prevent me from having to work too hard, if you think I should do a bunch more preserving, say so. I'll decide for myself if I can do it or not. Don't be shy, I need your help!
*What every American is secretly worried about, right? That's why every one's eating at McDonald's.
