Eat Local Challenge
Day 46
Day 46
You know how they say boy scouts are always prepared? Well, I am too, and I'm not homophobic which is a bonus! As some of you may have guessed, I haven't had a lot of time for cooking in the past week what with getting ready for the Holiday Market downtown and transforming my living room into one we want to live in. I have to admit that when you're doing an eat local challenge, you really better have some quick meals in your freezer to fall back on because most convenience food is not made here in the Portland area. I'm not sure why it is, but most snacky items seem to be manufactured in the Midwest.
The really amazing thing about vacuum sealers is how well they preserve the quality of the food you freeze. This homemade chili (vegetarian, of course) was really good. I didn't make nearly enough of it. My concern with vacuum sealers (or any sealers for that matter) is the amount of plastic you must use and generally speaking, I can't get the bags clean enough to reuse. It's also very expensive. I'm wondering if I can freeze most of my food in glass jars and how sensitive to freezer burn are things frozen in glass?The biggest question burning a hole in my brain with my eat local challenge right now is: how much of a difference does it make to buy food products from local companies if you don't know where they're getting their raw materials? I need to hear from everyone who has participated in local eating challenges before. The one local meal a week summer challenge...if you found locally made tortillas would you count that as a legitimate "local" product, even if they probably get their corn from nonlocal sources? How deep did you all examine this issue? I have found out that there are a couple of companies that make salsa locally, so I could get salsa all year round from a local source. But obviously they aren't getting their tomatoes from local sources at this time of year. So, is that still within the definition of local?
I'm having a really difficult time deciding this one for myself. On the one hand I think it's a huge step in the right direction for all of us to support companies that are local to us and if that means buying salsa from Emerald Valley instead of Pace, that means I'm putting money into my local economy. But any large company cannot rely on only local sources to make goods. So in most cases you aren't going to be supporting local agriculture by buying that salsa. Maybe during the months that tomatoes are in season here they use local tomatoes, but production doesn't stop for Emerald Valley at the end of the local tomato season, so they have to be getting their tomatoes from further afield.
This issue must be resolved because I need to figure out what fits into my challenge. It's about making a distinction between local raw materials and companies that make products locally. Not the same thing. What does the eat local challenge mean to most people? It wasn't as important to answer this question a month ago because there was still locally grown cilantro at the grocery store. Now it's from California. Now that there is less produce available I am looking for alternatives.
I haven't bought feta in a month and a half. Do you realize how foreign that is to me? I'm relieved to have decided to make Parmesan an exception, but if you were to examine my cells, I'm 99% sure you would find that they have the same DNA as feta cheese, which would explain how come I normally buy large quantities of it. Not buying it doesn't worry me the way not buying Parmesan did. Parmesan is much more difficult to make as it needs at least 10 months to age. It seems I will be needing to make some feta soon. I've never done this before. But I do know it's a lot easier than making hard aged cheeses. I have a lot of crafting and sewing to do before I can tackle this project.
I will admit that I am really missing ketchup on my eggs. My friend Nicole gave me a bottle of her homemade ketchup and I am saving it for a special occasion, like if I'm having a really bad week and not having ketchup on my eggs is the last straw standing between me and going postal. I am aware that loving ketchup is not very haute cuisine of me and is, in fact, rather similar to committing a food crime. My friend Chelsea would say that putting it on eggs is one of the most HEINOUS food crimes of the century. I think she may be sleeping better at night knowing that I can no longer commit this crime against good taste. Whatever. I miss ketchup.
The next challenging moment: facing Thanksgiving without yams. I have eaten yams on Thanksgiving for 36 consecutive years. A year without them is hard enough, but not having them on my favorite day of the year seems like a spiritual sacrifice. I am resolved to get through this though. A huge mound of steaming hot buttery mashed potatoes might do the trick.
