Hello friend!
I have a new friend to introduce you to. Kelley is the former editor of the Hungry Horse News – a newspaper near Glacier National Park. She’s here to talk about eating local food, and it’s really awesome to hear her story because DANG! She lives in Montana (northern United States in the Rocky Mountains). It can snow during the 4th of July there, so there’s not exactly much of a growing season. But she’s figured out how to eat locally anyway; it’s a huge inspiration for what we can all be doing. This fall, she’ll be at Montana State University to study sustainable crop production.
I found myself nodding at so much of what she says here. I can’t wait to hear what you think, too. Enjoy…
I don’t remember the last time I bought bananas. And I miss bananas. But not enough to buy them. What’s the deal? You may ask. Where in the world are you banana-less? For the record, the grocery stores where I live in southwestern Montana carry bananas. And they carry those bananas in various stages of decay. Some are shockingly green. Others sit on a discount rack where they brown into oblivion. But still I won’t buy them. Why? Because they’re from Ecuador.
I have nothing against Ecuador. I hear it’s a nice place to visit. But I am vehemently opposed to shipping bananas nearly 4,000 miles. And I made the decision a few years ago to vote with my feet.
And how am I voting?
My husband Shawn and I decided that we are going to eat organic food after I overcame a nasty, nasty illness not because of the pills the doctors told me to take but because of the organic food I started eating as an act of desperation. But we also decided that we’re going to buy local, but organic food is no better than “conventionally” raised food if it’s shipped the same distance.
We decided to eat local because we’d rather put money into the pockets of area farmers (I’m going to be one soon) than into the pockets of people we’ve never met (no offense, Ecuadorean farmers). We’d rather be on a first-name basis with the person growing our food. This also allows us to visit said farmer and learn about how they grow our food. And we much prefer our food grown without pesticides (hello, cancer!) and in a sustainable manner.
Included in this guest post are some pictures from my most recent foray to the grocery store. I’m lucky in that the newest grocery store in town is committed to organic and local food. It really is a pleasure shopping there.
In the picture of oranges, which do you think I purchased?
That’s right, the slightly pock-marked oranges in the right-hand top corner. They’re no-spray oranges, so they’re not covered in pesticides. Like the song “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell goes, “Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT. Give me spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees, please!”
We get our meat from my husband’s parents, who are cattle ranchers. Shawn and I pretty much can’t order a steak in a restaurant any more because we know the ones we’ve got in the freezer at home will taste so much better. On the bumpers of our cars we both have the bumper sticker “Who’s your farmer?” Shawn and I belong to the movement that recommends a good farmer in the same sentence as we’d recommend a dentist or mechanic.
So when we do shop at the grocery store (in the winter — we live in growing zone 4, which has a really short growing season), we make an effort to buy produce that was grown as near to us as possible. We buy Oregon produce before we buy Florida produce. Living in Montana, it’s quite difficult to stick to a 100-mile diet, but we sure try! And we make a real effort to keep within the U.S.
And that means going without foods we’d really like to eat often. I’d love to eat those Mexican peppers on my salad, but I can’t bring myself to buy them. Even if they were grown organically, they weren’t grown close enough to where I live.
And it’s the little decision the buy local that means so much.
I can buy Oregon Chai, which is tasty and comes from Oregon, or I can buy Tipu’s Tiger Chai, which is literally the best chai I’ve ever had in my life and is made a couple hundred miles away in Ronan, Montana.
I can buy Bob’s Red Mill cereal, which is tasty and also made in Oregon, or I can buy Wheat Montana cereal milled about 40 miles down the Interstate.
I can buy “white water” milk from who knows where or I can buy Kalispell Kreamery milk (and I know the owners of the creamery) that tastes like milk should — with a little cream on top.
Sometimes I am forced to value local over organic, but I do try to buy organic and local as much as I can. And I’m largely successful. It just takes a little more time at the grocery store. Buying local is a lifestyle choice that benefits not only the buyer, but the farmers in the area who grew the food and the local economy where the money stays. Vote with your feet and let your local grocers (and through them local farmers and legislators) know you want locally, organically, sustainably grown food. It’s just so much better for everybody.
And those bananas? Yeah, I miss them. But I’ve always got those fabulous Montana cherries to snack on instead.
If you’re interested in learning more about the eating local (“locavore”)/organic movement, here’s some titles to check out:
I leave you with this Vietnamese proverb: “When eating fruit, remember who planted the tree; when drinking clear water, remember who dug the well.”
Thanks for the awesome wisdom, Kelley!
So sweet reader, shall we pause and see : are there local foods in your house right now?
Welcome
