locavore dinner

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about the year she and her family spent eating only local foods. I thought about doing it for the month of August, but then got distracted by work and vacations and all that the end of summer brings (hello Dutchess County Fair--I don't think that fried dough was locally sourced!). We did, however, manage to have at least one dinner this summer that was totally local: the steaks and corn came from Willow Brook Farm in Copake, the peas came from our garden. It was delicious and really made us think about where our food comes from.

It's a serious commitment to live a completely locavore lifestyle. But it isn't very hard to pay closer attention to how our food is sourced. Living in a farm community makes it a little easier for us, and growing vegetables ourselves made it much easier. I've started thinking about next year's garden all ready, and part of the planning involves really trying to feed my family for at least a few months from the garden without having to run to the market every other day. We'll keep up the Saturday trip to the farmer's market to get fruits and those veggies that we aren't growing, and also to keep up with the neighbors and help support the local farmers.

It's been amazing watching Vivian interact at the farmer's market and at the farms we've visited this summer. She is becoming aware of where her food comes from and that the chicken she petted at the farm will become someones dinner, and the cute lamb in the field will have the same fate. She asks questions of us and of the farmers, most of them leaning toward the gruesome: "did you chop his head off?" "did the blood go all over the place?" But I'm happy that she's thinking about it. Fred and I joke that she may become a vegetarian one day, but more likely she'll want to go to the slaughterhouse to see how her food was prepared. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but am working towards it. If I can raise a 5 year old who thinks about where and how her food was grown and slaughtered then I think we're moving in the right direction.

Is it summer yet?

The transition from one season to another is always a time of flux. And not just in terms of the weather, but what we eat and what we crave. As soon as the temperature starts to rise I immediately have visions of corn on the cob and tomato salad. The truth is that those are our culinary rewards for surviving the heat and humidity of summer. They're at their peak in August and September, and are so worth the wait. But it's hard to eat seasonally. What with strawberries from California and corn from Florida available all year long, why should we have to wait?

This spring we tried to stick to a more seasonal approach to eating veggies and gobbled up pea shoots, asparagus, and some recently sprouted radishes. But they aren't always available at the Key Food in our neighborhood in NYC, and we end up buying what's in front of us. I have moments of guilt when I buy that mix of gourmet tomatoes from Mexico or California. I think about how they were shipped across the country and how my carbon footprint just got gigantic.

I made a salad from that box of tomatoes, and although it was quite tasty, my guilt was weighing down on me. Does anyone else have this type of food anxiety: eat local versus eat organic versus eat seasonal? Or should we just be focused on eating healthy foods that are available to us regardless of the season or their provenance? Any thoughts?