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.

Starting a new job

Since Cookie magazine closed last October I've been working part time. I had a great schedule: three weeks in the office with one full week off. It gave me time to do things at Vivi's school (the last two months have been spent producing the school's yearbook, which just came in from the printer!), plus plan the garden upstate. Next week, however, I start a new, full-time job. I like to think that certain life events present themselves to us for a reason that may not be very clear at first. This job seemed like such a life event. I wasn't looking for a new job; it found me.

I have to confess that I was a little apprehensive about giving up my relaxed work schedule, but the challenges and rewards (health insurance, anyone?) won out. The first thing that my family and several friends asked me was if I would keep up the blog. I was surprised by the question. Of course I plan to keep this up, I really enjoy doing this. In fact, I think working longer hours will actually make me a little bit more organized. I won't have the luxury of one week a month to go upstate to check on the house, the garden, and Mom. Instead I will have to really plan my weekends around chores (weeding, weeding, weeding) and the farmers markets. It will also help me become better at meal planning. I anticipate some late hours in the beginning, so I'm going to rely on Fred even more to make dinners, and to post on some of our dinner successes and failures.

When I first started writing this blog, my idea was to cull various recipe newsletters to take the challenge out of making a kid-friendly, healthy dinner every night. Since I bought the house upstate my focus has shifted to planning a garden and trying to eat locally. With this new job, I think my original mission will come to the forefront of the posts, while our gardening and attempts at a locavore lifestyle will be woven through the writing.

For the next few weeks, the posts may not be as frequent as they have been, but I hope our story stays interesting, and we can inspire you to try a new recipe, plant a garden, or eat locally. Stay tuned.