Trade-offs

[a...@windandsun.com]

In our household, we have found that our commitment to eat only local
foods presents various trade offs. For instance, nutritionally we
find that we are eating less processed foods, no refined sugar or
grains. We are not eating out at all. Depending on the retaurant,
eating out often means eating less fresh, less whole ingredients.
Also, I am not eating as much volume as I used to because of there not
always being convenient food available to me. If I want a piece of
toast, I sometimes find I haven’t made bread recently. I have to plan
ahead and always be aware of the availability of ingredients. I think
about food much of the day. On the nutritional downside, I find that
with the unavailability of oils, I am using a lot more butter. My
diet is also higher in cheese and other dairy products. I regularly
buy cream at Renards to use as I try to make my own salad dressings
and sour cream. With this cream, Sally and I have made some delicious
ice cream, but it is not the low-fat variety.

Economically, we also see some balancing. Buying certified organic
foods is expensive. And when we buy some locally grown products
through a middleman, we see hefty markups. I bought Island wheat
berries from Greens N Grains for $2.40/lb. Terry and Toni Sorenson of
Soren’s Valhalla Orchard were able to sell me wheat berries off their
field for $18 bushel. This was twice what their buyer paid them, but
I was very happy to pay this because it figures out to be about .36/
pound. Our corn meal from the Oneida agricultural community costs
$6.00/lb. I think the work we put into growing our own Hopi blue
flour corn (planting, cultivating, harvesting, husking, and grinding)
is worth the money saved. Even the seed was a gift from our young
agriculturist friends, Cat Schmidt and David Berg. Making our own is
always cheaper, especially because we don’t figure into the cost
analysis our labor!

There are personal environmental trade-offs as well, but it seems in
the final analysis, eating a strict local diet is overall very good
for the environment. Processing food (especially canning) and storing
food (especially freezing) uses a lot of energy which shows up on our
electricity bill. But, because I need to spend more time at home in
the kitchen and garden, I am driving much less. Food packaging is
much reduced as well. As a matter of fact, I find there is a dearth
of materials available to me from my stash of packaging which I
usually save for reuse – things like bread bags, twist ties, paper
grocery sacks, cereal box liners, etc. These are all things I have
come to use on a regular basis where other folks use purchased plastic
wrap, wax paper, aluminum foil, plastic garbage bags, etc. And now
they are in short supply.

Blessings,
Ann