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Three Months of Local Eating With Baby in Illinois

OCTOBER 31, 2007 - A Springfield, Illinois couple with a two-year old son spent three months on the 100-Mile Diet, the Springfield Journal-Register reports. Andra Grable, a massage therapist, and husband David Grable, a computer technician, learned for the first time when apple season was. “We were craving apples in June, so we went online and found out they don’t come in until the end of August,” Andra said. “We were anticipating them every day until we got them.”

As well, the couple learned to can and pickle on the internet, and did this job after little Montgomery went to sleep. They were relieved to find a local source of goat milk, as Montgomery is intolerant to cows’ milk. They also found local meat, berries, watermelon, and vegetables, primarily at the Old Capitol Farmers Market and through Illinois Farm Direct . . . and didn’t spend any more money than in the past. They made spaghetti sauce from scratch, which all their friends praised, and now they won’t go back.

“You can tell the difference between good-quality food and food that is overly processed. Look at a package of spaghetti sauce. There’s so much sugar in it. You don’t need it,” Andra said.

Now they’re hooked. While they plan to taper off for winter, supplementing whatever local crops they find with organic groceries, they are looking forward to next year. They plan to do even more canning, and to plant a large vegetable garden in their back yard. -ADS

Study Shows Transport is Lions Share of Emissions

OCTOBER 30, 2007 - The share of fossil fuel emissions spewed by the transportation sector in the Pacific Northwest is 53 percent, Sightline Institute reported recently. So if you need to argue with anybody about the value of local eating in reducing climate change, here’s a good place to start. By eating closer to home, we are cutting down on the biggest fossil fuel crimes.

Amongst members of the broader Western Climate Initiative - Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington - transportation accounts for 44 percent of CO2 emissions. On a hopeful note, they have agreed to a 15 percent cut from 2005 levels by 2020 - step one in the 50 to 85 percent reduction that is necessary by 2050. So to update the 1970s saying: Don’t keep on truckin’, good buddy!

On the flip side, you can check out how walkable your present or future neighbourhood is at Walk Score. Use it to choose low-impact living. -ADS

French Local-Food Network Shows Global Synergy

OCTOBER 29, 2007 -In France, we have an association, called AMAP, who gathers peasants who directly send you an organic fruits et vegetables basket every week. They say we should have a “family farmer” as we have a “family doctor”! -Elizabeth, France

I always think of France as being in the vanguard of good local food. So when I went to learn more about the “Association pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne” that Elizabeth mentioned (in my rough translation, Association for the Maintenance of Peasant Farming), I was amazed to learn that it was inspired by a French couple’s trip to America in 2000. (It’s not just McDonald’s after all!)

On a visit to their daughter in Manhattan, the couple - market gardeners by trade - saw people carrying baskets of the good food of the good earth into a church. It turned out the farm from which it came was within one hour of New York City, and this was Community Supported Agriculture. So they took the idea home . . . and of course improved on it immensely. Now, you can look up your region of France and find not just a vegetable farm to subscribe to, but a complete farmgate package also including fruits, cheese, meat and honey. In France, peasant is not a derogatory term; it is claimed with pride.

The modern concept of Community Supported Agriculture actually began in Japan in 1965, where they called it Teikei, in response to the increased use of chemicals in farming, and the poisonous results of chemicals in the environment. It also was a reaction against the import of American foodstuffs that competed with local products, and the drain of rural people into city factory jobs. Forty years on, there are more than 16 million members.

From Japan and Switzerland it spread to the United States in 1985; in Portugal the concept is called reciproco, and in Quebec, Agriculture soutenue par la communauté. It’s now in countries as diverse as Great Britain and Ghana - showing that local food values, and benefits, span the globe and vastly different life circumstances. (James and I were excited when, recently, a Taiwanese publisher bought the right to print our book in Mandarin.) The French group Urgenci hopes to bring us all together to support the farmer-direct movement around the world. -ADS

Revenge of the Kootenays

OCTOBER 28, 2007 - Maybe things have gotten a little too serious around here lately. Climate change can do that to a person. Plus, Alisa has a terrible flu, which I suspect she will hand off to me just as soon as we head out on the road again on November 1. In any case, well dressed with self-pity, I recently failed to muster even the energy to prepare a proper dinner. I served Alisa some leftovers - only enough for one - and, for myself, prepared a glass of tomato juice and a slice of dry cornbread.

What would give this toast a little lift? I asked myself. Then I remembered a gift jar we’d received while on tour in the fabulous Kootenay region of B.C.: it’s label reads, “Kootenay Kitchen Hot Pepper Jelly Trial (Organic).” I cracked it and spread the reddish jelly neatly across the slice of bread. It smelled sharp, and I was pleased - I usually find chili pepper jellies overly sweet and not too spicy. I was happy to be a guinea pig for the Kootenay Kitchen “trial.”

I was halfway through the toast when the heat hit. It started suddenly, at the lips, and then roared back to the throat with surprising speed. “Oh my goodness,” I said, ridiculously, and then added, “That’s quite hot.” That was the last that Alisa, flat out on the couch, would hear from me for five minutes or more. I started with a glass of cold water, which I emptied too quickly. I needed steady cold - I turned on the tap and plunged my tongue under it, but then was overwhelmed by the burning at my lips and throat. Even when I drank, the water only cooled the patch it was passing over. My throat burned as I sucked the water in, and then my lips and mouth burned when I swallowed. Tears came to my eyes, and I could feel my tastebuds actually swelling - they were like a field of ferns swept this way and that by the windstorm of a wildfire.

What is this flavour? I wondered. Cayenne peppers? Dragon peppers? Despite the pain, I smirked at the thought of so many people wondering if spicy food was still an option on a 100-mile diet. The heat was like only one other experience I’ve ever known: biting into fresh habanero peppers with a group of Mayan brush-cutters on the Yucatán Peninsula. Habanero pepper jellly?

Finally, I grabbed a bottle of local gin I’d picked up in Bend, Oregon, and filled my mouth with it. Gargled with it. The heat surged, but as I held the alcohol in, looking like a puffer fish, the flames began to subside. Hands trembling, I threw out the toast and fumbled the lid back onto the jelly jar, placing it in the refrigerator like some sacred artifact of the dark arts. I had the chili pepper high that only a severe dose can offer, and only at a price.

Kootenay Kitchen, I can confirm that your Hot Pepper Jelly is hot. It should be handled with care, by adults in full command of their faculties, and with appropriate safety gear close at hand. Perhaps it holds out hope as an alternative energy source. It should be used only for good, and never evil.

Very, very carefully, I had a little bit more for breakfast.-JBM

Getting Personal with a Tuna

OCTOBER 27, 2007 - I don’t think I ever talked about the experience of carving up the 19-lbs albacore tuna. I bought it, oddly enough, on Canada’s Thanksgiving Day a few weeks ago. Alisa and I were giving my mom a tour of the fish docks, but only one boat - a tuna boat - was tied up. I’ve never bought tuna as a “local food,” because it typically comes from some faraway place, but this time I got chatting with the young fisherman.

Each season, he said, they start in Northern California. Then they slowly fish their way up the coast, mainly staying 100 miles or so offshore, eventually ending up in the area of southern Alaska and Haida Gwaii (a.k.a. the Queen Charlotte Islands). Finally, they dock for storm season in Vancouver, selling tuna that were flash-frozen at sea.

Not strictly “local,” then - but neither are albacore tuna, which are highly migratory. The approach described by the young fisherman seemed sensible to the big patterns of the North Pacific and the particular biology of the species. I also knew that albacore are considered a “best choice” for sustainability by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and SeaChoice: there’s little or no bycatch of other species in the albacore fishery; it’s dolphin-friendly; and the mercury levels in the fish are relatively low. I recognize that 90 percent of the big fish in the oceans are now gone, but this is the beauty of a truly sustainable fishery: you aren’t drawing down the overall number of fish in the sea. Plus, the fishing techniques used to catch North Pacific albacore focus on (comparatively) small fish while letting the biggest ones go.

At $6/lbs, the tuna meat was already a big savings over the supermarket chains. Then the fisher told me I could buy a whole fish for $3/lbs. Being a cheap bastard, I went for it. Everyone else was buying 20 lbs turkeys that day; I bought a 19 lbs tuna. It was one hell of a conversation piece as I took it for lunch, rode the harbour ferry, and finally took the monorail Skytrain home.

When I sat down to carve up the fish and freeze steaks and loins for later, it was one of the most powerful reminders I’ve had of the importance of getting back in touch with my food. I was absolutely stunned by the beauty and physical perfection of the fish. Humans have never created anything so ideally designed for the job it needs to do. The tuna is a barrel of muscle (and therefore meat) with which it propels itself through the water. Its skin is unbelievably smooth, its pectoral fins sweeping far back toward its tail and, when not in use, neatly slipping under a hardened ridge that runs nearly the length of its body. Even the mouth is built for speed. It appears to be fairly small and streamlined, but can swing forward and unhinge to take in prey much larger than you could possibly expect.

I’m thankful that I bought that albacore. If I’d never done so, I would never have the appreciation and respect I now have for the tuna, and through it, the other big fish species that we’ve devastated around the world. Despite the sustainable fishery, I will eat perhaps this one tuna this year, sharing it with friends, and no more. Next year, maybe I’ll buy one more. But I won’t ever again forget that I’m eating a miracle. -JBM

Is Air Freight Organic? An Update

OCTOBER 26, 2007 - Britain’s Soil Association has come up with a sensible approach to whether or not it will offer organic certification for food that is flown in by air; food, that is, that travels from farm to plate with the highest environmental cost. Yesterday, the organization’s standards board released recommendations that the association only certify air-freighted organic products if they are (a) produced according to Fair Trade standards (such as the Soil Association’s Ethical Trade program) and “deliver genuine benefits for farmers in developing countries”; and (b) the producers “have a plan for reducing their reliance on air freight.”

It’s a good decision (see the earlier blog entries on this difficult topic) - one that pits global development against local food. If approved, the Soil Association standard will encourage reasonable labour and environmental conditions in areas of the world with little infrastructure to support trade, while at the same time ensuring that air freight doesn’t continue to occur once adequate road (or, better, railways and ports) are in place. At the same time, it will lift organic certification for practices such as “topping up” the UK organic tomato supply with tomatoes flown in from, say, Spain, at extraordinary and unnecessary environmental cost.

In making the decision, the association took into account whether a ban on air freight might simply damage or eliminate nascent organic agriculture in the so-called developing world - to the detriment of all of us, globally - and noted there is evidence that building a trade market for organic food can also strengthen local markets for organics.

They also did not lose sight of the most critical point: “[T]he importance of addressing climate change quickly cannot be overstated and the effects of climate change will hit Africa hardest. It could therefore be irresponsible to support a development strategy that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels.” At the same time, statistics from the association bear repeating: the UK’s carbon footprint is estimated to be 9.8 tonnes per person per year (the figure is even higher in the U.S. and Canada), while the average African is annually contributing less than a tonne.

While some critics attacked the focus on “food miles” over full energy life-cycle analyses of products, there is no doubt - in an era in which we are being asked to make even the smallest changes to reduce our personal energy consumption - air freight is a legitimate concern. According to UK government statistics, air freight accounts for just 1 percent of Britain’s food miles, but is the fastest growing form of food transportation and accounts for 11 percent of food transport carbon emissions. Furthermore, the association considered research showing that air freight can increase a food product’s carbon contribution tremendously: in the overall life cycle of non-organic green beans shipped in from Kenya, air freight accounts for 80 percent of the carbon footprint.

Finally, the Soil Association continues to reiterate the basics of sustainable eating. Eat local foods in season; eat a diet that is mainly made up of plant-based foods; and eat organic, humanely produced animal products when and if you consume them. There’s a further point I’d want to reiterate: there is a tendency to overthink the issue of international development versus localism. No one should feel that there is anything - anything whatsoever - that is morally wrong with eating a local diet. It is the most natural, most commonsense thing in the world, and it’s one of the only models we have from human history for a way to eat truly sustainably. Strong local food systems first! That’s a message that makes as much sense in Ghana and Kenya as it does in the UK and America.-JBM

Are We Ready for Winter?

OCTOBER 25, 2007 - Temperatures are dropping to near-freezing already here in Vancouver - we’re expecting 3 C tonight (37 F). With the cool weather and lots of rain, nothing much is growing, so…are we ready for local eating this winter?

With all the traveling and mail from 100-milers, we haven’t talked a lot about our own food preparations, but we have been sneaking them in when we can. We’re not perfectly equipped, but this year, Vancouver will have two winter farmers’ markets a month within walking distance of where we live, and many local foods are far more accessible than the were during our 100-mile year in 2005. That’s the power of citizen demand, folks…

Just in case, though, let me run through the cupboards and see what’s there. Above the oven: wine, dried plums and cherries, and five kinds of shell beans (Jacob’s Cattle, Orca, Ojo de Cabra; Scarlet Runner, and Yellow Indian Woman). In the spice cupboard, a huge array of dried herbs and spices; as well as local sea salt; several varieties of honey; sundried tomatoes and hot peppers; four kinds of seaweed; and mint, sage, nettle, floral, camomile, and other herbal teas.

Tucked in behind the cookbooks - jar upon jar of tomatoes (60 lbs’ worth), plus canned grape juice. In a cupboard dedicated to preserves, we have canned peaches, cherries, and apricots; strawberry, apricot, and plum (two kinds) jam; moose meat; hot pepper jelly; sorghum molasses (okay, we brought that home from Michigan); pickled sea asparagus; dill pickles; and a half-dozen varieties of dried mushrooms.

There’s not much in the refrigerator - I’m starting to wonder if we still need one. Some apple cider vinegar and hazelnut oil, as well as expeller pressed canola and soy oil gathered in our travels (we even have California olive oil from our book tour there). There’s some (non-local) vodka soaking in (local) highbush cranberries, a few potatoes, some saskatoonberry syrup and bigleaf maple syrup, plus some yellow plum juice (who needs OJ?).

The freezer is pretty exciting. From the sea, we have pink, sockeye, chum, and chinook salmon; spot prawns and side-stripe shrimp; and albacore tuna (rated a “best choice” for sustainability). Then there are strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries; corn; more tomatoes; tomatillos; pesto; the odd packet of spinach or cauliflower or borscht.

Here and there in nooks and crannies: a pumpkin, some garlic, a few onions; hazelnuts; a 40-lbs tub of wheatberries and maybe 20 lbs more of flour; some flour corn out to dry; a few more herbs still drying, sunflower seeds. The balcony garden is still providing oregano, thyme, shiso leaf, vine leaves, and even a few small tomatoes. The garden itself is set up for winter with mustard greens, kale, garlic, beets, and corn salad, with wild mint still coming up as well. And in the dining nook: a slightly sour-smelling crock of sauerkraut. We put him on the balcony when company comes over.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but hey - I think we’ll survive, especially with those farmers’ markets full of winterkeeper apples, potatoes, root vegetables, cheeses, fresh eggs, you name it. Local eating in winter? What could be better? -JBM

Updates on Spices, Grape Preserves, and Polluted Organics

OCTOBER 24, 2007 - We put out two tough questions to the 100-mile world, and we did get some replies. But first, I wanted to post a helpful comment from Leda in Brooklyn, NY, who has a terrific Urban Homestead blog featuring recipes, wise thoughts, foraging tips, and more.

I enjoyed the post on spices. Other resources to investigate are native North American seasonings that were used by the indigenous peoples but not picked up on by European settlers. These include wild ginger (asarum canadense), northern bayberry (myrica pennsylvanica), and spicebush (lindera benzoin).

It’s an important point, and every region has its own, often largely forgotten, local flavourings - in our part of the world, fool’s onion, spruce, and mountain sorrel come immediately to mind. There is really nothing as refreshing as Sitka spruceade sweetened with honey (good with gin, too), but I’ve yet to see a spruceade stand bump the lemonade business. We have a long ways to go toward reviving and developing our local cuisines - but what a great opportunity for chefs, cooks, and student of life lived local.

Next, Mark in Lexington, NC, responded to Kate’s open question about preserving grapes without sugar. Several 100-milers sent in reminders that most preserves, including grape jams and jellies, can be made using honey in place of sugar (though you need less honey) - here’s Alisa’s write-up on the subject. Mark, though, had another good idea:

I was watching a show recently on PBS where a lady was interviewed about the idea I’m giving to you. What she did was process all her grapes (because the fruit isn’t going to last) to extract the juice. She then used what she needed for the jelly she was going to make for immediate or near future use and then canned the rest. What you are left with is jars of canned juice. Then in the future when you run out of jelly or want to make some more, you just pull out the juice you canned and you have your starting base for your jelly recipe.

I’d just like to add that my friend Ruben, who beat me to our apartment complex’s grape harvest this year, did exactly that: canned the grape juice, so that we can drink it through the winter (freezing it would have been fine, too). A little honey can sweeten a sour grape juice. Keeping juice is a simple, healthy alternative to making preserves.

Finally, no one did seem to have a study comparing the chemical residues on organic food grown in highly polluted areas versus less polluted areas - I find this amazing and still suspect there must be research out there. This is a powerful idea, and it makes sense: Why have such strict restrictions on what can be done on organic farms if the farms themselves are in the fallout shadow of heavy polluters, or have polluted groundwater? Imagine the effect if people learned that they lived in, say, a valley that had been found to be so much more polluted than an agreed baseline that none of the area farms could apply for organic certification. And imagine the potential lawsuit that would follow, as farmers claiming the right to be able to produce organic food went after the heavy polluters who hand down the environmental and health costs of their actions to society in general.

Chloe in Ottawa, ON, shared some thoughts and research that show the potential seriousness of this concept:

I remember reading a letter to the editor in the Renfrew County (Ontario) newspaper, urging people in specific neighbourhoods not to grow vegetables because of unsafe levels of tritium. A quick internet search turned up several different articles, one of them a blog post by a guy named Alain Saffel with links to different stories and articles on the topic. There is also a study done for the AECL by Laval University. From what I can tell, it shows low levels of tritium (I say low but there is no “safe” amount of tritium as far as I know) in everything tested, which included water, fish, sediments, milk, vegetation, and air. From memory, I think there is a certified organic dairy farmer in the Pembroke area and there have to be organic vegetable growers too. Very interesting stuff. Well, scary stuff. Keep up the good work, and keep up the good food!

-JBM

About that Lexus Ad…

OCTOBER 19, 2007 - Some of you will have noticed a print advertisement for a Lexus hybrid vehicle; it was brought to our attention a few days ago. The ad lists 101 things you can do to “make a difference,” and Number 21 is “Try the 100-mile diet” (just ahead of “Get involved” and just behind “Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot”). We’re happy to see the 100-mile diet going bigtime mainstream, but we do want to make clear that: (a) We don’t endorse Lexus; (b) Lexus doesn’t sponsor us in any way; and (c) We might reconsider a and b if they come up with a free hybrid Lexus for us to drive on our various tours - but only if its fuel efficiency is actually better than our subcompact ‘91 Dodge Colt hatchback. Looking at the specs for the basic hybrid Lexus sedan, the Colt gets better mileage (the sedan doesn’t even classify for Canada’s fuel efficiency incentive rebate program) and still passes its emissions test with flying colours every year.

So, one way you can make a difference: buy a genuinely fuel-efficient vehicle, or better still, go with our own addition, Number 102 (drive less and support measures at every level, from the local to the international, to discourage car culture).

The Lexus ad does give us a chance to talk about driving and the 100-mile diet. Many people seem to think that eating locally involves a lot of driving. Well, we eat locally and only keep our car insured for six months of every year, so obviously driving and local eating don’t need to go hand in hand. We do almost all - probably 99 percent - of our in-city trips by bike, bus, or on foot. (Usually we get around on bikes, because our transit system is just as crappy and overpriced as most transit systems in North America.)

In some cases, though, especially in areas with no farmers’ market, local eaters do have to drive out to farms to access local food. At this point in history, local food systems, which were left to languish for decades, are far from efficient. That needs to change, but it won’t unless enough local eaters show there’s enough demand to improve the system - it’s already happening in the UK, for example, where large grocery chains are beginning to make in-season local food as accessible as global products.

Meanwhile, there are things we can do to reduce the impact of getting out there and supporting local farms:

• Plan to visit a number of farms in the area you are driving to.

• Combine farm visits with other out-of-town errands or trips.

• Buy farmgate products in bulk and preserve some for later eating (you’ll save money, too).

• Bring friends or arrange to pick up food for friends, and ask that they do the same for you.

• Inquire about (or organize) group farm tours that permit you to buy from the farms you visit.

• Ask at the farms you visit about box delivery programs such as Community Supported Agriculture.

• Start a local farmers’ market!

-JBM

Is Denmark Hopeless for Local Eating?

OCTOBER 22, 2007 - This is so amazing to have found this link today on cbc.ca, because I was just talking with my husband about how disgusting it is to me that here in Denmark so much food is imported from the rest of the world. I saw a program showing how the vast greenhouses stuffed with peppers, tomatoes and cucmbers in Spain (where much of our produce comes from in winter) are visible from space! Gaa . . .

When I lived on a southern Ontario acreage back in the 1980s, I canned fruits and vegetables, and froze all kinds of things too, and we rarely, if ever, bought produce, even in the winter. I loved that life, and really miss it. There is no history for that kind of canning and preserving here in Denmark, and they know nothing of preserving kettles and canning jars. I suppose their lives are just so full of everything else, it’s so much easier to pick up tasteless produce at the supermarket. Sad!

I brought back a canner last time I was in Canada, and have made some salsas and things, and really want to do more, but illness has prevented me from that. I tell you, if I was well, I would start up the self-sufficiency bandwagon here in this little country, and they wouldn’t know what hit them! Thank you for your ideas and energy.

-Janet in Aarhus, Denmark