Caffeine Update!
JUNE 12, 2007 - "What about coffee?" continues to be one of the first questions we get whenever we talk about local eating. All we can do is shake our heads, sadly. No north of Mexico is going to find local coffee, as far as we know. That said, some people propose substitutes:
I just started my diet at the beginning of May. I have been in Edmonton for 20 years and this year was the first time I visited the Whyte Avenue farmers market. I found a lot of interesting people there, and a lot of good organic foods too, but I could not find coffee, my favorite! So I did some work looking at alternatives and found an old settlers' tip. Dandelions! Dig out the roots, wash, dry in a dehydrator, then brown in the oven till it's the shade of coffee. Then grind with a mortar and pestle till powder. Boil in water and screen out of water. With honey and cream you can't tell the difference! Try it!
I personally don't drink coffee, and enjoy herbal teas such as sage and nettle, while James prefers mint. However, all of these substitutes, including dandelion root or chicory, are missing one crucial ingredient: caffeine. I usually tell people not to wig themselves out by quitting coffee cold turkey, and just try to eat locally as much as they can - and when you are buying your global treats, try for organic and fair trade products. The real problem is buying foods from afar that could have been grown in your own backyard, like lettuce, apples or potatoes.
But when a bunch of 100-Mile folk were sitting around chatting today, Kelly had a flash of inspiration: "What about yerba mate?" Yerba mate is a South American beverage that holds the place of coffee in countries like Chile and Argentina. In recent years it has made its way onto the shelves of natural or gourmet food shops in North America. It contains "mateine," which is very closely related to caffeine.
The small shrub is grown mainly on the Paraná highlands. Though I haven't heard of it grown anywhere in North America, its mountain-climate origin made me wonder if it could be grown in the Pacific Northwest. The main sticking point seems to be the description of the plant's natural climate: hot rainy summers and cool dry winters. We get our rain in the cool season. However, I learned that innovators have been growing it successfully in southern New Zealand, which is the cooler part of the country. The shrub can take some frost.
As a bonus, it needn't displace food crops: the New Zealanders point out that it can be grown on slopes too steep for other forms of agriculture. I don't have a yard (or a steep slope), so to all the agricultural adventurers of North America I say: please accept the 100-mile tea challenge. And if it doesn't work out? I would love to see the return of sail-powered ships to the world trading fleet. In the late 1800s, the tea clippers made it from China to London in91 days. The ports of San Francisco and Vancouver are considerably closer. -ADS
