The months that have been the most habit altering (detox month, no trash month, etc.) seem to take a little longer to ease into than the other months. I'd say that it takes a week or so to really get into it and figure out what you're doing. Week 1 has been just this for me: the week to figure out what I can and can't eat, what I can get and where, and also just to finish up a few non-local perishables that I have in my fridge from last week that I don't want to go to waste.
My biggest observation so far has been that you have to go out of your way to eat local. I wasn't able to make it to a farmers market so it was a bit of a struggle to find food in the grocery store that was native to New England. I was especially disappointed when I went to Russo's the other day and discovered that about 95% of their produce wasn't grown anywhere near New England. As I've probably obsessed to many of you, Russo's is my most favourite supermarket ever and I love it times 10,000, but really, do you need to get your tomatoes from Canada? The only local produce I could find was zucchini and summer squash. It just doesn't make sense that with such an abundance of farms in this region that we should have to import so much from other parts of the world. Week 1's lesson learned: Don't rely on supermarkets for the rest of the month, the farmers market is where it's at. I even went as far as to make myself a chart of the days and times of all the farmers markets in the Boston area (thank you unemployment for unlimited free time to do things like this).
Some other notable things this week:
Amanda and I went on a really awesome and very helpful local food hunt. We found out some great information like:
At City Feed & Supply in JP you can get veggie burgers from Maine, JP made tofu, and local honey. They even have tags that list where all their food is from and include the miles that it took to get to the store. They make it so easy!
The Dairy Bar in Somerville has tons of local dairy including: milk, eggs, butter, ice cream, whipped cream, and lots of different kinds of cheese.
Dave's Fresh Pasta in Somerville is amazing and in addition to a million varieties of homemade pasta, we found peanut butter made in Cambridge. Horray!
I found out that Not Your Average Joes is having Local Fest this month so it looks like I'll actually be able to go out to eat! Does anyone know of any other restaurants that serve local cuisine?
My container gardens are doing really great and I'm looking forward to eating some home grown white eggplant later this month.
Lastly, does anyone know where I can find local: crackers, wraps for sandwiches, soy milk and tortilla chips?
great post danne!
ReplyDeletethe garden grille in providence (which is our favorite restaurant) serves probably 75% local food (local bread, coffee, most vegetables, although they use a lot of mangoes, avocado, and mushrooms which i'm positive aren't local) ... there's another place in downtown providence called local 121 which serves food that is 100% local though! i took brendan there for his birthday last year and the food is good, just a little more pricey than i'd like.. if you're feeling it, you should definitely come down and visit us for a dinner date!