LOCAVORE-ish

The New Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore, “a person who seeks out locally produced food”, as its Word of the Year for 2007.  It seems to be an idea whose time has come as folks from all different backgrounds are embracing the idea of it – from Schumacher economists to trendy chefs.  It’s a “movement,” and a good thing it is.  Because the best I think most of us can do at the moment is move toward it. 

I usually like to go whole hog on life-changes once I make the decision. When I decided to become a vegetarian, I just quit eating meat and started thinking more about protein and vitamin B12 (and soon discovered I had little to worry about).  But becoming a locavore is going to be a little more challenging.  For one thing, the question of protein will rear its head again and I have a feeling some of the answers might include local fauna – of which we are short on hereabouts, and which my bleeding-heart vegetarian self cannot envision killing, trapping, plucking, skinning or… eating at this point.  I'll try to stay open-minded though.

Another reason to do this gradually is that, while we occasionally enjoy a meal made entirely from local ingredients (love it actually), it would take a kitchen and family revolution to do this every meal, every day.  Besides the meat issue, there is the grain and legume issue.  No wheat, rye, oats…  Cornmeal maybe, but where does one find local ground corn?   Or lentils, kidneys, pintos and black beans?  Black-eyed peas and field peas, perhaps - in the summer… and then should we learn to can them or freeze them for the rest of the year?  And coffee.  Oh no.

So, while technically we meet the definition of "person[s] who seek," I think we'll consider ourselves locavores-in-training for now. We’ll use the following guidelines to start with:

·         Eat one completely local meal each day.

·         Commit to one entirely local-food day each week.

·         Supplement other meals with food purchased at a local store, organic whenever possible.

We’ll keep you updated on our fumbling, but hopefully tasty, attempts at seeking out and making the  most of locally produced food.