Starving For Local

If you've been a fan of my husband's blog then you may have read the amusing story of our friend Libby (he called her Elle...I don't know why, Libby's a perfectly good name), who after reading his Water Bottle post, decided to forgo purchasing bottled water and found herself getting severely dehydrated. A similar event has happened to us.

After focusing my efforts on locating local stores that provide local foods I found myself in the position this morning of being severely undernourished. Ground beef and honey casseroles just can't sustain us! Winter fruits and vegetables, of which there are none, are not providing the vitamins and minerals we require (especially not for a nursing mom). Local Chinese food and pizza take-out ordered to supplement the severe lack of other foods in the house are not well balanced, nutritious, or, technically speaking, truly local.

So, after scouring the refrigerator and finding only leftover take-out chicken fingers to offer my son for breakfast, I determined it was time to refill the coffers.

So now the fridge is full and my local initiative has suffered another major setback. I have, in my possession, Chilean blueberries, strawberries, and grapes. I couldn't help myself! I have a picky 4YO and a 2YO who eats 1 meal every 2 days! With these restrictions can I really afford to be picky about where that food comes from? I have a responsibility to this planet. I have a responsibility to my family. Friends are suggesting that it would be easier to start this initiative in the summer when I can buy fruit and veggies in season, then can them for use over the winter. That's great in theory;the theory being that my 3 loving, wonderful, Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!...sorry, kids, will ever actually leave me the time to can foods. But let's get serious.

I need to meet the nutritional needs of a male adult, a nursing female adult, a 4YO who only eats vegetables if they are raw and only eats fruit if it is firm, and a 2YO who eats no vegetables but loves fruit especially if it comes from Chile and costs $4.99 for 4.4 oz. How am I supposed to accomplish my goal? (Don't worry, I'm not abandoning my quest yet!)

As I've said before, this is about the journey, and this journey will continue tomorrow, when I check out Balance Rock Farm (recommended by a friend) and a couple of other local farms that hopefully will add to my local foods menu and keep us all from starving.