What The Heck Do They Grow Here Anyway?

I have a confession to make. I've been getting my groceries from the grocery store. I haven't even been looking at labels. I even bought non-organic chicken because, well, it was on sale for $.79/lb. I feel like I've let you down. This local eating thing is a lot tougher than I expected.

I kind of thought that if I looked around for places that carried local things, found the time to go to them despite my three cute little distractions, forked out the extra money, and made a few minor dietary concessions then I'd be able to buy almost everything we eat locally. Yeah, that was silly. Do you know what they actually grow here in the fine state of Massachusetts? (I'm going to Google it right now, I'll let you know.)

Fish/Shellfish
Pumpkins
Goats
Sheep
Pigs
Cows
Duck
Chicken
Turkey
Grapes/Wine
Blueberries
Strawberries
Potatoes
Cheese (okay, technically they don't grow cheese here)
Honey
Maple Syrup
Cranberries
Apples
Peaches
Plums
Turnips
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Corn
Squash
Cucumbers
Peppers
Mesclun (What the heck is Mesclun? Hold on... Ah, it's a salad mix. Why don't they just say salad mix?)
Eggs
Raspberries
Milk
Quince
Pears
Carrots
Onions
Tomatoes
Cherries
Bison (seriously, I'm not kidding, check it out)
Cucumbers
Eggplant

Okay, I'm sure there's more. All of this food sounds really good but let's narrow the list down a bit more. What is grown in the state of Massachusetts that's available to, say, me and you, in the winter months?

Dairy Products
Squash, Potatoes
Apples
Maple Syrup, Honey
Wine
Turkey, Chicken, Duck, Beef, Pork, Sheep, Bison, Fish/Shellfish

Do I give up now? Nah. At least I can try to buy this stuff all locally.

Tune in next time for more adventures in eating locally when we make our triumphant return to Balance Rock Farm!

7th Generation

I don't get it. I bought some 7th Generation diapers a couple of weeks ago to see if this die-hard three-time Huggies fan could be converted to a more eco-friendly alternative. I have previously attempted GDiapers, and they're fantastic if you have five more minutes and/or two more hands, per diaper change, than I do. Okay, by fantastic I mean a super cute environmentally superior alternative that leaked every time I tried them and required a lot more effort than I was personally willing to expend, but aside from that I HIGHLY recommend trying them. You can have mine. Just shoot me an email.

Anyway, to get back to what I was saying before. I don't get it. I put the 7th Generation diapers on my son. Then, forgetting that I had put them on my son, I left him in the diaper for the same length of time I usually do with the Huggies: about an hour longer than one should let a 2YO walk around in the same diaper thus ensuring the diaper will surpass maximum capacity which you only become aware of because he comes running over complaining that the diaper has given up and is now lodged halfway down one of his pant legs. (Can't imagine why those GDiapers leaked.) Anyway, I managed to change him just moments shy of the tab release time and no leaks!

Testing doesn't get much more sophisticated then this. There's been poop. There's been pee. There's been what comes out after Nanna feeds him dried apricots, figs, raisins and bananas all within a two hour period. Sorry for grossing you out but the point is, these diapers work. They work just as good as Huggies. I don't get it.

I can go on Amazon and buy 4 boxes of size 4 Seventh Generation diapers, that's 136 diapers, for $41.99. That works out to 0.30875 per diaper, so roughly .31 cents. I can buy 4 boxes of size 4 Huggies diapers, that's 100 diapers, for $31.36. That works out to 0.3136 per diaper, so roughly .31 cents. The Huggies diapers are made with whatever ink they use to print character pictures all over the diaper (my 7 month old insists on Pooh, very appropriately) as well as chlorine to bleach the diaper a lovely shade of white. The 7th Generation ones are made chorine-free, latex-free, fragrance-free and TBT-free. I don't get it.

Doesn't it cost more money to make things environmentally safer? Isn't that the whole point of using all these crazy nasty toxins? I just don't get how the 7th Generation people can be selling the same product as the Huggies people for the same price but without all the poisons. I don't get it. But, I do know which ones I plan to buy from now on.

Okay, yeah, so my 7 month old threw a holy fit when she discovered that poo would only appear inside her new diapers and was no longer printed on the outside. Of course she did. Who can blame her? But then I sat down and had a reasonable discussion with her about how the inks and chemicals used on her old diapers, while making them pretty, were completely unnecessary and added harmful toxins to our environment so I needed her to do a little soul-searching and decide if it was more important that her poop and pee be conveyed to the trash by an ecologically responsible diaper or by Pooh. She's still thinking it over, but I think she'll come around.

Bolton Orchards

I apologize to my 21 fans (Google Analytics is so cool) for the delay in posting. Two of my three munchkins have been battling one hell of a cold and the weather has not been cooperating. We had one inch of snow on Friday and school was canceled. Wimps. I'm sure my parents are loving the irony of my new-found hatred for the "snow day". I have managed to find a few brief minutes though, due to the fact that my 7 month old has been awake since 5:30 AM and despite my repeated request that she drift happily off to sleep again, here I sit posting to you. So what's new?

The other night we had a 50% local dinner. We ate the pork chops and local MacIntosh applesauce from Balance Rock Farm, and organic corn as well as peas with pearl onions that were from California, not Belgium! I'll admit this meal is way short of mission, but it is a start. And thanks to the comments posted on this blog I have a whole list of resources to pursue.

One little store I've been meaning to look at, Bolton Orchards, is only 3.3 miles from my house. I've been in there before but never really paid close attention to their products, other than the obvious prevalence of apples. After dinner last night I realized that we were in need of milk and eggs, and at 6:30 PM on the Sunday of a holiday weekend local beggars cannot be choosers. I knew I could get these things from local sources at my large grocery store, but I assume that supporting smaller, locally run stores is really more inline with my mission. Since the baby had been awake for 5 long, sniffling, sneezing hours I figured a trip out would provide her a much-needed car nap. It was a great plan until my 4YO insisted he should come along.

Those of you with more than 1 child know that any time you get to leave the house with 1 less child then you have produced, it's like a tiny vacation... usually.

"Oohhh, I want some of those small oranges!"

"Those are apricots," I replied. Local? Well, yeah if you live in South America.

"I want some!"

"You don't even know what they are. What if you don't like them? Let's get some apples!"

"I will, I will like them. I promise! Please!"

• 3 Chilean Apricots, check.

"Peaches!"

"Apricots are enough, honey."

"Please! Please! I promise I'll eat them!"

• 3 Chilean Peaches, check

I turned to peruse the vegetables and was fairly disappointed until I came across a bag of locally grown potatoes. I was beginning to wonder if Maine was the closest I'd ever get.

• 5 lb bag of potatoes, local, check

"Ooohh, nuts! Can we get some nuts?"

"We still have nuts leftover from Thanksgiving."

"Not these nuts," he said, excitedly scooping a heap of mixed nuts.

"Yes, those same kind of nuts."

"But not THESE nuts," he emphasized, as if those mixed nuts were so obviously different from our current batch of mixed nuts.

"We don't need any more nuts." I wonder where all these mixed nuts are from, anyway. (Hee hee, I Googled it and someone actually posted this question: "Where do Brazil nuts comes from?") I tried to meander through the store in my search for local goods.

"Mommy, I'm going to look at this candy."

"We're not getting any candy."

"I know! I'm just going to look at it."

"Come on, let's go look at these great apples. Which ones should we get?"

• 1/2 peck of apples, local, check
• 2 dozen eggs, local, check
  
• Cabot Farm butter, VT, check
• Boar's Head bacon, somewhere in the US, check
• Oakhurst milk, somewhere in New England, check

"Mommy! Mommy! Marshmallows! Can we buy marshmallows? I love marshmallows. Marshmallows are so yummy! Can we buy some? Can we bring them home and have them in hot chocolate? I love marshmallows in hot chocolate. Can we get some?"

I can honestly say that I've never bought marshmallows before. How do kids find out about these things? "Sure," I responded distractedly. I was scanning the freezer section hoping to find locally grown frozen produce. Someone had to carry it. There was a buzzing sound in the background as I shopped, it sounded something like this:

"Yay! Thank you mommy. I am so excited. I love hot chocolate with marshmallows. I can't wait. When we get home we'll have hot chocolate and put marshmallows in it. Mommy do you like hot chocolate with marshmallows in it? I do. It's so yummy. I can't wait. Can you?"

I hope you don't mind, I paraphrased.

I looked down at my crazed 4YO. "What happened to you? Did you have like 5 teaspoons of sugar before we left the house?" We rounded the corner. A woman was standing in front of a whole wall of locally jarred jams and jellies. She was close to tears.

"I'm so excited," she said, "I think I'm going to have to go home and have hot chocolate with marshmallows."

• Bag of jet-puffed mini-marshmallows, made in the USA, check

"Can we go home now? I want to have my hot chocolate and marshmallows."

"Let me look at these jellies first." There were a large variety of flavors and they all had the Bolton Orchards label on them. The address on the back was that of the store I was in. How do you determine local-ness on products like this? It's quite possible that the jarring was done here at the orchard, but it's highly unlikely the grapes are local, so does it count as a local product? I mean, it must be more local than the Polaner All Fruit I normally buy, but I suppose if I want to truly be local I need to switch from grapes to something like strawberries that at least has a chance of being picked and processed locally. I think I can make that change. Next time.

• Grape "fruit spread", local?, check

Well, it wasn't my worst outing, I don't think I accidentally picked up anything from the UK this time. Out of my 10 purchases, 6 of them are at least from my tri-state region. Clearly my 4YO is a bad influence on my shopping habits, though. But I do have to admit, as we sat together as a family sipping hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows floating in it, taking turns lobbing them across the table and into each other's open mouths, I am kind of glad I brought him along.

With Apologies To The Bunnies

I'm finding that one of the biggest challenges to eating local is that it seems to also mean eating healthy. I've yet to come across any locally grown foods that come in a box and taste like Cheez-Its. Over the past couple of years I have done my best to reassociate into the unhealthy category foods like Doritos, Ruffles, Heluva Good French Onion Dip, and Easy Cheese. Admittedly I once considered them central to not only my diet but my general happiness in life. This is no longer the case. The downside is, I have been unable to find a suitable replacement. You see, I am picky. And let me explain so I can be perfectly clear what I mean when I say I'm picky:

Vegetables fall into two categories, those I hate and those I tolerate. I will eat raw peppers but not cooked. Any food cooked with green peppers in it tends to taste of green peppers, and I cannot eat that. I like onions if they are breaded, crispy and deep fried. I hate tomatoes but like salsa (I dip, I do not scoop). I hate mushrooms in all of their various incarnations and no matter what they've been marinating in. Squash is right out. Sweet potatoes are fine as long as you don't forget the brown sugar. Raw broccoli, green beans, carrots and cauliflower I can eat but please pass the aforementioned Heluva Good French Onion dip. Do not cook or "wilt" my lettuce, ew. I don't mind peas with pearl onions, but I don't eat the pearl onions and I use a generous amount of butter, salt and pepper. Corn is probably my favorite vegetable followed closely by potatoes, but again a generous portion of butter and salt are required, and I've never had a potato that didn't require two dollops of sour cream. Beets taste like dirt. Pickled beets taste like pickled dirt. My in-laws have lately been on a rutabaga kick...good for them. Celery is of the devil and people keep insisting it has no flavor but if that were the case then why, tell me why, do they insist on putting it in otherwise perfectly yummy things like chicken-salad? I could go on.

The point is, when one has such strict limitations on what one can consume without gagging, how am I supposed to adjust to this whole local thing. I know what you're thinking, it wasn't your idea! It was mine. And it's a good idea. I think I may have mentioned that I have three very small children. I want to bring them up with healthy attitudes about food as well as where that food comes from. And just switching to wheat bread (as I made myself do reluctantly after my first son was born) is not going to get me there.

So here I sit, eating raw broccoli generously dipped in Italian Dressing (hey, it's a start) instead of munching on the two BJs sized bags of Doritos in my cupboard. The broccoli isn't local of course, but when spring rolls around and we do start getting in fresh local produce, my hope is that my palate will be ready. Lookout bunnies.

Balance Rock Farm

So a friend of mine, having heard about my local journey, told me about another local shop called Balance Rock Farm, in Berlin, MA. And, as luck would have it, the very next day my 2YO decided that he would go ahead and forgo his daily 3 hour nap and settle for a half hour nap from which he would awake crying hysterically until I went up to retrieve him. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth; I mean really, what's better than 2 1/2 extra hours with an exhausted, clingy, whiny, tiny 2YO that's coming down with a cold? But, I am on a mission. So despite my dream of sitting at home and entertaining said tiny person, I made the tough decision to belt everyone in the car, put on a video, and head out to the farm.

6.3 miles and 16 minutes later we drove past, did a double-take, turned around, and pulled in to a tiny little building next to an old farm house and across from a large cow barn. This was promising. I retrieved my little crew from the car and brought them inside the little shop (it didn't have an automatic door but thankfully it was open for business).

"Candy me?" asked my 2YO making a beeline for the kid-level bowl of miniature candy canes just inside the entrance.

"No, no, honey" I replied, moving to replace the fistful he had already grabbed up.

The cashier looked over and in an oh so helpful voice said, "It's okay, he can have one. That's what they're there for."

Oh so helpful.

"One," I replied

"Can I have one?" piped up my 4YO.

"No, honey you already had a candy cane from your friend's birthday party at school."

We left the candy canes behind and explored the two small rooms. They had local honey and maple syrup. They had bird seed in large paper sacks (my husband refused to buy the one at Loews in a tightly woven unrecycleable plastic bag). They also had several refrigerators filled with milk, orange juice, butter, eggs, cheese and various meats. Oh, and two large open containers of cookie-looking dog biscuits.

"No, no! Don't eat that. It's not a cookie. It's doggie food. Yucky!" I pulled the soggy biscuit away from my 2YO.

"Mommy, can I have some money?" I look over at my 4YO, standing in front of two coin-op candy machines containing M&Ms and Skittles. The candy canes weren't enough?

"No, you don't need any more candy today." I continue my perusal of the local products. Well, mostly local. The orange juice claims to be local from concentrate but I've lived in New England for quite awhile and never seen the local orange grove so I'm suspicious at best. They have some gouda cheese from a local place, and she explains that this time of year they're short on local products so they get butter and things from Cabot Farm. They're in Vermont so, not neccessarily local but could be worse.

"Mommy, there's money already in here!" my 4YO exclaims excitedly. He reaches up and grabs a little paper cup from on top of the candy machine and twists the nob. A waterfall of M&Ms pours out of the little metal door.

"Me?" calls my 2YO.

I grab another cup and split the M&Ms between them. I gain another 2 minutes to look around.

The freezer and refrigerator have a nice assortment of meats. I pick up a Ziplock bag containing two enormous chicken breasts (4.55 lbs total for $16.49), an indeterminate number of pork chops wrapped in butcher paper (2 lbs 9 oz for $13.16), and 2 lb ham steak (sorry I already cooked that and forgot to keep the wrapper with the price and I was so not going digging through our garbage for it, not even for you my loyal blog readers).

"Mommy, can we get some Twizzlers?" Are you kidding me!? I turn around to find my boys standing at a low shelf full of Twizzlers, Snickers bars, etc; a veritable cornucopia of individually wrapped sugar-highs that would invariably lead to a complete lack of interest in whatever well balanced meal I attempted to put in front of my kids at dinner time. What is it with these people and the candy?

I hustle the gang over to the little cash register and pay for our things. The lady is nice and it turns out that this is a family-run farm and she lives in the farm house next door. They have a barn full of cows across the street and as we're heading out her daughter-in-law offers to take us over to look in the windows so the kids can see the cows.

We each lift up a child to look in through a conveniently broken window, careful not to step on the shards of glass lying below. "Are there any outside?" my 4YO asks her.

"Yeah, they take turns staying in when it's really cold. Their...emissions help to keep the barn warm so the pipes don't freeze," she responded.

You learn something new everyday.

So all in all I think I have a new resource for some local foods, and if I ever run out of candy I know right where to go. I can now make beef, pork and/or chicken maple syrup with honey casseroles. I feel that I'm making progress.

My journey will continue. I am convinced that there must be a way to find local fruits and vegetables even this time of year. I mean, I don't intend to rip up our foundation and dig out a root cellar but surely someone else has one. When I find them, I'll let you know.

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.

Stillman's

So, today I dropped my 4YO off at school and made my way the 5.4 miles (10 mins) to Oakridge Farm. I got my 2YO out and carried him over the mud piles, then lifted the baby seat out of the car and with the seat hanging from one arm and my toddler on the other hip, I made my way to the door. It had one of those, "Caution, Automatic Door" signs that a mother with no free hands loves to see. I stepped right up to it. Then closer. Then peered in to the darkened room through the firmly shut door.

I've no idea why they were closed. There was no sign to explain. I loaded the kids back in the car, and drove off to Nanna's house. There's construction by Nanna's house and my 2YO loves watching the backhoes. By then it was too late to go to the grocery store to pick up the meat, eggs, and milk that I needed because as soon as I got in there the baby would surely wake up hungry; 2YOs and screaming hungry babies do not a fun shopping trip make.

The day went on and we went back to school for pickup. Luckily, I mentioned the Oakridge closing to a friend. She clued me in to a place not farther up the road called Stillman's that had all local meat, eggs, and milk, and seasonally they have fresh produce and a CSA you can buy into. She was on her way there so I decided to chance it and bring all three kids, awake and at lunch time.



"Can we go, this place is stinky!"

Yup, it was a real dairy farm. The smell was as authentic as they come. The place was tiny and unpolished, and unfortunately the only fresh meat they sold was ground beef. I did grab 2 lbs of meat, eggs, 1/2 a gallon of milk in a glass jug, a small container of local maple syrup and some local honey; costing $25.61. It was one of my biggest achievements yet in attempting to find local foods. I look forward to seeing what they have to offer in the spring. Unfortunately, even though it is only 9.8 miles from my home, it's a 25 minutes drive. A long way to go for groceries. Plus, there's only so many ways I can think to mix together ground beef, eggs, milk, maple syrup and honey to make new and creative dishes. I suppose I could come up with a casserole or two...maybe some honey coated meat loaf? Wait, I still need bread crumbs for that. Well, one way or another, if I'm going to eat local I'll have to find some other ingredients.