Currently, buying local food is a multi-step procedure which is not easy to share with your worldwide Internet friends. You must (1) go to one of the global sites (linked above), (2) type in your location so it will tell you how to find out about your local farmers' market, (3) go to the market or read their newsletter to discover what's in season, (4) find a recipe. None of those steps are hard, but in today's insta-society, that's perversely just hard enough to turn local food buying into some sort of obscure, esoteric hobby. And it's unfortunate because -- if they would just pool their databases and hook up with a big recipe database -- they could turn the procedure into a single fun click that could go viral in a snap!
I think I'll email the sites above and tell them to get on the ball. ;^)
Meanwhile -- even without checking the Internet -- I've started one local food habit, and I hope you will all be impressed by how very eco-friendly this is!
I like to buy beer from a local shop, and bring it home via public transportation. And -- going the extra mile -- I schlep it up two flights of stairs since we don't have an elevator. (Hey, it's cheaper than going to the gym!) The cool thing is that they sell the beer in re-usable bottles, so when we're done drinking it, we bring the bottles back. Then -- since the brewery is right near Zürich -- the bottles hardly waste any energy in transit making the round trip to be refilled with beer so we can buy them again!
Poking around their website, I don't see anything about them using local and/or organic ingredients. And yet, I think there's a high probability that they are using local organic ingredients. The Swiss are like that. It's one of the things I like about Switzerland. :D
4 comments:
I agree. There are too many steps in the local harvesting endeavor. I am a single parent with three jobs and realize that anything not saving time/money is hitting the cutting floor. Honestly, I didn't go to my local farm all that often last summer because of both issues.
It would be a dream to access a website with available local foods connected to recipe suggestions and maybe a delivery if a group of friends/family in my vicinity made a substantial order. The farm is a half-hour drive out and not close to anywhere else I need to go. We have CSAs, but they are even further out. Sigh.
One of our local breweries Mcmenimans, sells their growlers in mason jars.
You could get even more local by growing it yourself. There are some good books that suggest ways, even people who have no where outside to grow food, can do it.
square foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew
Here at our nunnery all of the nuns share one old rusty army canteen. We did'nt start running it through the dishwasher until we saw a herpies sore on Sister Rita's lip. I told Sister Katie to recycle and she got back on her bike.
Hey Melisma!!!
Yeah, exactly. Even if you want to buy local, making a trip to the farmer's market means expending time that many people just don't have. Though if it were more fun, it might be possible to fit it into leisure. Failing that, a cooperative effort would help.
Hey Beat Dad!!!
I've actually seriously considered getting one of those city garden plots. One of my colleagues makes his own beer, and grows his own hops!
Hey Sister Twister!!!
That's kind of an interesting story, even if it's not wholly relevant to the post at hand...
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