Local Eating

During farmer’s market season (when the schedule allows, I have to say, since the summer youth ministry thing and vacation time will make this a little tricky), we’re going to try to cook one local meal a week.

At the same time that we’re attempting this, I am trying to lose the final 8 pounds in my weight loss goal. (The final eight of 35 pounds…I’ve basically lost an entire toddler in the last few months). The irony of this is that I have to ask questions like, “And, how does the fat content of the duck eggs compare to that of the chicken eggs?” and “So, do you have, among all these lovely artisan cheeses, one that is low fat?” I think these are big no-nos in the local food world. As far as I can tell, part of the POINT is that there’s no nutrition information on the food. In addition, on the way to the farmer’s market today, so that I would not buy things that I shouldn’t buy because I was too hungry, I ate a rather delicious weight control type bar, the ultimate in frankenfoods, and surely something that was manufactured using child-slave labor and shipped here from who-knows-where using all kinds of petroleum (and, probably containing petroleum, too.) I am torn between the two big problems of the American diet: fatness and not-localness. What to do?

Anyway, I bought mixed spicy greens, beautiful swiss chard, duck eggs (!!), radishes, and small chunks of a lowfat/low salt farmer cheese, and a fantastic “bandage cheddar”.

I’ll try to record our menus for this experiment here (maybe I’ll even do pictures if I remember), so here goes for this week:

  • wine-braised radishes and chard stems
  • steamed mixed greens
  • soft boiled duck eggs
  • local cheeses
  • whole wheat crackers

(Dang, I feel like Alice Waters!)

Local ingredients:

  • chard, duck eggs, cheeses, greens, radishes, thyme from our kitchen pots

Not local ingredients:

  • shallots, garlic, broth, wine, Erik’s beer, olive oil, regular grocery store chicken eggs (to compare to the duck), and the vasa crackers (we were going to have some of the whole wheat bread that I whipped up this morning, but I left it behind–we are staying at my parents for a few nights, and so I had to pack everything up, making the meal less local. Whatever.)

Cost of meal:

  • I can’t bring myself to admit it because I think my Dutch ethnicity would be rescinded.

2 Responses to “Local Eating”

  1. Teri Says:

    Why does eating local and/or organic have to be so expensive? It makes me sad….but I continue to do it and hope that eventually cost will come down (or else eating all the petroleum-fueled food will get more expensive!). oy.

    Your meal sounds great. How were the duck eggs?

  2. Erica Says:

    The duck eggs were good…almost gamey.

    But, I agree about the expense thing. Even the whole argument that more of the money goes to the local folks doesn’t sit well with me…because it is still out of my budget range!!