How to Eat Local and Make it Work

Eating local is for the rich, but what about the rest of us?

If we want to eat fresh, locally-grown food, we need one of two things: a lot of time, or a lot of money to pay someone else for their time.

Because, let's face it: the reason processed foods are so popular is because they are cheap and fast.

Granted, they aren't as cheap as they used to be, and I've always maintained that it's possible to eat much more cheaply by buying the ingredients and making it yourself. As long as you buy what's in season and aren't trying to get the strawberries from Chili in January.

The article cited above is in the New York Times today, and tells us about people who can afford to pay someone to not just cook their food (hello Personal Chefs), but also to plant a garden for them and do all the work of maintaining it.

See, that's what I need. Not because I don't have time, but just because I can't seem to get the hang of making food grow.

But I can't afford to pay someone. And processing food takes time.

I spent a while this morning doing it again. I had five cucumbers from the CSA and what am I going to do with them? It's just me and my husband. I suppose I could use one cucumber a day on a salad for us, but really - we just don't eat that much. So I made cucumber soup. One jar in the frig for consumption this week, the other in the freezer for later.

Then there were those 3 big ears of corn from CSA. Darn - I was going to cook those last week, but I forgot about them. And back to my first dilemna, it's just the two of us. We can't eat 3 ears of corn at one sitting.

So I cut the corn off and froze it. Now I have a bag of corn I can toss into a soup or salad whenever I'm ready.

A week or two ago, I made yogurt, waffles, and carrot soup. Last night, I chopped up several of the red onions from the CSA and made onion soup. I steamed the pretty purple carrots and froze them for another meal. And don't forget all the plum things (preserves, sauce, pies...) I've been making and canning and freezing lately.

This is what is takes to buy food from our local farmers. Time and effort. I love doing it and I would do it even if I was working a full-time job. But most people don't feel that way about it. So they keep eating the cheap, convenient, lousy processed food.

We need co-ops. I'm giving this a lot of thought and I'm going to come up with a business plan. Sure, I can add it to my services as a Personal Chef. I'll be available to work for a group of people who want someone to process their food. But the real winning idea is for people to do it themselves.

Form co-ops and share the tasks. It could be done in several different ways - people working all week could have weekend work days where each member commits to work an hour or two. They could do it in shifts until all the food is processed, then everyone takes home their share. Or have a few people do it all one week, and different people do it all the next week. Whatever will work for that group.

I think it's essential that we come up with a way to do this. We cannot survive if we stay dependent on the Food Industry. I'll keep working on the idea and I'll write more about it as it develops. Once I have a plan in place, I want to get the word out. I'd love to help coordinate these groups. Give people ideas on how to do it, and pitch in and help, too.

Because eating local, organic food is NOT just for the rich. It's for all of us.