Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Eat Local Week

I feel like such a blogging slacker! I had family in town this weekend, and haven't caught up on my posts yet.

But for tonight, I'm enjoying the night to myself, listening to the new Coldplay album and lounging in PJs and ponytail. Heavenly.

I didn't even intend to be home right now. After work, I caught up with a girlfriend and then headed down to the BWI airport loop to ride my bike for a few hours. When I pulled my bike out of the car, it was all funky, and my short patience fuse blew before I could figure out how to fix it. So I drove home with my only sweat having been earned from frustration instead of arduous pedaling for dozens of miles. I was not a happy camper.

This week is officially Eat Local Week in Maryland, and possibly other places, and I'm happy to oblige. The challenge to consumers is to eat 10 local products during the week. My pleasure!

Since I had only myself to impress with dinner tonight, I made two quintessential summer snacks - sweet white corn on the cob and ripe heritage tomatoes on crackers with homemade pesto. The corn, tomatoes and basil for the pesto were all purchased on Saturday at the Waverly Farmers Market on 32nd St. Light and fresh, colorful and local. Local foods taste so much richer and more complex than vegetables grown in greenhouses and shipped from California. I don't have time to go off on my local food tangent right now, but there are other financial, environmental and economic reasons why it's best to eat local products.

I'm getting a little nervous thinking about how I'm going to make it through the off-season without local produce. I wasn't nearly as conscientious about eating locally last winter, but after reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and working for a local beef producer, I'm a changed soul. Will I get as creative as Kingsolver did in my in-season preservation methods? If so, I better get started canning and freezing! On second thought, not quite sure I have all that in me. Maybe I'll just limit my off-season selection to whatever is for sale locally instead of trying to preserve everything now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eating local is such a MUST! I totally agree with you.

By the by, what meat producer do you work for?