Got Local?

September 5-11 is GOING LOCAL Week for 2010. The goal of this non-centralized event is to get more local foods onto more local plates. We all know why this is important for our economy and our environment as well as for the taste of our meals. You can see the details of the event at the Going Local blog.

In our home, at least during the summer months, nearly all of the food that we eat is bought directly from the folks who produce it. Because we don't really eat grains, which you don't generally find at the farmers market, the only foods that we buy from the grocery store are olive oil, salt, pepper and seasonings for the most part. For us, "going local" has become "gone local" for a majority of the meals that we eat at home. So, when we were looking through the list of things to do I was getting a little arrogant about how great we were already doing. We even make an effort to share meals with others so that they might catch the 'local food bug' themselves.

As we looked further down the list, though, we saw a bullet point that could well have been underlined, in boldface, and blinking with a picture of us next to it marked "slackers!" We have talked about and talked about preserving food for winter this year and have done nothing other than this project, also from Going Local. This is our commitment for the week. Preserve something now so that we can skip a trip to the grocery this winter when the pickin's are slim.

If you are like us and are already fully on the band wagon for local eats, may we suggest that you dig deep and find a way to promote this movement. If this is a newer idea for you, do what you can and be proud for having made a concerted effort! As we were reminded in the movie Food, Inc., every dollar we spend on food is a vote for a particular approach to food production. Decide what's important to you and vote accordingly.