Locavore Week

Dear Reader, I started this post nine months ago, sorry I never finished it, I'll post it now.

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life," and this week it inspired an experiment. In the book, the author's family of four pledges to go a year eating only local food, grown conscientiously, and to grow or raise a lot of their food themselves.


Here in Oakland, my romantic roommate and I decided to go the whole week eating only from farmers markets. A much humbler promise.

Here's the thing: this is California, and it's late May. There are four farmers markets a week that are easily accessible to us, and plus it's spring and gardens are starting to flourish. It should be obvious that most or all of our food would from the beautiful local bounty within a hundred miles of where I live.

In or near my neighborhood, there are also two Safeways, a Trader Joe's, and various other places to get food that may or may not be local, or actual food. Although we frequently take advantage of farmers markets, we don't make a point of it, and we eat out quite a bit. This would mean no grocery store, no lunches out during work days, and no "I don't feel like rooting around the fridge for some healthy shit, lets just grab a beer and a burger down the street."
And speaking of beer...what would we do about that? There are a lot of things besides vegetables you can get at the farmers market, but beer isn't one of them. This lead to some other discussion as well, what about tea and coffee, respectively? They sell coffee at the market, but is it grown locally? Well, we said, if its at the market that's fine. But they don't have tea. Should one of us get our fix and not the other? That didn't seem right.

Here are a handful of exceptions we came up with to the "Only Farmers Markets" rule:
-Beverages (I mean, do we really want to think about kicking drug habits at the same time we try buying food conscientiously? Nah, that sounds hard.)
-Free staff meal at the restaurant where I work, 'cause it's free food.
-Those who find themselves accidentally stranded on a desert island (aka workplace) with no farmers market food are allowed to seek other sustenance. We're trying to do something good, not punish ourselves.
-Whatever we already had in the kitchen, we could use. Sweet, we have a bit of canned goods, condiments, rice, spices, etcetera.

Perhaps at this point you're thinking this is a weak promise, but these caveats make it so the plan might actually work. Besides, you've gotta start somewhere, and it will be interesting to learn how it will pan out, how life will be different this week.



This is a picture of all the farmers' market food we had on the Wednesday of Locavore week. In a vague zig-zag, from left to right are: crackers, caper hummus, eggs, broccoli, fava beans, red potatoes, soy milk, romaine lettuce, braising greens, fennel, tomatoes, cactus leaves, onion, limes, garlic, marinated tofu, tamari almonds, dill, samosas, cilantro, tofu, zucchini, lion's mane mushrooms, cherries, cookies, herb rolls, seed bread, olive bread.

It doesn't look like a bad lot to be dealt, and it isn't! What a georgeous spread. The problem is, we'd have to prepare it all, which means making time, doing it, and planning ahead.

Here are some meals we (I) came up with.

Shredded Tofu and Cooked Greens Sandwich with Red Potato Dill Salad












Rice and Nopales,

with homemade yellow tomato salsa.
and.....that's where I stopped writing.

Summary, if I can remember since it is now February of the following year:
-It's hard actually "preparing your own food" all the time.
-Romantic Roommate found himself stranded on an island several times; once he discovered that a can of vegetable soup does not a sustaining lunch make, and had to run out for supplemental calories, and at least one other time he didn't remember to bring lunch at all and went out for a burrito.
-I honestly can't remember if I had any emergency breakings of our goal, but I know my buddy was mostly the one, and we both did pretty well overall.
-We were relieved when the end of the week came because we could relax our rules once again, but we have tried to keep up with at least buying most of our produce from farmers market, and supplementing with other goods from stores. This past fall we decided we were on a budget, so we've been bringing our meals to work and eating in, though not necessarily locally. Since I live in California now, however, I have definitely emphasized seasonal produce in my life to a degree that I never did before in my life. It is sometimes hard to eat squash at all, let alone all winter, but it feels good to go many months without basil and tomatoes, since they really are meant for summer and tomatoes are generally not worth eating in winter no matter where you live. Plus it makes them all the more delicious when they do come into season because it's a treat! Same for any other yummy thing that doesn't grow all year. Eating somewhat locally and seasonally has made me feel much more in tune with the planet. Plus, if you're only buying what's in season, not only is it cheaper, but you don't have to think so hard about what to eat!!!

Composting made very easy! for me anyway...

A couple of months ago I figured out that in Oakland all I have to do is separate my compostable trash and then dump it in a barrel, and it will be composted. The thought of composting has always been attractive, but I figured I'd have to wait at least until I had a yard, and then until I was motivated enough to construct an elaborate rig-up with earthworms and regular rotation. Turns out all I need is to live in a city where they'll pick it up once a week and rot it for you. Not that I have access to the finished product, but I also don't yet have access to a garden, and simply would like to know that my trash is being dealt with in an appropriate manner. Above is a somewhat odd picture of dumping the small kitchen pail into the sidewalk barrel used for the three households on the property. Lest you think I was discarding a beautiful, whole bean pod, rest assured that I took the beans out and ate them last night, and that pod did not appear edible.

Letting food waste go into the landfill is saaadd, because even though it is biodegradable, it won't break down in that environment and will just sit and pile up like all the other trash. Also, lots of non-food items that can't be recycled can be composted, so finally there is a spot for greasy pizza boxes, other paper food boxes like the ones you get as doggie bags or at salad bars, waxed paper, tea bags and their paper wrappers (I used to put the wrappers in the recycle bin, but I figure they probably get lost in the shuffle), coffee cups and wooden stirrers, and any other dirty paper. Then there's the food items, which include carrot tops, egg shells, coffee grounds, any peels, husks, stems or other parts of foods that your not eating, as well as leftovers, your sad old cut flowers, and yard waste. Don't tell Oakland, but I also think the compost bin is an excellent place for nail clippings and hairbrush hairballs, the latter of which was included in my last load. They say you can put meat, bones, and shells in, so I don't see why our own discarded animal bits can't be added as well! They do put a restriction on diapers and pet waste, and while I think it's tragic that every baby and dog poo in the Bay Area will be preserved for eternity in plastic bags, I understand it is probably for the safety of the workers.

San Francisco has the same arrangement, so I think slowly all the businesses and households who haven't already will begin to throw their organic matter into a different bin, so it can break down like nature intended. Hopefully lots of other cities will follow, and eventually we'll all be doing this. I'm sure lots of other cities compost already, but I know that many positive trends start in California!

Now I have three spots for waste in the kitchen, and I'm very happy to say that the recycling and compost bins are emptied about four times more often than the trash, which sits there for weeks before getting filled. Pretty cool!

Here is a slightly closer look at the adorable trash can illustrations done by my crafty domestic partner.











I think it's so cool that the government could be doing something as positive as this, and then I think, "wait, duh, right? It's so uncool that they wouldn't."

If it hasn't already, I hope your town starts composting soon! Until then, happy recycling, and maybe composting on your own! Peace.