| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 5:21:21 PM
Read directions carefully!
I will send a handmade canvas grocery tote to one lucky reader of my blog. Go to www.willowtreecreek.wordpress.com and read my posts on eating local. Be sure to leave a comment on my blog but then come back here to this post. On this thread you must post one thing you found intersting, amazing, stupid, life changing, etc. etc. that you discovered from reading my blogs regarding local eating. I will choose the winner based on the entries in THIS post. Winner will be chosen on Friday August 10th.
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| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 08 2007 : 6:48:44 PM
I totally agree with gardening. I was unable to do a garden this summer because I was finishing up my masters and knew I wouldn't have time. I miss all that great produce. Richie and I had a great talk on our way home from his class tonight ( he is getting his doctorate) about food and pesticides and GM products. We live in the midst of Rice and Soybean country. We are literally surrounded. We actually lease about 100 acres of land to a farmer who plants soybeans and his mom has some rice fields leased out. So the real truth is, part of our income comes from these products. My husbands only amount to a few hundred dollars a year but we are still profiting from products I don't agree with. As we drove past the signs boasting all the GM products I told him I really wanted to work to make our household more sustainable. Raising our own meat, fruits and veggies. He always laughs and calls me a tree hugger but says he will support me! I look forward to our food changes over the next few years.
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| sweetproserpina |
Posted - Aug 08 2007 : 3:32:34 PM
I love your series Julie, it's a subject that I've been doing a lot of reading about lately and the more I read the more eating local is the very best answer. I posted a comment on your blog, but I'll mention another thing here that came to mind.
You can't get anymore local than your own garden. This year is the first real year I've done any major forays into food gardening and boy, is it satisfying - and easier than I imagined! Take potatoes (one of the worst for pesticides on your list) I dug a trench, dropped a piece of potato in and covered it up. A little water, a little weeding, a little hilling and I've been enjoying freshly dug potatoes for the past month. Not only is it like a treasure hunt every time I dig my fingers into the soil, but when I eat them they taste like the earth, not bland or boring at all. And of course, the added knowledge that you know everything that went into those potatoes makes them taste even better!
When you eat local and in season you help save the environment and your health, but you also save good taste! I'd rather eat hand-picked, sun-sweetened strawberries from the place down the road in only June and July, than buy those awful ones they ship here in February that may look 'perfect' but hide white tasteless insides. Because I freeze'em and preserve'em when they are in season, I may not have fresh strawberries for my pancakes in February, but I sure do have the sweetest strawberry sauce instead!
"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world."
http://theprimroseway.blogspot.com/ |
| therealshari |
Posted - Aug 08 2007 : 09:31:55 AM
Several years ago, I raised rabbits commercially. Actually I also owned the processing plant, but that's another story.
We leased an old dairy farm, 35 acres with a 5-acre barn and house. Long story short, we sub-leased the land (almost 30 acres) to another local farm, who planted corn. Now, there's a HUGE corn processor just 8 miles from this field, but no... his corn went over 250 miles to a processor.
The guys just 8 miles down the road brought their corn in from the eastern part of the state... another 250 mile drive... go figure!
As for the rabbit business, we refused to transport our animals for more than 6 hours, so if you lived more than about 200 miles away, you couldn't do business with us very easily.
Shari Thomas
farmer, web copywriter, blogger
Shari's Gone Country
Vote for me at "Blog for a year" |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 08 2007 : 05:29:58 AM
KAthy I think this is a topic TOTALLY worth getting cranky over! So get fired up!
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| ktknits |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 7:57:27 PM
Just re-read my post, and I sound pretty fired up & cranky!
I think I need to have some tea & ice cream with hershey's chocolate(all preservative laden, of course) and lay down for a spell!
http://ktknits.blogspot.com |
| ktknits |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 7:48:35 PM
The thing that amazes me the most is the fact that these chemicals, pesticides, hormones, preservatives, etc. are known to be bad for us. Very bad in some cases--lethal, cancer causing type bad, and even so we continue to eat and feed our families these same foods. I'm not pointing the finger at anyone else--I'm looking in the mirror when I say this. Read the labels on your food--look at all the words you can't pronounce. Does that scare you even the tiniest bit? But when my husband wants a Pepsi, I get it for him. When he wants Honey Buns or Ho Ho's or potato chips, I buy them at the store and have them in the house.
Sometimes I think our entire society is crazy! We're killing ourselves, but we run to the golden arches or .....(insert your favorite fast food icon) as fast as we can.
By the way, did anyone see the articles today about the taste tests at McDonalds and how the "branding" made the food taste better?! My point exactly!!
http://ktknits.blogspot.com |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 11:22:22 AM
Hey Julie--
this is unrelated, but I have difficulty getting emails to people within the site, and I just sent you one. Please let me know if you don't get it!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian. |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 09:43:41 AM
I visited France 2 summers ago and it was amazing! The european countries really understand the meaning of local food! Especially in Italy! Farmers from each town swore up and down that their olives or wine or whatever was better than that of the next town over! Unfortunaly one of the big problems in the US is the sheer distance between places and our desire to be urbanized! Farming in europe still seems to be a highly appreciated art that seems to have gone the wayside here in the US!
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| Nance in France |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 09:28:01 AM
Great writeup, Julie, left a comment for you! We shop the preferred way here in France, because the smaller towns and villages have wonderful butchers, bakeries, and vegetable markets, not to mention the twice weekly big market with vendors selling everything from clothing to soaps to pottery to veggies; but alas, in Norfolk a local butcher ain't that easy to come across. We do however frequent the small farmers market in Norfolk and hope to see it prosper and expand. There is a much larger market in Virginia Beach but it takes so much longer to get there, and besides, I always root for the underdog, ha! Yikes, so sad to see all my "friends" on the most tainted list!! Nance |
| Vintage Redhead |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 08:52:25 AM
Okay...what shocked *ME* the most was the 12 most contaminated foods. *YIKES*!!! Thankfully, I already eat only organic spinach. I buy my potatoes and green peppers locally - leading me to believe that they are less contaminated than those that have had to travel across the country. But apples, strawberries, raspberries, celery and grapes? Those just don't grow year-round in Chicagoland. Before reading about the contamination, I didn't have a valid reason to spend the extra $$$ to buy those organic. *NOW* I do!!! ~ Kaylyn
~ Kaylyn ~ (Living in Suburbia with a FARMGIRL Heart!)
My Cause: http://nickspavilion.com/
My Life: http://vintageredhead.blogspot.com |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 06:27:09 AM
Great! Good luck!
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| levisgrammy |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 7:29:25 PM
Julie,
Lots of great information. We try to stay with the local. We live in the garden state with farms all around so we try to get everything we can from close to home. We have found a farmer who sells organic meat so are planning to fill the freezer this year.
Will check out some of the websites you mentioned too.
thanks
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and all that dwell therein."
www.torismimi.blogspot.com |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 7:11:03 PM
Thanks everyone! Shari I will try to do a post on container gardening sometime soon! That is an excellent point!
I have really enjoyed doing the research on this topic. I have really learned a lot. My closest store is a Walmart which is 20 miles away. I hate shopping there but it is unfortunatly the only choice as far as grocery stores are concerned. This summer I have actually knocked on the doors of people who had gardens in thier yards and offered to buy produce from them. Most people laughed and said "Honey take all you want!" I found out that my nextdoor neighbor (actually 3/4 mile away) actually raises chickens and has fresh eggs! A girl I work with has a dairy farm but is GIVING me all the raw milk I want! She has one cow that they hand milk cause she wanted her kids to have the experience! It takes some slueth work and some tenacity but Local Food is out there if you start looking!
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| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 6:05:29 PM
Wonderful blog!! I am so sorry I hadn't been a reader before!! Such a wonderful whole lot of great info. We eat local as much as possible and sure notice the difference. I try especially to avoid big chains for groceries as much as I can. Easier since we live in the boonies...but it IS only 7 miles to a Super Walmart..ugh!
I was amazed by the info on contamination on produce..with apples right there on the list. We use alot of apples. We have two trees, very iffy old trees, and buy local apples in season. There is a great apple farm about an hour north of here that we stop at on any trip up that way..wonderful!!
I love this topic and thanks for doing all this work!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
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| cabinmoose |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 5:55:29 PM
Julie,
I am a very concious eat local shopper. I will spend an extra two hours shopping in order to support the little guys and gals. I know it costs me more but I also know that my money is going to a deserving farmer or small business working hard to earn a living.
We have a small grocer here actually about 30 minutes from me which may not seem like alot to those of you more rural but I have a large chain store within 10 minutes....anyhow this little grocery gets my business hands down every time. They cut my steaks just the way I like them when I get there. They ground my beef fresh and cut my chicken up while I wait. The conversation is the best. We laugh, we cry and we enjoy each others company. You see the same folk every time you go in unless someone gets ill and then we all pitch in to help them out.
I love the farmers market and I get there just about every Saturday. My family knows we have strawberry pie for dessert every sunday in the summer!
What if found incredible in your blog is the amount of fuel consumed / wasted transporting food. If we could save a fraction of that by buying local we would be doing the earth a tremendous favor!
Thanks for bringing light to this topic!
Hugs,
Lorna
Forest Hill, MD
“I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry.
And I know you do the same things too, So we're really
not that different, me and you.” ~Colin Raye |
| therealshari |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 5:36:46 PM
I really liked the "Eat Local, and if you can't..." guidelines. Thanks for putting this very serious subject in front of us.
Shari Thomas
farmer, web copywriter, blogger
Shari's Gone Country
Vote for me at "Blog for a year" |
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