Or "just start". Either way the sentiment to just get going no matter if you're fully prepared or ready to go 100% or feel like you're going to succeed has resonated with me the past 8 or so months. Primarily in how I feed myself.
*Before I get into this, let me preface it with the fact that I am single and have the privilege of a steady income, disposable time and live in an area with good soil and plentiful water. *
Okay, back to how I'm feeding myself. This was a long time coming and I'm not sure I can pinpoint one turning point or even one hard reason. It may have been the vegetables and fruits my parents grew in our home garden every summer, the summer before my senior year of college when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver at the urging of a dear friend, or a move from a very urban area to a more rural town. It may be the benefits that being a locavore has on my community, the local economy and the planet. Either way, I made the decision to take more intentional steps to becoming a locavore.
Merriam-Webster defines a locavore as one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible. If you remove the phrase 'whenever possible' and really think about what it means to only eat food grown locally, holy cow it's insanely overwhelming. Everything from considering what you can and can't get in your area based on geography to the fact that there are times of year when nothing grows to what it might mean for your grocery budget. Since Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I've read a variety of other memoirs and instructional books on how to be a locavore and always left overwhelmed and feeling like I didn't want to jump into the deep end i.e. what I saw as the perfect version of a locavore.
I finally let go of that feeling around the holidays last year and felt ready to just get started and take small actionable steps, as my favorite blogger would say, towards being a locavore. I decided that being a good, but probably not perfect, locavore was better than continuing to sit in the weird feelings I had towards the food system I was feeding myself from at the time.
I've had several people ask me about this change in how I feed myself so I thought I'd just capture some of my lessons learned and my locavore rules in one place. I think like any lifestyle change, you can't let one person define what that lifestyle means. Different things works for different people at different points during their life. This is what is working for me at this point and in this place. And I'm sure as heck no where near perfect but I'm doing good. And that's just fine with me.
Emily's Locavore Definition/Rules/Guidelines and Associated Lessons Learned
Definition of Locavore by Emily: intentionally seeking food that is local in at least one of these two ways - 1. grown in soil near me or 2. my purchase of the food directly supports a person who lives in the same community I do.
- Fruits and Vegetables - Direct from the farm/farmer or grown within 50 miles
- Easy, freaking peasy in the summer; hard in the winter when you haven't prepared by freezing and canning. I 100% recommend just starting once you decide but also recognize if that happens to be in the middle of winter in northern Michigan, you'll have to not be perfect on this one for a while .
- Milk/dairy products - From a cow (or other milk producing animal) within the state of Michigan
- Easy because there is a phenomenal dairy (glass bottles and all) less than 20 miles from me that also stocks at our local natural foods store. Pro-tip here, Google how to read the code on milk jugs in the normal store. Our dairy system is still fairly regional and there is part of the code that tells you what state the milk came from.
- Hard in terms of different kinds of cheeses, butter and sour cream/cream cheese; this is for sure one of my not perfect pieces. It's evolved to more of a regional (i.e. Wisconsin because duh) dairy product being okay. The butter is easy to get also from another Midwest state but not from Michigan and the sour cream/cream cheese is still Daisy from the grocery store when I do buy.
- Dry goods and condiments - Made in Michigan with Michigan ingredients or purchased from a locally owned store
- Mostly easy but more expensive for sure. Also way tastier. This purchasing from a local store piece gives me flexibility when I just really am craving olives or crackers that aren't grown/made by anyone in Michigan but that a locally owned specialty store stocks.
- Meat - Direct from the farm/farmer or grown within 50 miles
- More expensive and harder than the other food categories because it has basically meant I don't eat sandwiches at home. There are 5+ farms in the area that have great beef, pork and chicken selection but you definitely pay more than what you would in a grocery store. For me, personally, it's worth it for a variety of reasons that I won't get into here.
- Beer, Wine and Soda - Made in Michigan (no Michigan ingredient stipulation on this one) or made in the state I'm buying it from
- Easy peasy until I crave a coke (yes a Coca Cola), Mich Ultra or Coors Light, again good not perfect.
- Eating out - Locally owned restaurants, i.e. no chains (this rule fully stems from the fact that my family owns a restaurant and I've seen what local support means for my parents and their business partners)
- Easy but I'm no where near perfect here, I have these couple week stretches where all I want is a sausage crossanwich from BK for breakfast and the homemade version won't cut it.
A final note if you made it this far: Michigan rocks, seriously we have so many great farms with amazing produce and meat and so many great companies that make the rest. Where you live may be very different. It may not be as easy for you to do this as I've found it. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! Start somewhere small, next time you go out for a special occasion choose a local eatery or pick one specific thing you know you can easily shift to purchasing locally. At the end of the day, you'll have done something good for people, the planet and the economy.
