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Happy Earth Day! Going Green in the Kitchen

April 22, 2009 By 2 Comments


Happy Earth Day everyone! Although it may not come readily to mind, meal planning and being earth friendly definitely go hand in hand. Not only do you buy the foods your family really eats (so less waste) or shop the sales and buy in bulk (saving you money!), if you’ve been thinking about adding more organic or locally grown foods to your family’s menus, you’ll definitely need to PLAN a little more. I talked about this concept a little bit last year at this time. For myself and my family, this year I’m a little more focused on trying to buy foods that are grown locally and learning what foods are in season. It can definitely seem like a daunting task and I know it will not change overnight. Certainly, with our busy family (like so many of you too!), there will have to be compromises. However, I know it will NOT be impossible!

Last month, my MOMS Club’s monthly business meeting hosted a local couple who, last year, pledged to eat ONLY foods that were grown within 100 miles of their home. Wow! What a fantastic discussion we had and we all left so inspired! The Arroyos-Kattan family (and yes, they do have a young child too!) have chronicled their nearly year-long journey on their website at 100MileHarvest. What I found especially relevant is that this family lives in the same city as me so I knew the opportunities they had found would make my job easier–because they had done so much of the legwork. They touched on joining a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) but primarily, they frequented local farmers markets regularly. Not only did they learn what foods are available in our region and at what times, they developed lasting relationships with the farmers who actually grow the food we eat. How cool is that? There are farmer’s markets popping up in all areas of the country. You can search for one near you here.

One thing you may find as you begin to shop locally is that the fruits & vegetables you are used to shopping for year-round really should be! They are coming from farawy countries like Chile or other South American countries–which means they have been picked long before they make it to your grocery store and like traveled planes, trains and automobiles to get to you! Some of the food we eat is much better traveled than we are!

So how do you know what you should be buying and when? For many of us, we can just think back to when we were kids and remember that watermelons and grapes were not available in January because that was not when they were grown. Just because things are in the store does not mean they are in season. How do you know? Check out this handy chart.

One thing you will find as you begin to shop locally is that many times produce and meat (yes, you can buy locally raised meat too!) just tastes better! In my area, I don’t always have to go to the farmer’s market or local produce co-op to get locally grown food–many grocery stores are working to provide locally grown food to shoppers as well.

So, you may say this all sounds great but where to you begin? Like anything new, I say start small. Let’s say you want to start with fruits…look for fruits that are locally grown and after you’ve learned what is in season and where things come from, then you can move on to vegetables, then beef, then poultry, etc. Perhaps you will find that table grapes are just not grown in your area but you’re not willing to give them up. That’s ok! But instead of choosing the grapes from Chile, choose the ones from California as they’re trip has been a little bit shorter.
I hope you’ll join me in this journey of planning to eat a little bit more locally this year. Let me know your thoughts and comments in the comments section below! Until later, happy cooking!
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Filed Under: CSA, eating locally, farmers markets, organic, sustainable eating

Comments

  1. Nicolescu Ana-Maria says:
    April 27, 2009 at 2:56 am

    PRETTY BLOG.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Natural Food Fun in the Kitchen for Earth Day and Easter! says:
    June 9, 2011 at 7:50 pm

    [...] looking for more ways you can go green in the kitchen, check out a couple of my older posts like this one about learning to choose locally grown foods or this one about some cool reusable produce bags that I like to use (new giveaway coming [...]

    Reply

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