I've been thinking more about what I wrote in my last post about "slow food", and the reputation local/organic food has for being expensive. It's reminding me of something I heard in a previous lifetime, back when I was working for Corporate America. The mnemonic is a triangle, with three edges labeled "fast", "cheap", and "good". Each of those traits is desirable when designing a new product, but corporate wisdom says you can only achieve two of the three.
If you want fast and cheap -- which many Americans do when it comes to food -- then you can't get good quality. If you want your food to be good (which I do) then you either have to pay more or put more time into it, or both. I've chosen to devote time, to reduce my need for money.
If you have neither to spare, then the only way to improve the quality of your food is to eat less of it.
It seems kind of silly to be extolling the virtues of an agrarian lifestyle as if it were a novelty, when it's the way most people have lived throughout most of history. Especially here in Ithaca, where so many people know so much more about it than I do. But, city girl that I am, it still seems strange and wondrous to me to have all this food coming out of nowhere in my own back yard. Unlike money, food *does* grow on trees. And bushes, and canes, and vines... And, hard as it is for us wealth-obsessed Americans to wrap our heads around the idea, food is the more important of the two.
breakfast: grits with raspberries, maple syrup, and almond milk
lunch: chicken sandwiches (same as yesterday), raspberries, sweet peppers
dinner: corn/barley bread; french onion soup (onions (garden), roasted chicken stock (from Sunday's roasted chicken) with carrot & celery greens and herbs (garden))
9/7 Menu:
breakfast: rolled barley (Cayuga Pure) cereal with raspberries (garden)
lunch: leftovers from last night plus raspberries (garden)
dinner: buffalo snack sticks (Glenwood Farms), the rest of the corn/barley bread w/jelly, sweet peppers, mulled cider (Littletree)
Tonight is one of those nights when I just don't feel like cooking. Thank goodness there was still bread left from yesterday! I've got a bag full of paste tomatoes to process, and I already spent a chunk of time today decanting wine and cutting up tomatoes to dry. I'm dreading school lunch tomorrow, since I won't have any leftovers to pack. I can give her more snack sticks again, I suppose, but I'm going to need more bread. And oh man, I forgot about jars. I don't have enough canning jars. Sophia started school today, you would think I'd have had *more* free time, but it's been one of those rushing-from-one-thing-to-the-next-all-day-long days.
On the bright side, we've made it through the first week and I haven't resorted to using rice yet. Won't be much longer, tho, with all these tomatoes and no local pasta. And not enough canning jars.
Today I watched a great lecture by Peter Sellers which is part of the UCBerkeley You Tube series, Edible Education. He addressed this issue in a way that really resonated with me. I recommend it to everyone.
ReplyDeletePartner Perspective
ReplyDeleteWell, this week I had to travel for work... and it won't be the only time this month. So I'm missing out on many of the yummies described.
On the other hand, it gave me a chance to take the message further afield than just NY. I stayed with my parents in NJ for a few days (they are just across town from my company's main office, and they appreciate seeing me when I come into town for work). I told them about the locavore challenge, to which my mom said something like "well, you don't expect me to do that, do you?"
And yet... she made an effort to include more local things in the meals while I was there anyway. And when I say "more local things" that's pretty significant, since she has quite a prolific garden. They are also currently big devotees of Joel Fuhrman and Colin Campbell which means they're eating a lot of veggies anyway.
On top of that, I brought some local NY beer along with me to share. Since they're within 200 miles of us, I figured that local here and local there were both "on the diet."