The day after a Thanksgiving feast is a great day for reflection. Not only for the many, many things I am thankful for, but also this year in particular I have been reflecting on my self-propelled journey into local and seasonal eating. Turning my thinking towards local eating is a gradual lifestyle shift in which I am attempting to reacquaint myself with food. The idea of reacquainting myself with food seems almost silly. Do I not spend hours in my kitchen cooking, planning, and enjoying food? But despite this, most of my experiences with food existed only after buying it at the grocery store. That is most certainly missing a lot of the process it took to get that food to me. It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the thousands of miles it took for many of my favorite foods to arrive in my hands, and the ecological and nutritional tolls that takes.
So this year I decided to reacquaint myself with food and serve a Thanksgiving feast of foods whose history, travels, and growers I knew. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I had expected and the journey proved to be worth every effort.
Here is the menu:
Turkey – an 18 pound grain fed, antibiotic free, ethically raised turkey from JD Farms in Langley http://www.jdfarms.ca/
Stuffing - Sliver Hills Sprouted Bakery Bread (Abbotsford) Walla Walla onions (Washington) Free Range Eggs from Maple Hills Farms (Abbotsford) and fresh Thyme and Sage (Delta)
Cranberry Sauce – Fresh cranberries from the Farmers Market, honey by Chilliwack River Valley Natural Gourmet
Gravy – Drippings from turkey, whole-wheat flour from Anita’s Organic Mill (Chilliwack)
Carrots – backyard garden
Brussel Sprouts – backyard garden
Corn – From Farmers Market, grown in the Fraser Valley
Potatoes – Yukon Gold (Keremeos, purchased while travelling in the region) Purple Russian Garlic (Keremeos)
Squash dish – Acorn squash (Keremeos purchased while travelling in the region) Crimini mushrooms (Fraser Valley) Green Beans (local farmers market) Hazelnuts (Aggasiz) Fresh Sage and Thyme (Delta) Garlic (Keremeos) Butter (Fraser Valley)
Pumpkin Pie – Pumpkin (our garden) Milk (Avalon Organic Dairy, Burnaby) Eggs (Abbotsford) Honey (Chilliwack) Hazelnuts (Aggasiz) Spices (not local) Whole wheat flour (Chilliwack) Butter (Fraser Valley)
Whipping cream – Cream (Avalon Organic Dairy, Burnaby) Vanilla (not local) icing sugar (not local)
Apple Pie – Macintosh Apples (Keremeos) Flour (Chilliwack) Butter (Fraser Valley) Spices (not local) lemon (not local)
Ice Cream – Island Dairy (Vancouver Island)
So not perfect, definitely some notable not local additions in the dessert area, but on the whole I was very proud of the ability to eat so well locally. I was amazed at how powerful the simple act of cutting corn off the cob was. Of course I know that corn comes from the cob, and in the summer I eat local corn on the cob and immensely enjoy it. But what do I do the rest of the year? I suspect what most people do, simply purchase it in frozen in bags or cans and not think twice about where it came from. Turns out the frozen corn I keep in my freezer the rest of the year is from Seattle. How silly it seems to eat corn from Seattle when it grows so much closer to home and all it takes is a little slicing.
This culinary experiment has simply reinforced how manageable it is to take small steps towards eating more locally and seasonally. I live in an amazing region of the world where delicious food abounds and with a little effort and planning its bounty seems to simply unfold before me. Participating in local market economy, talking to farmers and growers, and getting my own hands dirty in my garden are powerful reminders of food as it was meant to be and an attachment to the land that I had all but forgotten.
Granted, I do have to admit that eating locally is more expensive and it’s cost is a barrier to many for whom food is a less than enjoyable, worrisome experience due to it’s cost. My local Thanksgiving feast required more expensive ingredients from specialty realtors such as Whole Foods and Choices. And the cost between some ingredients, local honey versus mass-produced imported white sugar for example, were staggering. But there were some pleasant cost savings as well, such as a bag stuffed full of fresh herbs for $1.50 and Aggasiz hazelnuts for less than my local Grocery store charges. On the whole though, I am keenly aware of the expense of local eating and how unattainable it would seem if food insecurity were a problem I faced.
This week I have been researching what, if anything is being done in my community to support food security for those most at risk. This is not a mute issue and I found several advocacy groups working towards protecting food and it’s accessibility in my city and province.
BC Foods Systems Network http://fooddemocracy.org/
New Westminster Food Action Committee http://www.fraserregionfoodnetwork.ca/new-westminster-community-food-action-committee/
Fraser Valley Food Network http://www.fraservalleyfoodnetwork.com/
These groups are working towards making changes towards our Province’s and Country’s food policies and putting accessibility of nutritious foods for all citizens at the forefront of public consciousness.
Going forward from this experience I have decided to set a personal nutrition goal for myself this year. My goal is for my diet to consist of at least 80% BC grown fruits and vegetables. To make this goal more manageable I have signed up for an organic fruit and vegetable delivery service where I can select my produce each week by what is availably locally instead of the standard array of food imported across the globe at every ecological and nutritional consequence possible. I was also extremely pleased to find that it will cost me no more for this service than I was paying at markets and grocery stores. www.spud.ca
A few small steps, a big impact in my life, and an endless array of possibilities, challenges and improvements on a larger scale. I now proudly take up the term “locavore” in my lifelong journey of food discovery, growing, cooking, and most importantly eating.
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