Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

Hahaha, it's Wednesday and I'm now realizing that yesterday was Book Tuesday. Okay, so the day got away from me. Anyway, back to it...

Alisa and J.B. are a long-term couple who live together in the Pacific Northwest, in a little apartment with no patch of grass to call their own. So their attempt to only eat food harvested within a 100 mile radius was a grand and lofty goal. And probably a bit more along the lines of how we surbanites would have to go about it if we decided to make the big break. They don't have any problems finding food during the growing season due to all the local farmers' markets. However, they do have to go on a bit of a hunt to find many things we take for granted: flour, rice, oats, wheat, beans, etc.

They spend one month living completely off the land during the summer in the Canadian wilderness - no electricity, no plumbing, just a shelter, lots of lush foliage, and a nearby stream. The crunch comes when they are trying to preserve a variety of foods to have in the winter when they can't go to the grocery store - keeping in mind they have a tiny apartment.

So realistically, after reading both of these books, here's what I do. I buy from the farmers' markets from April to November, supplemented with veggies and herbs from my own garden, and sadly traipse off to the grocery store from December to April. I do buy only anti-biotic and hormone free meats, organic hormone-free milk, and try to keep my winter produce from within the United States. "It's expensive! I can't do that!" you say. Well, you're right, it is expensive. But sometimes you have to decide what's more important and make changes. Eat less meat - we are only designed to process red meat once a week and white meats up to 4 times per week. As Americans, we think it's our sworn duty to eat meat at every meal and red meat at least once a day. This is what causes us to be sluggish and irregular. Eat more bean and rice dishes, pasta with veggies, quick processing things. If you reduce the amount of meat you eat and take in more legumes and grains, you can even out the higher cost of the AB & H-free meats.

Also, I'm going to try to plant more this year.