I wrote the following a couple of weeks back, but kept putting off posting it...not sure why...so am going to park it here today.
Last night, we enjoyed a lovely dinner of air-chilled organic chicken (raised in-state!) with locally grown mushrooms and green peas alongside a cucumber and tomato salad marinated in homemade vinaigrette.
As of 1 pm today, I’ve eaten one banana and half a frozen bagel on the way out the door, one slice of Domino’s pizza at a playdate and some water, lemonade and cranberry juice. Oh, and a couple of organic tortilla chips flavored with New Mexico hatch chiles because neither breakfast nor lunch were satisfying (surprised?). Right now, I’m resisting the urge to nosh on Cheddar Bunnies (which are better than Goldfish because they don’t have that weird burnt flavor).
Yeah, this “eat local” thing…it can be a hit-or-miss adventure. Especially if you’ve got conflicting roles: parent, spouse, daughter, writer…blogger.
Mind you, my intentions are good. While our community is just coming--shouldn't that be "returning"?--to the locavore table, we do try to do our part to foster sustainable food systems. We grow a tiny Victory Garden, shop the farmer’s market, buy local at the grocery store when we can, and steer clear of chain restaurants most of the time (there are exceptions). I’d love to stay that we abstain from meat, but this is Texas…and I’m something of a carnivore apologist. All those years of eating beef at my grandparent’s ranch…even a vegetarian stint in college couldn’t change my tastes. I’m down to eating it just once or twice a week and eat it knowing that beef raising is huge contributor to global warming. Forgive me? Especially if I switch to grass-fed beef?
Truth is, for all the high-minded chat about locavorism, it’s a simple fact of life that to change habits and tastes, we have to accept that we live and eat in a world that is only slowly catching up with our idealism. In fact, it may fall short of meeting our expectations in the end. After all, not every community has the infrastructure…let alone the soil and climate…to promote full-tilt locavorism yet. And personal habits take time to change. (Plus, few foods stand the heat of a back seat in summer here. Organic Cheddar Bunnies, alas, fit the bill without leaving me in perpetual terror of something either getting stuck or being consumed on the sly days later.)
That said, when I have one of these days…when I backslide and land bum-first in preservative-laden processed food land…I just remind myself of what a good friend once told me. I'll paraphrase:
Learning to eat local is a lot like going on a diet. For lasting change, you have to change your habits slowly and expect some setbacks. When you do, shake ‘em off and move on.
So, in a couple of hours, after a much needed siesta (all those carbs are makin’ me sleepy) and a bit of play time with my son, I’m planning to boil a bit of water with fresh, chopped poblano peppers for about twenty minutes, run it through the food processor, and use it to cook some Texas-grown rice, enough to last a couple of days. Tonight, we’ll prolly eat it with the rest of last night’s chicken, which was flavored with tarragon, rosemary and parsley from our container herb garden. And I think we’ve got some cukes and ‘maters in the fridge.
You know, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.
Uh-oh.
Someone better hide the Cheddar Bunnies.
Food For Thought: Hmmm...what's the food mile calculation on a Cheddar Bunny? Do I even want to know?
Image source: FreeFoto.com.
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