Lindsay's food for thought

Alright folks, are you reading Kim's blog thinking, “No way. Seriously? How on Earth am I going to do something like that? I don't have time!” I tell you what, if you don't know me (and, btw, I'm Lindsay. Hi. I'm a friend of Kim's.) just know that I'm a pretty positive person. I'm up for challenges. But, as I said to Kim last week, there is just no way. I am not up for the challenge of getting to & fro by bike with my four children. Not even one day.

Don't get me wrong. I love, love, love Kim's idea. GO KIM! Talk about awe inspiring. It would be so great if lots of people got onboard and commuted by bike. Already our daughters preschool teacher has decided that she too will commute home by bike for the month of May. GO RENAE! But man that feels so totally undoable in my life. Like really undoable. Maybe I'll wrap my head around the idea when my 7-month-old is four. Or ten.

But that's not really the point, is it? I was getting the idea, yet missing the point. Kim is challenging us to make a change. A resolution for our Earth. It wasn't until I was digging along in my garden this weekend that I had MY beautiful moment. My family IS in the midst of our own challenge. A food challenge. And I do feel proud about it.

We've been shaking things up in our household for the past few years. Everyone hear that little factoid about food? You know, the one that says on average your food has traveled 1500 miles to get from a farm to your plate. FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES PEOPLE!! Ponder that one for a minute. Talk about alarming. It doesn't take more than a moments thought to know that the carbon footprint left behind just to eat each meal is huge. What makes that first fact even more disgusting for us Michiganders is the second fact I learned this weekend; Michigan is 2nd, behind only California, in the diversity of crops it grows (thanks Julie for the tid-bit). You can see it in print here: http://www.miagcouncil.org/ Over 125 commodities grown in Michigan soil! How awesome. We have no excuse.

So while we haven't exactly had a revolution going on like Jamie Oliver of Food Revolution, we have been undergoing an evolution in our home. A food evolution. And it's as simple as a resolution to eat more local, more local, more local. And here's how it goes...

2007
CSA -- That's Community Supported Agriculture folks. Love it! You buy a share into a local farm in the late winter/spring. For us that farm is Titus Farms (www.titusfarms.com) twenty minutes down the road in Leslie, MI. CSA programs vary wildly (you can find one near you here: www.localharvest.org). But here's the core idea ~ you are attaining fresh and local produce from a farm near you. All summer long the majority of our veggies come from down the road! This year we've purchased a fruit share from a farm in Charlotte too. I love that my kids have gotten to know our farmers & enjoy a trip out to the farm each fall for raspberry picking & potato digging.

2008
Pig -- Oh yes. You've read right. A pig! For two years now we have purchased raw milk-fed pastured pork from the Warnke Family of Our Farm and Dairy in St. John's, MI (www.ourfarmanddairy.com). The first year we purchased ½ a pig in the spring, and picked up our butchered, smoked and packed for freezing pork (hams, bacon, sausage, ground, hocks, chops, roasts, etc. – you pick how you want it) in the fall. All it took was one 25 minute trip out to their farm. We were sold. As in really really really sold. Locally raised, naturally raised, naturally processed... and seriously the best tasting pork we have E.V.E.R. had. The following year we signed up for a whole pig and will do the same again this May. We weren't huge pork eaters before, but we are now!

Brew Master -- So my husband picked up a hobby in the fall of 2008, a brewing hobby. Who knew this would have such an environmental impact! Now I know you can get Michigan beers like Bell's and Arcadia, but what's more local than your own kitchen? He brews about once a month and purchases most of his supplies from Dusty's in Okemos or Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville. Additionally, he's made blueberry wine from blueberries we picked as a family at Bird's Blueberry farm five minutes down the road in Haslett. He's made a mead using Michigan honey. And hard cider from Michigan apple cider. Lots of Michigan made, environmentally friendly, Happy Hours around here!

2009
Hops -- Then that beer hobby went one step further. It stepped itself right into our backyard in the form of hop vines. No car to drive and buy them, no plane or truck to ship them around the country. Just feet, across the grass.

Cows, and Chickens, and Eggs, Oh My -- We have the good fortune to have a hobby farm in the family. Lance's mother supplies us with beef (a 1/4 of a pastured grass-fed cow each year) plus the occasional chicken and turkey, and loads of fresh eggs every time we visit. We have a wonderful set up with them! And we feel very fortunate having so many things on our plate from Grandma & Pa's farm in Beaverton, MI. But if you don't happen to have the same kind of connection, check into cow, chicken or egg shares. The local harvest link I provided earlier will steer you there. So many farms all over the country are offering shares. For instance, our CSA, is now offering shares in chicken & eggs. Or better yet, what about chickens of your own? Some communities, like East Lansing, permit you to raise your own chickens in your backyard. Hopefully our mutual friend Julie guest posts soon about her adventures in E.L. chicken raising.

2010
The Right Markets -- At long last. After years and years of shopping at East Lansing Food Co-op we did it. We purchased a share. Easy enough to do. A one time $120 fee for a family. If you ever want to leave your share your money is refunded. ELFCO (www.elfco.coop) is a hotbed of local items to buy. And not only are they available, they are beautifully marked so you know! Many communities have food coops, go support yours. And if you live around here Foods for Living in East Lansing and Horrocks in Lansing are two other lovely places for local produce and products. At Horrocks we've started purchasing produce from them in bulk when it's in season. Then we prep it to store and eat throughout the year. While we haven't gotten to canning on our own, yet, we do freeze a lot and dehydrate as well. For instance, last year we bought a bushel of Michigan tomatoes. We washed the tomatoes, cut out the small stem end, and then spaced them out on cookie sheets lined with dish towels and froze them. Once frozen we transferred them to storage bags. We've been pulling Michigan tomatoes from our chest freezer all winter. And not just tomatoes, but blueberries, peaches, you name it. Freeze them while they're locally in season (& cheap) and enjoy them all year!

Family Vegetable Garden – Well finally. This spring we've installed 3 4x4 raised beds in our backyard using the Square Foot Gardening Method (www.squarefootgardening.com). While I had our seeds shipped to us, this gardening method allows you to save your seeds year to year. I'll be using roughly the same order of seeds for 5 years. We also had to acquire the soil mix, but the mix is formulated to only ever have to add compost to it from year to year. Compost from our own kitchen and backyard. After this year of lumber, landscape fabric, soil & seed there should be no other impact on our environment other than the water it takes to water them. And for that we'll use as much water as we can from our rain barrel. If you don't have a garden growing yet this year, it's not too late, especially since there are lots of fall crops (green, peas, beets, sweet potatoes, squash, etc). Thirty footsteps in your yard versus 1500 miles of fuel burning is a darn good thing! Check out the SFG method, it's just so simple.

There you have it. Those are the things we've incorporated into feeding our six person family that we just feel really good about. We're actively reducing the carbon footprint we're leaving behind, while also supporting Michigan's failing economy. I love looking at our dinner table some nights knowing that our pork chops came from a fantastically nice farming family raising six children down the road, our roasted vegetables came from Rebecca Titus and her parents, Rose & Paul, who dreamt to farm together as a family out on Meridian Road, and the beer my husband is drinking is one he's brewed right here. In no way are we perfectly eating everything locally ~ we have lots of room for improvement! ~ but we're trying to make some good, sound choices. Earth friendly choices.

I choose to share all this in hopes that you find inspiration in it too. And in hopes that you'll comment and share more local food ideas with me. That's where we need your help: What should the next challenge in my families food evolution be? Since, after all, that's what all this is about right? Sharing and inspiring one another to try new things, to make the changes we need to. Kim's taken on a huge challenge, and I think it's becoming apparent that the spark from her match is going to light so many more!