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Settling In....

Posted at 12:05 AM on January 28, 2008 by Gina Keenan (2 Comments)

Three weeks into this challenge, I think we have finally gotten into a groove. There are fewer complaints (from the adults-my husband and my mom; the kids, the ones that can talk, haven't said anything), and more of an acceptance. There have been a few backslides; let’s just say I am not going to be asking mom to pick up groceries when she hasn’t eaten lunch and has just worked out. I have also seen a Kit Kat wrapper in the back of my husband’s car, and I have eaten biscotti at work.

The pantry is morphing. The cans and packaged food items are disappearing, and are not being replaced. Most of our food is now found in our freezer and refrigerator now.

I am surprised at how good we are doing based on our log book. Our percentages of local food are up around 60%. I thought we would be much lower than this at this point, considering it is the depth of winter here in Eau Claire. A lot of that credit goes to our local coop, Just Local Foods (www.justlocalfoods.blogspot.com). It is a very unique coop, and I would say it is more of a store front for local foods. I believe they are one of the only coops in the United States that are employee owned. They sell things that are not local, but try to concentrate on local foods, and if they are not local, they make an effort for them to be organic and/or fair trade.

Thru Just Local, we have been able to get local spinach, micro-greens and lettuce on a regular basis. We would not have been as lucky a year ago, as there was less sun, and therefore no greens. Other local produce, which is very limited, include sunchokes (or Jerusalem artichokes and horseradish. A bit hard to incorporate into the meals. I purchased the sunchokes, but have not had the inspiration to make anything with them as of yet.

The frozen vegetables and fruit found at Just Local, is what has really helped us. The frozen local (Caledonia, Minnesota) and organic produce includes corn, peas, edame beans, strawberries, blueberries, beans and carrots supplied at Just Local Foods have helped fill the fresh vegetable void.

Comments (2)

Hello fellow locavore!

I'm proud to see a fellow Eau Clairian joining the locavore movement and am blown away by your starting this diet past the winter solstice! While I still hold true to many of the principles and lessons that I learned from this 'diet,' I am not currently considering myself as a locavore as I truly was only committed during the bountiful month of September.

A group of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students have recently (in the last year) started a University club called the Foodlums and through their meetings and events did I learn of the Locavore movement.

After a September's fantastic feasts, reorganizing the pantry, and harvest of the foodlums garden I have consciously and subconsciously held on to many of the lessons and new habits engrained in the 'challenge.'

the foodlums have just started to create a website (www.foodlums.com) to help spread the word about the local food movement and it's many benefits. recently a list of CSA's (or community supported agriculture) has been added to the site for those that would like the weekly delivery of seasonal produce during the growing season while also ensuring that farms around the Chippewa Valley have a base of support. Now is the perfect time to sign up for a whole or half share that will be coming in this May!

We look forward to more posts and look forward to seeing you at Just Local Food, the winter farmers market and other parts of the community.

Posted by Zachary | January 29, 2008 4:15 PM

Zachary,

I had heard through Just Local and through students I know that many students were active in the Local Foods movement. I didn't realize though that you had a University Club-that is great. I love the name Foodlums.

It is great to see students being active in the local foods movement; especially when it would be so much easier at your age to turn to cheap mass produced food. I know I did at your age.

I would like to know how you manage on a student budget. I am trying to keep better track of the financial part of it. I have heard many complain of how expensive it is, but I wonder if it is more of a choice between quantity and convenience vs. quality. We'll see as I keep better track of those things.

Thanks for the heads up on the CSA's. We are actually planning on buying a share through Sunbow.

Posted by Gina | February 1, 2008 2:10 PM