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Travel time vs. Refrigerator time

Posted at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (4 Comments)

We had a ravioli party this past weekend. We invited people to come, put in a little work folding and cutting, and their reward was some fantastic local pasta. This is great! However, as I think of all of the things we know how to make and store, I began to worry about the impact of my storage techniques.

For our family, all age 30 or younger, I am pretty impressed with our canning, preserving, and pastry skills. Many of our friends accuse us of going back in time, and ignoring all of the modern conveniences. My reaction is simple, have you tried a homemade tortilla? When is the last time you made your own egg rolls? Seriously, try it and tell me that you would prefer the store version. For us, eating locally is as much about great food as it is about local food. Eating well means that I want to know what is in the food, and I want to know who made it.

So, I can make all of this local, great food, but don’t want to haul out the canning supplies every time. Or, I want food to be fresh, not cooked or partially cooked by the canning process. But then, I look at my deep freeze and think about the energy it is taking. I wonder if it is really better to save summer stored away in the freezer. It takes electricity to run that freezer for six months to keep that produce from spoiling. Some of the meat we bought has been in the freezer for over a year. Does that negate any of the positive environmental effects of buying a local cow?

I am going to crunch some numbers and get to the bottom of this.

Comments (4)

As a fellow Minneapolis resident, I'm excited to hear how this project goes for you and your family.

I'm curious how your number crunching will turn out.... I've often wondered about the local hydroponic lettuce and tomatoes we can get at the co-ops, and how the energy use of the greenhouses, etc. compares to the same foods grown farther away (though I know that the local tomatos are picker riper and tasted better than the jet-lagged ones!)

Anyway, good luck and happy eating!

Posted by Cate | January 30, 2008 12:21 PM

I also live in Minneapolis and am eager to follow your progress.
I had two questions if you had time -- have you found a local source for beef and where do you buy your milk that you get it in reusable bottles and locally?
If you have time in your blogging would love to hear the names of places that offer locally grown items.
Thanks so much

Posted by Kristi | January 31, 2008 8:05 AM

Absolutely! I do a lot of my shopping at Midtown Global Market at Lake and Chicago in Minneapolis.

At MGM, we get the majority of our staples at The Produce Exchange and Farm in the Market

At the farm in the market you can get local beef, bison, poultry, pork and more. That is also where we get the returnable milk (Cedar Summit Farms )

I will list in post future purchases. Thanks!

Posted by Sareen | February 2, 2008 8:45 AM

Another local dairy that does milk in glass bottles is Crystal Ball Farms; they're from the St. Croix River valley area. I purchase mine at Fresh and Natural Foods. (Fresh and Natural Foods, by the way, has lots of locally grown and made stuff I hadn't seen in any co-ops before.)

I purchased a share of grass-fed organic beef from Harmony Valley Farm (out of Viroqua, WI) and am waiting very impatiently for May, when our CSA share from that farm begins.

I eagerly await your report of more local resources, and wouldn't mind some recipes, either. I tend to cook very complicated meals, which increase the number of ingredients I need, which also means many of the ingredits come from far away.

Posted by Tipper | February 14, 2008 3:12 PM