< Archie and Mattie | Main | The food crop on my block >

Something for everyone - A cold!

Posted at 11:09 AM on February 8, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (2 Comments)

Our family passed around a cold this week, from one person to the other. How nice. It reminded me how much time we actually do put into food preparation. We dipped into our food stores for frozen baby food for the baby. We scoured the already lean cupboards for bland food for ourselves. Me? I found egg noodles, pudding and jello. None were local, but all seemed what was needed for the moment.

A new layer of planning needs to be added to our quest to eat local food. We have meals frozen for the days that we don't want to eat, but what about the days when we want nothing but saltines and jello? What do we do then to stay local?

I can officially declare the pantry empty of all prepared food. Some staples (polenta, rice, beans, vinegars, flour, etc) remain, but there isn't a can of soup, boxed dinner, or cracker remaining. Now on to good health and good eats!

Comments (2)

Hi Sareen,

I hope you and your family have gotten over your shared cold. I really appreciate hearing about your efforts, and those of those of the other participants, to eat seasonally and locally. It is really good to hear about other Minnesotans doing this. I especially admire you for starting in the winter! You are right about it taking more planning to eat locally. For many years I have been growing my own vegetables and most of my own fruit. In the summer I "eat out of the garden" and in the winter I eat out of the freezer from food I have put by. This year I started buying local meat and kicked the boxed cereal habit. Most of the folks I work with think I am a bit loony for doing this. Don't beat yourself up about buying some non-local comfort food. It will get easier to eat locally the longer you do it and (of course) as the year progresses! Strawberry season is only 4 months away.

Posted by Debby | February 10, 2008 1:43 PM

Not to tempt you back to the boxed cereal, but once I kicked my habit, I just found these cereals. I was "needing" a cereal fix (sure...) and stumbled across Mom's Best. They past the taste test, and are from MN, family owned and from 100% renewable energy. Not bad!

We are still a little stunned that the project needed to start in January. But hey, it all looks up from here! Thanks for the support, please check back and offer ideas.

Posted by Sareen | February 13, 2008 4:32 PM