The Splendid Table: Locavore Nation

April 2008
SU	MO	TU	WE	TH	FR	SA
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Margaret Hochla
El Reno, Oklahoma

I have been married for 27 years to Victor and have 4 children. The two girls and two boys range in age from 25-10 years. We are pleased to still have one grandparent from each side of the family ... More about Margaret

Sareen Dunleavy-Keenan
Minneapolis, Minnesota

I live in Minneapolis, in 1.5 story craftsman bungalow with beautiful woodwork, but a tiny lot. Sharing this space is my husband Brendan, 'baby' (5/07) and 'new baby' who is expected to join the fold in August. More about Sareen

Gina Keenan-Klages
Eau Claire, Wisconsin

My name is Gina, and my husband's name is Patrick. We have three children, ranging in ages from 1 to 5 years. Our household also includes my mother, who is living with us from September to May. More about Gina

Donna McClurkan
Kalamazoo, Michigan

Early January may seem an inauspicious time to begin an "eat local" project in Southwest Michigan. As if to underscore that point, nearly a foot of snow fell in Kalamazoo on January 3. More about Donna

Cher Stuewe-Portnoff
St Louis, Missouri

My first father-in-law taught me to garden in the mid-1960s. Over the next few years, with a family of five to feed, I read everything I could find about nutrition ... More about Cher

Vera Schabicki
Ashland, Mississippi

Four years ago my five children, one husband, two dogs, one cat and I moved to the rural South from a large northern California city. We went from .12 acres to a rambling 57 acres. More about Vera

< What really counts as local? | Main | Eau Claire Local Food Community >

Unexpected Lows

Posted at 9:34 PM on April 7, 2008 by Gina Keenan (3 Comments)

Local produce is in mighty short supply here right now. I am anxiously awaiting spring. Our fresh local produce was down to potatoes, mushrooms and micro-greens last week-yikes. This week, spinach was back on the menu. We are purchasing other produce, but it is limited. We rationalized that if we are going to buy not locally-grown produce, we need to make sure the produce is at least U.S. grown and organic. So we have been purchasing pears, apples, onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage and broccoli. But that has become very boring to me (however, the family has been fine with it). When shopping, I find my eyes wandering to the blueberries from Chile or the avocados from Mexico. The other day, I broke down, and asked my husband to get those avocados for fajita night.

I was reading Autumn's blog about her talk with her grandfather, and how towards the end of some winters, all her grandfather's family had to eat was squash. That is humbling. I think I should take note, and appreciate those frozen veggies.

I can relate to those avocados! I am down in Tucson this week and it has been a struggle not to eat southwestern / Mexican food. I went to the coop and the only thing local are oranges, grapefruit, honey & pecans! The avocados are from California at least but that is still too far away. We will see how long I can stay away from fresh guacamole!

Good luck!

Posted by Scott | April 7, 2008 10:57 PM

Scott,

I am surprised, I would think they would have a bounty down there. Good eating!

Gina

Posted by Gina | April 15, 2008 11:30 AM

Hi Gina,
I definitely can relate to your "non-local foods envy." I am SO excited to have been able to bring fresh citrus back from Florida; I might just turn into a grapefruit the way I am tearing through the stuff. I'm glad you enjoyed the story about my grandfather. It really is humbling to consider how hard people in this country had to work to scrape by, just to feed their families, only a generation or two ago. I'm blessed to have my grandfather, his stories, and his wisdom, in my life.

Posted by Autumn Long | April 18, 2008 2:34 PM

April 2008

SU

MO

TU

WE

TH

FR

SA

< What really counts as local? | Main | Eau Claire Local Food Community >

Unexpected Lows

Comments (3)