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On Vacation

Posted at 11:38 PM on July 17, 2008 by Gina Keenan

On Vacation
I have been on vacation for the past two weeks. In reality it has been a lot of rushing around. I have been down to southern Missouri, then up to West-Central Minnesota. Of course, local food has been ever present in my mind.
Over the past 2 months we have been in South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and Minnesota and of course Wisconsin. The contrast between these areas with regards to local food access has been interesting.
The best of all these places for local foods was rural Southern Missouri. This is biased though, as we stayed with my aunt's and uncle's farm. Besides being an awesome visit, it was about 100% local foods. They raise about everything on their farm, and what they don't raise, they get from local sources. We picked 12 gallons of blueberries on a farm near their place. My aunt makes cream cheese, mozzarella, ricotta, butter, all from the milk they get from their cow every morning. Their garden is huge, and they are always preserving their bounty. As I did not venture of the farm, I am not sure about local food availability in the grocery stores.
The worse area for local foods is the area I grew up in-West-Central Minnesota. I find that ironic, as this is the heart of farming. I know the farm behind us sells organic pork in the Twin Cities, but there is none to be seen in the local grocery store. There is a farmer's market this Saturday in a nearby town, which I will be checking out. We are in the process of cleaning out my mom's house and farm for an auction, so we have had to rely on the local grocery and cafes at the eating hours because we are not in the mood to make our own food. Disappointing is being kind.
Spearfish, South Dakota, was pretty disappointing also. But we got some awesome local tortillas, and the beef was local, if you eat beef. Minneapolis-St. Paul has always been impressive, and most areas in Wisconsin are good-even a lot of small towns; especially, if you like dairy products. Overall, it seems the bigger the city, the bigger the selection of local foods to choose from. I assume this to do with per capita income.