Shop more often at Farmer's Market (Change 137)

Well, Spring is here, and with it, all the assorted goodies of the season.  Fresh asparagus, rhubarb, spinach and lettuce are a few of the items in season.  With going back to work this spring, I missed out on sowing my spinach and lettuce for April, although I'm hopeful that the small lettuce plants I bought will thrive through the hot summer weather.  Our rhubarb is HUGE this year - I may have to start pawning the bounty off on my unsuspecting neighbours.  :)

Truthfully, our veggie garden is going to be smaller this year for a few reasons.  One, I just don't have the time right now to tend a large garden.  Two, we are in the process of landscaping our backyard, so some of my former veggie beds are under huge piles of dirt.  And three, I've decided to start using our local farmer's market.

Last year, I had investigated getting a CSA share.  With five of us to feed, I thought it might be economically worthwhile. However, the more I researched it, the more I realized that my picky eaters would not be happy with the variety offered by the CSA, and I'd probably end up composting quite a bit of the produce.

The farmer's market allows me to benefit from local, organic produce at reasonable prices, supporting local farmers' and agriculture, while providing me with the ability to pick and choose what I want to buy.  I think it will be a win-win situation - I'll keep you posted.

Start looking for local sources of animal protein (Change 94)

I watched a very interesting, and very disturbing, movie the other day.  For those of you who have seen Food, Inc. you'll understand why I'm now trying to find local sources of pork and poultry.  For those of you who haven't seen the movie, you should.  You will never look at food the same way again. 

This quote from the movie's website (http://www.foodincmovie.com/) says it all - "In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment......Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here."

This movie (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary), watched in companionship with reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both by Michael Pollan, has really prompted me to think about where the food I buy really comes from.  DH and I enjoy growing our own vegetables - we've had fairly successful crops of lettuce, spinach, potatoes, and tomatoes before.  But winter means buying fruits and veggies at the store.  And of course, having a house in the suburbs does not allow us to grow our own meat.  And althought the film details American farming, I can't help but have a sneaking suspicion that the reality of Canadian farming isn't that far off.
I've been surfing the Internet in the last few days, trying to find local sources of grass-fed, preferable organic, animals, as well as starting to look at potential Community Support Agriculture shares.  I've narrowed the list down to a few possibilities.  In the New Year, after all the holiday craziness has died down, DH and I are going to take the kids on a road trip to check the farms out.  I hope this leads to another eco-change or two in January - buying food directly from a local farmer.

Eating only ethically caught/raised fish (Day 25)

I went to the Toronto Zoo last year with some friends.  One of the exhibits they had was "Sting Ray Bay" and "Petting Sharks".    The nurse sharks and sting rays were in a shallow pool, and you could reach in and stroke their backs.  The kids thought it was pretty neat.  

There was also a whole display by the zoo on sustainable seafood and fisheries.  They were handing out SeaChoice pocket guides.  The guide listed fish and seafood that was acceptable as sustainable and ones to avoid purchasing.  DH put it in his wallet and we promptly forgot about it.

Until this weekend, when I was shopping for some groceries in my local store.  I was in the mood for fish, which is unusual, because I am not a huge fish fan.   I went and bought my fish fillets and brought them home to put in the freezer for a meal this week.

Then today, looking for a green change on Vanessa's website, I noticed her entry on eating only sustainable fish, and remembered the SeaChoice guide.  Of course, when I went looking for it in DH's wallet, I couldn't find it.  A quick Internet search brought me to the David Suzuki Foundation (http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/oceans/projects/sustainable-seafood/), and a copy of the SeaChoice Guide, as well as a sustainable sushi guide and a sustainable guide for Canadian businesses.

According to the website, the SeaChoice Program partners the DSF "with four internationally respected Canadian conservation organizations — Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans Society and Sierra Club British Columbia." It was formed in 2006, "to help Canadians take an active role in supporting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture at all levels of the seafood supply chain." 

I looked in the guide (http://www.seachoice.org/) to see if the fish I bought was sustainable.   The fish I bought ranges from "best choice" to "avoid" depending on how it was caught.  Of course, the packaging doesn't tell me.  I will email the company to find out how they catch this fish, and will hopefully know in the future whether or not it is caught sustainably.

I think I'll also start checking out the specialty fish store in a nearby suburb to see what they have to offer.

Preserving foods (Day 14)

I've been thinking about food today. I was trying to decide on a green change for today, and read Vanessa's list. "Preserving and canning food" stood out.

I was at the grocery store this evening, and noticed all the fresh Ontario produce that is available. 
 
DH and I have a vegetable garden.  Not a big one, but enough that we enjoy fresh lettuce, green beans, zucchini (!), and potatoes on a regular basis.  Summer and fall offer lots of fresh food.  But what about winter and early spring?  Our food typically comes from far away places like Mexico, South Africa and Chile.  Is this a really sustainable way to eat? 

For those who wish to discuss the merits of sustainable eating, Michael Pollan's books The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food are required reading.   I read IDOF last year and DH is currently reading TOD.  We've been discussing the whole food processing cycle, and wondering how to make our consumption more sustainable. 

DH comes from a family of farmers, so it was only natural that we planted a small garden in our yard.  I've always tried to eat locally in season, especially peach, pear and berry season!   I usually buy Ontario produce, and gorge myself sick on corn when the local stands open up. 

But then winter rolls around, and local produce becomes almost non-existent.   I always make jam from in-season (and preferably local) strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and peaches, but that's usually as far as local goes in winter.

So this year, I decided a reasonable next step would be to preserve some of the produce from our garden.  I chopped rhubarb and froze it, and canned beets for the first time.

But it didn't occur to me to preserve other fresh produce for the winter months until I saw the peaches at the grocery store.    They looked and smelled wonderful.  And they were cheap.   I was only going to buy one container of them, until today's lunch flashed through my mind.  The kids ate canned peaches at lunch, and we went through a whole can in one sitting.   As I stared at the peaches, I thought, I could can those.  Not only would it be cheaper (I'm sure I'll get at least three jars per 4L basket of peaches - at the cost of one of the cans of store-bought), but it will be with fresh summer-sweet fruit.

If I have any success, I'll expand to pears and applesauce.  Maybe even freeze some local corn, too.