The other day we watched the documentary "Food Inc." on Netflix. I didn't love the film--it said a lot of things I've already heard and I didn't find the story-telling to be all that interesting, but I loved the take home messages, one of which was to eat food that it is in season. Not only does it save fossil fuels and is less expensive for the consumer, it tastes way better, too! Our go-to lunch on work days are toast and tomato sandwiches with mayo and cheese. Nutritious, quick, and easy to prepare when we are home over lunch hour. Well, the other day Ben commented that the tomatoes tasted kind of awful. Like they weren't tomatoes at all. Huh. That got me thinking how ridiculous it is that we should expect delicious, juicy, flavourful tomatoes at the end of December in northern Canada! It might be time to come up with a new lunch idea for the winter months. I remember when I first moved to the city from the farm, I could hardly stand eating store bought tomatoes even in the summer time. After watching Food Inc., I was inspired to pull out my Simply in Season cookbook. It is a wonderful cookbook that you should check out if you're not familiar. We found a recipe for winter borscht. I made it yesterday and it was delicious!!! Like grandma quality. Not to brag or anything.
Eating in season and buying locally is a bit different here than it is in southern Manitoba. There are no farms within at least 140 km and unless you have a greenhouse, most vegetables and fruits are impossible to grow here. (I'm sure someone would argue that point with me, but I have yet to be offered a zucchini, tomato, potato, or ANY type of produce from anyone's garden. That means I either don't have any friends or that it is pretty difficult to grow vegetables here.) Even at the grocery store in summer, it can be difficult to find produce grown in BC, which I find sad. One of the points the movie Food Inc. made is that we vote with what we buy every time we go to the grocery store. If we do something as simple as consistently buying the BC-grown carrots rather than the carrots from the US (when there is an option), it will make a difference (even if it's very small). If everybody bought the BC carrots all the time, the store would presumably stop importing carrots from farther away because why would they sell something that their customers don't want?
And maybe we don't need to eat tomatoes in the winter.
Glad you started a blog! And it's good to know that Food Inc. isn't that great. I almost watched it tonight on Netflix.
ReplyDeleteBut about this whole eating locally. Yes, I totally agree with you that our voice is where our consumer choices are. And yes, it's hard to buy local when you live in certain places in the world. I have had the privilege of being able to buy local for the last 4 years....but hey, that's the tropics for you. Anyways, choices are very powerful. And I LOVE the cookbook too. Have you tried the Hearty Pancakes at the back. A big hit at our house everytime.