$500 challenge redux

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Permalink Reply by Maggie on September 28, 2009 at 4:57pm

We have a wonderful organic coffee shop near us called DOOF DOOF, Haydon grows many veggies, picks them in the morning and I can be cooking them that day. He has beautiful cabbages, cauliflowers, leeks, celery and beetroot at the moment. So for about $4 I can buy a whole cabbage!
This does not answer your suggestion.
We have people in our Hills and plains Seedsavers group who calculate they grow 1 or 2 thousand dollars worth of food each year, some buy no other veggies at all.
Our group has share days where we share our excess seeds, seedlings and produce.
We also visit each other, Sunday we came with leeks, eggs,plants and keffier grains and a recipe for honey mead which we made straight away.
So bartering and swapping are part of our lives. Cheers Maggie

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Permalink Reply by Maya on September 29, 2009 at 10:42am

Hi John,

Without doing any math (I have an aversion, though I know that those who do not contribute greatly to the eat local and grow your own movements), here's what I've done over the past ten years: About every three months, I cut something out of our shopping and replace it with local, less-packaged/processed products and/or new recipes. First it was making our own baby food, then eliminating trans fats, then artificial dyes, then non-local dairy products, then commercial jams and jellies, then plastic containers, and it went on and on. As a result, we've gone back to doing almost all our own baking, including sandwich bread, school snacks, and desserts (wheat and buckwheat flours grown regionally, cornmeal more difficult to source), we make yogurt, we grow a lot of our own food, we go in on local pastured beef, lamb, and pork with neighbors, we do a lot of canning, freezing, pickling and drying, we rarely eat out (the kids like our pizza better!), and we have gotten much better at planning our meals around what's in season (or in freezin') and what's local. This year's progress: We gave up our winter CSA share and reduced our summer CSA to 1/2-share, starting two new gardens to replace that produce, we started beekeeping with neighbors to eventually reduce our beet/cane sugar consumption (we also use maple sugar harvested by someone else from our trees), and we don't buy any more seafood at the supermarket. Next year we will give up our summer CSA, but still get our organic meat, eggs, and apples from them. We will probably always cherish olive oil, coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts, rice, spices, and citrus from afar, but some things can't be helped, at least not without sucking all the joy out of life.

Which steps we take depend largely on what I suddenly realize is unnecessary or questionably produced, so it was never a conscious choice of doing something concrete every three months, that's just what it's worked out to be. Nor was it a decision to do a 100-mile diet or anything like that. And yes, it has freed up funds to support more local food purchases (good baguettes, bagels, and an occasional coffee from the bakery on the corner, in addition to farm stands), as well as some exotic treats (jamon serrano), though I couldn't put a concrete amount on it.

Maine Organic Farmers' and Gardeners' Association (www.mofga.org) has the "$10 a week" campaign: If every Mainer spends just $10 a week on locally-produced foods, we will add $250 million a year to the state's economy that directly supports local farmers. The $10 figure can be calculated for any town, county, state, or province, so maybe it's a good place to start. Hope this helps! Keep cogitating, John. It's good for us.
Maya

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