New Year, New Beginnings: Eating Local

As I sit here at the table by the fire, two pots of forced bulbs are keeping me company.  Saturday was our normal day "out", and we spent it stopping in at the library and then over to Agway, ostensibly to buy a block of birdseed and an ash pail.  We came home with the birdseed block, the ash pail, a pair of stove gloves (to protect hands from sparks and heat when loading the stove), stove glass cleaner, hamster bedding, hamster treats, a few packets of seeds (hollyhocks and pumpkins), and a few bulb kits that were marked down after the holidays.  When I opened the amaryllis box, a snaky stem topped with a pinkish flower just cracking its bud greeted me, even though the bulb hadn't been planted in its "growing medium".  Likewise, the narcissus bulbs are all sending up green fingers, stems still partly encased in white sheaths like gloves. 

Saturday we had a "December" thaw, and everywhere was full of the sound of dripping water.  Today - Monday - we woke up to almost a foot of new snow.  I haven't been my usual compulsive weather-checker self lately, and it took us by surprise.   Instead of weather-checking, we've been immersed in the seed catalogs that have begun to trickle in, bearing the promise of spring.

I have been following all the planning posts with keen interest, but I find that my needs --our needs as a family -- differ from those of both standard planners and from many other homeschooling families.  For us the problem isn't keeping track of activities, because we tend to limit those.  For us, this year, the garden is taking center stage.

Over the past two weeks, I've read three books which have altered my thinking regarding the garden.  The first is Fast Food Nation.  The second is This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow.  The third is Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Fast Food Nation has pretty much cured me of ever wanting to set foot inside McDonald's again.   Or of buying conventionally raised and slaughtered meat or fowl, period.  (Do not read this book while you are eating.  But do read it.)  With its descriptions of the slaughterhouse, it has sort of become a point of no return. The other two books are more "How we grow much of our own food and buy local" books, and as such, did a good job at helping me to see how such a thing might be accomplished.  (I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's book more than This Organic Life on the whole, but since Joan Gussow is in the Hudson Valley, I probably gleaned more from her garden.  Joan Gussow also lives twenty minutes outside New York City, so if you are a suburbanite who would like to grow more of your food, definitely give this one a read.  I am planning to make tomato sauce out of my frozen summer tomatoes using her recipe; it sounds good and easy.  But I thought that Barbara Kingsolver's book was a more companionable read; that may have been because I grew up basically in the same region and enjoyed reading about a place that sounded a lot like home.)

Together, these three books have made me think.  As a busy mother of many, I am often willing to delegate gardening to hobby -- or at least supplementary-- status.  With so many things on the to-do list and food plentiful, cheap, and easily obtained down at Wal-Mart, it often seems counterintuitive to sink so much time and labor into a garden.  In fact, based on anecdotal evidence, "gardening" seems to be pretty high on the list of things I always hear other moms say that they have given up because they are moms and they are too busy and need more time to devote to their family.  Frankly, this has always baffled me because it's not like I'm ever alone in the garden: gardening is a family affair.  The kids like to get dirty and they like to plant things and see them grow -- as long as we're not hovering over them directing their every move.  And the lessons they learn from gardening -- the lessons we all learn from gardening -- are as plentiful as zucchini in August.

But still.  We homeschooling moms do have many demands on our time, and even though organic produce from your backyard or your farmer's market or CSA or a couple of pots on your patio is far (far!) better tasting and healthier (from everything I've read lately, it sounds as if organicly raised fruits and vegetables have much higher levels of antioxidants, and grass-fed and free-range meat and fowl have a much better balance of omega-3s to omega-6's)... even knowing all those things, it is hard to break through a lifetime of habits.

Habits that say taking time to produce your own food would be better spent doing something else.  Because it's not efficient.  It's extra.

But when you stop to think about it, when else in history has producing, procuring, and preserving food not been THE most important portion of running a household? 

Historically, of course, all these tasks did not fall completely upon the shoulders of the woman of the house.  Children were expected to help plant, tend, harvest, prepare and preserve.  Men did the big work of preparing fields and caring for livestock, along with their male children -- but the girls did their share, too.  Now, of course, someone usually has to have a job away from home, and most of our population is no longer rural.  If you live in the suburbs or city, or if you live in a rural area but do not have a whole lot of help, your best bet to eating good food is probably visiting your farmer's market or belonging to a CSA.  (At the Farmer's Market, you will more than likely be able to discover locally raised meat, poultry, and eggs as well.)

So this year we have a different attitude toward our garden.  This year our garden is not going to be "extra".  This year our garden is going to be more important than the grocery store.

I'm hoping to write more on how we're planning our garden this year, what we've managed in the past, and some ideas I have for planning in preservation tasks in season (that, of course, is going to be the real kicker -- can I get all this stuff dried or into canning jars or the freezer?).  But right now I think I have gone on long enough.

May your New Year be fruitful, hopeful, and happy!

Comments

[Wendy]

My 12 year old daughter read Fast Food Nation. Because of her we no longer eat fast food. I started Animal Vegetable Miracle last year, but I never finished it, for some reason. It is on my triple 8 challenge for this year.
One of my goals this year is to grow more than just a few tomato plants, and to shop at our local farmers market.
I think many of us use our large families as an excuse not to garden, but in actuality we give it up because it is just plain hard work. That's my story, anyway.

[Theresa]

Wonderful!!!I will be cheering you on!
I have always gardened, but I had to go without last year and it just killed me. I really need that connection to the earth and seasons that you get no other way than by digging in and feeling the soil in your hands and literally tasting the fruit of your labor.It looks like this year will be garden-less as well since we are moving early summer. But from then on, if I can help it I will never be without a garden again!

[Krista]

I've been meaning to link to you for some time now, must get on that soon. I really love your thinking. I breathe deep sighs of relief when I visit sites of families like yours where mindfulness around food, living, education are prominent keys to a good life. This post could have been MY first post of the year (you'll laugh to see my last post is a big hunk of meat at the top -- please overlook that if you visit ;), seriously, what you've written of here has been taking over my thoughts for the last while. I don't have much support in this area, unlike you, my family (immediate and extended) don't get the urgency of these matters. They're happy as to just keep going on how things are, not needing to analyze or change a thing. It's frustrating and lonesome, but not discouraging. Especially when there are so many thinking like you and I that I can connect with online and in my community, often. Thank you for this. You are a fantastic mama and I look forward to reading all about your garden this year. I, too, will be once again keeping our garden a center stage in our life this year.

Bravo!

[Meredith]

Beautifully said Angela, Happy New Uear to your adorable family and happy gardening :) Love,

[mary alice]

Angela, I love this! Make your garden planner, and post it, so that those of us with small backyards can learn along with you -- I am still amazed at your pumpkin crop! I can't wait to see what is going to come of this focus to your year, and you are right, it is not extra, it is central, so much of your learning can happen around it. I was just thinking of trying a container garden on our small patio -- do what you can, right? Good luck!

PS, I moved my blog, now you can find me at sevenandtheburbsDOTblogspot