I Blame It On The Broccoli.....

...No, no, not that... that was the dog....honest..... 

 I'm blaming the broccoli for being the gateway drug to the whole "Eat Local" thing.

Like everyone else, I've been beaten over the head with the "food pyramid". (I think they're starting that in utero now.....) As we get older, we tend also to pay even more attention to what we eat, perhaps trying to undo some of the excesses and indiscretions of youth. (As if!)

With that in mind, I promised myself to include more fruits and veggies in my diet. The fruit I did pretty well on, but the vegetable group was kind of hit and miss. At best, I drowned some broccoli or cauliflower in cheese sauce or green beans in butter and toasted almonds and choked them down, unenthusiastically. I endured vegetables in atonement for previous sins. Stoically, I bore my penance.

Last spring ('07) I once again began my annual attempt at gardening. (My previous efforts were such disasters, my garden probably qualified for FEMA aid - at the very least, I should have hit up Ag & Markets for a subsidy to NOT plant anything...). One of the items I apathetically sowed was broccoli. Why? I don't know....probably because I thought I was supposed to, I guess... In spite of my best efforts, the broccoli thrived. I even managed to harvest some before it bolted (unlike the previous year) and took it in the house to steam up and have with dinner.

I liked it.......and I wanted more..... 

Was there really THAT much difference? 

Further confirmation came a few months later. My sister came over for dinner and brought some mixed berries for dessert that she'd picked and frozen the previous summer. I admit to being somewhat underwhelmed when she brought them. Shortly after I began picking halfheartedly at them, I realized they were delicious. I snarfed mine down and started surreptitiously eyeballing the serving bowl, hoping no one wanted more. I began trying to come up with a polite way to eat the rest of what was left, without appearing rude. Is Coveting Thy "Neighbor's" Berries a sin...?

Ok, so maybe it's NOT me..... Maybe the fruits and vegetables being offered in even the best stores are but pale imitations of the "real" thing. I knew that it was a pretty sad day in our household when we ran out of the tomatoes we'd canned ourselves and had to resort to buying them, but I began to realize that produce that's chosen for it's ability to survive shipping and picked before it's ripe is a very poor substitute for the real deal. I'll leave the argument whether or not there's a nutritional difference to the experts, but damn.... there sure is a difference in taste. 

I admit, when I first heard about the whole "Eat Local" thing, it smacked of  the "New Age California Air-Head" mentality. That's all well and good when you live somewhere that doesn't have that "winter" thing, but what the hell is a Central New Yorker supposed to do? Live on bark and twigs? 

Fast forward a couple of months, and I read this. The die has been cast. We are now up to our ears in canning and freezing and scouring the local food scene for sources, determined to eat as "real" and as local as possible.

I even now have come to understand how sensible (and old-fashioned) it is to support your neighbors in your community, rather than some nameless, faceless corporation, God-knows-where.

The whole Eat Local thing even inspired a 58 mile long, rainy bike ride (with almost 4,000 feet of climbing!). But that's my next post.......