Locavores: Looking back at August 2005

DeDe Sampson
-- San Francisco, California

hardest to find: Citrus

best discovery: Berkeley Farmers' Market (Tues)

hardest to give up: White Sugar

money spent: Less Money

favorite recipe: 1 Cup Anchor Steam, 1 Cup Full Belly Farms Wheat, 1 Farm Egg (Beer Batter for local fish)

try again: Yes, When can we start?

next time I would: Preserve and Cure more foods for the freezer and refrigerator

best resource: The web site and the farmers markets

Sage Van Wing
-- Point Reyes Station, California

hardest to find: avocadoes- i just couldn't get 'em within 100miles

best discovery: sonoma salt and full belly farms wheat

hardest to give up: soy sauce- all asian condiments and wheat products. i never knew i was such a carbohydrate addict. fresh run farms pototoes helped, though.

money spent: i kept careful track of everything, and it turns out i spent far less this month. the meat and cheese products were more expensive, of course, but i made such great meals and ate lots of leftovers, that i ended up spending less than usual on food.

favorite recipe: pizza dough with full belly farms wheat and jessica's sourdough starter. homemade tomato sauce, carmelized onions and leeks, mushrooms, red hawk cheese. yum.

try again: are you kidding? this has revolutionized my eating habits.

next time I would: i've definitely got to work on canning and preserving.

best resource: our website, of course.

Jessica Prentice
-- Richmond, California

hardest to find: green tea. I know it can be grown here. It's time for someone to get on it!

best discovery: yogurt and honey lassis with local rose hydrosol. Delicious and quick and exotic.

hardest to give up: Coconut. I admit I broke down at the end.

money spent: About the same.

favorite recipe: "Munavoi": Finnish egg butter. Take hard-cooked eggs and mash together with softened butter. Salt to taste and spread on bread. I liked to mash in parsley and chives as well. Hearty, quick, traditional, nourishing.

try again: Yes!

next time I would: Work harder ahead of time to find sources for things and stock my pantry so I had some local 'staples' on hand. Also, arrange weekly dinners with other participants that I'd have to look forward to.

best resource: I was very excited about the local salt!

Oliver Rosen

hardest to find: Pumpernikel bread, bread that cannot be squeezed to 1/8 inch between your finger tips without effort

Suzanne Miller
-- Davis, California

hardest to find: I never found grains, legumes, cooking ingredients (like sugar, baking powder, etc.), and certain spices. I never found a local dijon mustard.

best discovery: Jessica Prentice's New Moon newsletters; Lundberg family organic rice farm (within my foodshed of Davis); local wild salmon; getting to know the farmers at the Davis Farmers' Market.

hardest to give up: Soy sauce and Asian cooking ingredients. Lettuce and onions disappeared from the Davis Farmer's Market when the hot weather hit and I started to panic. We eat a lot of salad and I use onions in many dishes. It turned out to be easy to go without pasta and grains and legumes, but difficult to go without wheat and my homemade granola. I didn't miss balsamic vinegar.

money spent: Some foods, like dairy and meat, were more expensive than what we bought previously. But we weren't eating processed food like store-bought ice-cream or cereal or snack food, so we saved money. We spent about the same, but our food was more delicious. Home-made ice-cream tastes better, than store-bought! I made all of our food from scratch, so it was simply better. I'd rather spend money on wild salmon caught by a fisherman who sells directly to my coop than spend the same amount of money on processed foods.

favorite recipe: I made zucchini pancakes with hand-grated zucchinis (all types), fresh farm eggs, dry jack from Spring Hill and chopped basil. We served the pancakes under fat slices of heirloom tomatoes and toasted slivered almonds. When I was sick, I liked Jessica Prentice's egg drop soup. I made tea by steeping lemon verbena in hot water.

try again: Definitely yes! In fact, I'm going to eat more local foods throughout the year.

next time I would: Research recipes for more variety. I realized that if you are going to eat locally, almost all standard recipes won't work. I need a different kind of cookbook or guidance (hint hint). Next time my focus will be less on finding local substitutes for what I usually eat and more on figuring out what to do with what is available to me. Ideally, I will have fewer exemptions next time. This time I spent 4 days with very few exemptions (only coffee, salt & pepper) -- but I started to eat the same thing every day and my stomach growled a lot (I'm breastfeeding and I eat a lot of food!). So, new recipes and a new way of thinking about food will help me get by without my normal crutches. I will try making things with local rice flour.

best resource: Recipes, cooking ideas and suggestions of combinations of food that ripen at the same time.
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend a documentary called "The Corporation" (www.thecorporation.com). It explains how corporations became the dominant super structure in our society, and how corporate control of food puts food security and food workers' lives in jeopardy. The sections on Monsanto's attempts to patent seeds in India and another corporation's ownership of all water in a South American country (even rain water) are chilling. When Walmart is the largest seller of organic food, we need to move beyond thinking organic toward locally-grown and sustainably-grown food.

Ellen Bicheler
-- Petaluma, California

hardest to find: Pasta and wheat, maple syrup

best discovery: using honey for a sweetener

hardest to give up: pasta

money spent: about the same

try again: I'm continuing it to the best of my ability

next time I would: Grow some more of my own food

best resource: local recipes, stores that cooperate

Yan Lu
-- San Francisco, California

hardest to find: spinach

best discovery: local cheese

hardest to give up: rice

money spent: just a little bit more

try again: yes

best resource: Ferry Building Farmers' market

Gail Wadsworth
-- Walnut Creek, California

hardest to find: bread

best discovery: local honey

hardest to give up: coffee

money spent: about the same

favorite recipe: I found a recipe for pasta with potatoes and zucchini that was fantastic! I used flour from a farmer in Scott's Valley for the pasta...more than 100 miles but she farms biodynamically. And zucchini, basil, olive oil and potatoes from farmers about 20 miles away. I was surprised at how delicious it was.

try again: yes!

next time I would: I'd really focus my family on it too.

best resource: Restaurants that buy local

(Lynn Norene) Phoenix Boulay
-- Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

hardest to find: When I moved to the Boston Area last year after being in SF & Marin Counties of CA for all my adult life (over 2 decades), I was shocked at the lack of availability of organic produce and by the high cost. The quality was often not that great. Sometimes the prices were out of range for my budget. The season is shorter and I feel I was spoiled by the variety, cost and abundance of produce available at Farmer's Markets, whose local growers often sold to the many health food groceries as well.

best discovery: Three recent discoveries: 1. Allendale Farm, within walking distance (1.5 miles) of my home, or .5 mile from public transit, just over the town line from lovely Jamaica Plain (Boston district 9). www.allendalefarm.com 2. Boston area Farmer's Markets via the website of the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers' Markets: For dates, times, and location of a farmers' market near you, visit 3. A brand new edition to the edible communites: BOSTON! Home: http://www.ediblecommunities.com/members/boston/index.htm or in other areas, try the main website and enter your zip code for the nearest community: www.ediblecommunities.com

hardest to give up: dungeness crab, local wild salmon, West Coast favorites. But once again, soft-shell clams and lobster are abundantly available in the Boston/Cape Cod area. Fresh Mactintosh apples you can pick yourself on farms outside Boston,(I did not eat Macs for over 20 years.)

Jasmine Dawson
-- Alexandria, Virginia

hardest to find: not having dried beans was a real hardship for me

best discovery: I finally found local chicken off the bone

hardest to give up: chocolate, olives

money spent: It was likely a little more expensive because things like flour, once shipped was much more expensive than the King Arthur brand that I buy at the store

favorite recipe: greens with moray sauce over polenta

try again: definitely

next time I would: I am afraid I missed my chance to can tomatoes for next year but I did put up quite a bit of tomato sauce and some salsa

best resource: It would be great if there were local places to buy local products instead of being limited to who attends farmer's markets and mail order (which kind of defeats the purpose -- is UPS really an efficient way to ship food?)

Robert Brown

best discovery: Blood Type Diet by Dr. D'Adamo saved this persons life.

Sheila Noble

hardest to find: pork, lard

best discovery: possible pork in Oregon

hardest to give up: we have every thing except fattier cuts of pork or beef that you can't get at Whole Foods. Can't find well raised animals in Fresno that I am sure of except Whole Foods

money spent: have been doing this a long time. don't care if it is more money. Health care is costly

favorite recipe: don't use that many recipes, just meat veg fruit

try again: always

next time I would: nothing. Spread the word more

best resource: more info on San Joaquin Valley. Everything is for Bay Area

Susie Wyshak

hardest to find: A wide variety of local fish

best discovery: Hard cheeses to substitute for Parmesan and asiago.

hardest to give up: Gruyere cheese and balsamic vinegar

money spent: The same as I try to always eat locally.

favorite recipe: I tend to use local eggs and fry up red onions, shitakes, local greens and make a frittata like patty for dinner. I could eat these every night, just varying the veges.

try again: Definitely!!

next time I would: It would be interesting to try this in winter when produce isn't as readily available.

Maggie Henry

hardest to find: Organic

best discovery: I don't have one yet!

hardest to give up: Everything I had in SF

money spent: more

favorite recipe: Shrimp scampie

try again: Yes!

next time I would: Move to the Bay area

Claudia Schimmer

hardest to find: Grains, pasta

best discovery: eggs with DARK orange yoke

hardest to give up: Bread

money spent: maybe

favorite recipe: salads!

try again: I have beeen doing it to the best of my ability for over 25 years, including growing plenty myself

next time I would: Tell more people the evils of the diary industry!

best resource: Farmers market

Victoria Willits

hardest to find: I don't even know where to start and that is why I am contacting you. I live in Silver Spring, MD and am trying to figure out how to eat locally here.

Sarah Hempel Irani
-- Frederick, Maryland

hardest to find: Spices and tea

best discovery: The farmers market on the west side of town; it is larger than the one I had been going to.

hardest to give up: Tea, coffee.

money spent: Less

favorite recipe: I mostly ate simply, raw or boiled veggies. Lots of omelets

try again: Oh yeah! I am trying to be a locavore full-time.

next time I would: Plan ahead a little more.

best resource: localharvest.org has been awesome!

Avon Waters
-- Anderson, Indiana

hardest to find: Salt and condiments

best discovery: I need to grow more variety in my garden

hardest to give up: In Indiana, the only fruits available in August are apples and some berries. I miss my mangos and avocados

money spent: Definately spent less. We ate mostly out of the garden we have in the country. In the past we'd just use the garden to supplement meals. Being mostly vegitarian sure helps.

favorite recipe: Squash soup and a potato and corn salad that used a spicy home-made dressing from peppers we grew.

try again: Definately. It's raised our consciousness. In the Midwest, the growing season is limited, so when we do shop, then there's more thought into what we buy and are making good decisions.

next time I would: grow a wider variety of items in our garden and build a list of local growers.

best resource: Ideas for making it work more than one month in the Midwest. We canned 30 quarts of tomatoes, but that's not efficient use of our time since it took about 10 to 12 hours of time and who knows how many kilowatts of electricity. What's the comparison of energy expenditure for home canning verses locally canned. We have a plant 20 miles from our house, so we know we can get locally canned tomato products.

Terrie Brady

hardest to find: cheese. the closest to los angeles was at the farmer's market, from petaluma. also coffee and tea, it is all imported.

best discovery: that my local farmer's market really brings the food from within 200 miles except for about three growers.

hardest to give up: triscuit. celestial seasonings tea (when i ran out)

money spent: i think i spent more at the small health food store, but saved money by not eating out much. so about equal.

favorite recipe: just fresh tomatoes or fruit.

try again: yes

next time I would: i would try to do it more completely. i really just bought what i wanted at trader joe's and the farmers market, still gave my self an exemption to eat out once a week, and ate things that were already in the house even if they weren't local. it was too many exemptions.

best resource: if in los angeles we had a more complete listing like you do in SF of stores and sources of food.

Sienna M Potts
-- Caspar, California

hardest to find: pepper, mayo (i know, i could make it from the eggs i get from the chickens out back... i can be lazy about some things, but i do my best)

best discovery: local avocadoes

hardest to give up: honestly i didn't go without much: partly from exceptions, partly from local abundance & flexibility of diet...

money spent: roughly the same amount of money: i love to give it to the farmers at the markets! i spent more buying more local meats but i've been leaning that way for a long time: it's important to me to get clean, fresh meat

favorite recipe: new fave peach rhubarb crisp & my old fave gazpacho

try again: i'm always trying! especially in the abundant summer i live off the market days... winter would be a lot harder (let's save those months for when we're really good, hey?)

next time I would: always try to go further with it; involve my family & community more

best resource: the guest book entries & links were awesome! more events with other locavores would be great...