Are We Eating Local? ...Are We Not Eating Local?

My visiting sister-in-law recently asked me about the strength of the local food movement here in the Cleveland area. I thought about it for a minute, then declared that I thought it might be losing steam around these parts.

I based that statement on the fact that fewer people I happen to encounter in my personal life are doing CSAs (community sponsored agriculture "farm-share" programs). And then there was the instance in which I recently called 411 information in order to get the number of an urban farm I was familiar with (when I happened to be in that area having a bit of a produce emergency), and the operator came up with nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Was my farm gone or just poorly marketed??? Additionally, one of my favorite cafes, specializing in local food, was shuttered last fall. Furthermore, the chef of this cafe once confessed to me that the operation was only able to be truly local for part of the year...after all, if you haven't made your fingers bleed from a non-stop autumn canning marathon, you are bound to run out of local produce when Northeast Ohio is under a thick blanket of snow.

So after I went out on a limb and said I thought the movement was weakening, I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on Chef Dan Barber. You can read it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304765304577482560684797868.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Barber is a thoughtful, intelligent chef and the article challenges the reader to consider a number of things about sustainable cuisine. Barber also insists the local food movement is only in its infancy, and will continue to grow, even if it is for the "wrong" reasons.

Hmmm....

I have to admit I do see lots of folks trying to grow their own produce in backyard patches and pots along the patio. And if there is a choice at the grocery store, I generally will choose local produce over trucked-in-from-who-knows-where stuff. But who knows how many people are really doing gardens. And who knows how consistent schlubs like me really are while out shopping for food.

I freely admit that I don't make it to the farmers markets a lot, mainly because the hours have not fit my schedule. I don't drive 25 miles east or south to pick things up right at the farm. I have a black thumb and a backyard groundhog I have adopted, so my own personal victory garden is limited to invasive herbs that thrive in spite of my ham-handed care and my voraciously herbivorous yard-mate. Finally, my experience with CSAs is that you had better be creative with zucchini, because, when you open your weekly delivery, you'll think the zucchini bumper crop is never going to end.

However, within the last few days, I have, in my travels, stumbled upon a couple of urban Mom-and-Pop garden and produce markets that sell lots and lots of gorgeous local produce at fair prices. And because I don't have to get there at a specific window in time as I woud with a pop-up/once-a-week farmers market, it makes the shopping experience a lot more practical for me. I will definitely patronize these places. The J&L Open Air Market near University Circle was one of these locations, and I thought the produce looked terrific. No website as far as I can tell, but the address is listed here http://businessfinder.cleveland.com/1114470/J-and-L-Christmas-Trees-and-Open-Air-Market-Cleveland-OH. Another place is Cavotta's Garden Center in Collinwood/Nottingham Village. This place is so cool... even if you are not a foodie or a gardener...it is an idyllic little wonderland tucked into an east-side corner of the city. http://www.cavottas.com/index.html

I am going to do a better job of eating local, even if it means eating my words to my sister-in-law. Not that I want to be yet another tediously preachy, do-right foodie type (because Lord knows, I don't want to be filed under that label), but because I happen to prefer the tenderness of just-picked lettuce over stuff that comes in a vacuum-sealed baggie. I happen to prefer the flavor of a plum that got ripe on the tree over the one that got ripe on the back of a truck. I prefer to shop at small businesses when I can because I'm a small business, too, and I'm hoping that some positive what-goes-around-comes-around karma might bolster my ability to earn a living, too. And when you get right down to it, I really like not having to wait in a long checkout line.

So, for utterly self-serving reasons, I've renewed my enthusiasm for local food. In that previously referenced article, Barber cites hedonism as the fuel behind the local food movement. The activists out there may find this concept base...not good enough to nourish our troubled planet on a multitude of levels.

My in-laws and everybody else may call me a waffler (here I am, eating my words!)...but I'll let the reader draw his/her own conclusions. But I would love to know, honestly, are you people out there in blog-land doing that much local food? Is it easy for you? Is it a pain? Are things better one way or the other??