Last spring, Casa de Nicki posted her reasoning for gettin’ local:
1. Local stuff consumes fewer fossil fuels.
2. Local stuff isn’t artificially manipulated to the same degree as long-distance stuff. I tasted local strawberries vs. long-distance ones the other day. They both looked simila, but the long-distance ones owed their rosy hue to being treated with gas. Huge difference in flavor and quality and my exposure to potential carcinogens.
3. Local people get paid to produce local stuff, and they do it on farms, which preserves our green space.But at its core, my reasons for buying local are really, really selfish. Mainly i’m woefully ignorant of what is actually in season at any given point, I’m a semi-miserable failure at raising my own vegetables, and I have a pretty limited veggie palette. This is one attempt at addressing all that.
Once you go local, all other produce just withers in comparison.
And, unfortunately, when cooking for Food Not Bombs, a free-food program that often relies on the donations from conventional food sellers, the taste difference is quickly apparent. At least the food is getting into some bellies and delivering some nutrients instead of rotting in the landfill.
She wrote that she still gets a hankering for wings and beer and tries to find local ways to satiate. That’s a little like my weakness for mussels and oysters. But I’ve got an excuse, right? I was raised in a fishing community; my grandfather was a lobster fisherman; it’s in my blood, man.
Anyways, locally raised BBQ chicken and a cold Terrapin sounds pretty tasty.
Here’s a video interview with the guys who organize Locally Grown, an Athens farmer co-op:
Athens Food Not Bombs meets at Common Ground every Monday and Wednesday at 5pm to cook and then goes off to College Square to eat.
