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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. While the book in no way promotes a raw, vegan diet, there is so much interesting information about eating in a way that is helpful to the planet. In her terms, this means eating locally instead of food logging thousands of miles to get to your plate. And, I’m all for that. However, I am having a difficult time thinking about how to take this philosophy in with raw foodism (I live in Portland, Oregon). This would mean that so many of my mainstays are out of the question most of the time like bananas, coconut and avocado. Besides moving to a more tropical climate, any suggestions? Are any of you eating raw out of your home gardens or successfully eating raw with local, seasonal produce?
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cold climate “local” is harder than warm climate. when you think about it, very few people LIVE seasonally, so eating seasonally makes a little less sense than it should. (i.e. we are heated up indoors in winter)
BUT, for the planet, i completely agree. my whole foods claims to buy local produce when possible (that might be a company policy, you could check). i buy local almost ABSOLUTELY in summer, but there would be very little to eat in winter (in connecticut) if it weren’t for imports of some kind. that said, we have an abundance of apple and pear orchards here, so i am pretty set for fruit. =)
if you are REALLY interested in local eating, it’s not very difficult to grow veggies indoors, esp. lettuce and herbs. i ordered a dwarf meyer lemon tree as a house plant and expect some fruit in a year.
that’s all i got…
I live in Manitoba, and despite the fact that there is a very good local resource site for this: http://www.100milemanitoba.org/ Most local produce here is root vegetables (of the hybrid kind, like potatoes and carrots most commonly) and grains (there’s a lot of room for fields here) So I really can’t live on this. I haven’t been here for very long and the short time I still am stuck here, well, not my time to save the planet, sorry.
Kandace, I do believe this will be helpful to you: http://www.eatlocal.net/
Thank to all. JoyceH, I found a site for local farm shares and will check them out. I’ve been considering at least trying to cut down on products shipped from out of the California, Oregon, Washington area but what a challenge! I do have an orange tree growing in the house. It was a gift and I’m not entirely sure it will produce oranges, but if it does…a lemon tree is next!
I read the book over the summer and recommend it to everyone. It inspired me to seek out local farms where I now buy my produce. I am also researching gardening so I can learn to grow for myself. I also want to plant grapefruit, lemon, and lime trees in my yard.
Florida is an agricultural state, but so little of the produce in our local chains are grown locally (and are able to be!). Avacados and oranges from California? Ridiculous!
Kandace, you are super lucky to be in Oregon. If you go to REI or some other sporting goods store you can get a manual on wild, edible plants. Once on TV, I saw a man in the Northwest build an entire meal from wild, raw ingredients. He made sushi from kelp that he found on the seashore.
When I was living in Washington, my Asian neighbors would gather kelp every summer. After hosing down their driveway, they would spread out the kelp to dry. I can’t wait to get back home and gather my own kelp. (There’s no wild kelp in Nebraska. No fir trees either. Hardly any rain.)
In Oregon you may gather 10lbs of kelp per person per day for personal use. If you take more you’ll need to get a permit from the Department of State Lands.
In the spring you could try to get into the woods and find some young fern bracken. Those are so tasty in salad, but they cost a fortune at Whole Foods. I also hear that Oregon is known for its hazelnut growers.
A few years ago I took a wine tour of the Willamette valley. So much good pinot. A lot of growers gave tours of their facilities and were very open about how the wine was processed.
Good luck with eating locally. Oregon is a special place.
I just started eating 100% raw vegan last week after toying with the idea for a year. It has been so easy for me here in Central Texas! I get a box of locally grown organic produce delivered to my house once a week. It’s a great deal. This week I received kale, collard greens, carrots, radishes, cabbage, lettuce mixes, cilantro, tangerines, grapefruit, persimmons, butternut squash, zucchini, broccoli and tomatoes. I go to the farmers market for almost anything else I want and will soon be getting spinach, lettuce and carrots from my own garden.
I do also get tropical items. I probably buy kiwis, avocados, bananas, pineapples and young coconuts once a month. I try not to get these things too often, but there are so many recipes that call for them! I’m working on finding some local substitutes (ground cherries taste surprising like pineapple when they are very ripe!).