Santa Barbara, CA
It's late spring, and the timing is perfect to start your home veggie and herb garden. This season, it is clear, something has changed. MIchelle Obama broke ground on a vegetable garden at The White House, while George Ball, of Burpee Seeds, recently predicted seed sales to increase 20 to 30 percent this year. In a recent issue of Sunset magazine, the cover story featured tips on how to grow your own garden. It seems the meeting of The Obama Administration and the Recession have finally put sustainable food sources at the forefront of American’s priorities.
Activists, long-time locavores, and Weekend Hippies alike are hoping these changes will increase the demand for organic, local, and fresh produce, and drive awareness about sustainability in all forms—food, shelter, transportation.
How to start?
Buy produce at your local farmer’s market. Follow the seasons by creating recipes for the abundance of vegetables and herbs you find at your farmer’s market. Buy what’s fresh, and eat what’s fresh; not what’s been flown in from across the world.
Eat within your radius. Be a true locavore, and eat what is grown in your region including meat, poultry, dairy, and the like. Most locavores designate a 100-mile radius as their region. Since food including fresh food and processed goods travel 1,500 - 2,000 to reach their destination, it makes sense to keep it local. Plus, imagine knowing the origin of what you put in your body! Not only are you getting healthy, but you are contributing to a change that counts: reducing carbon emissions, reduction of packaging and processing, and support of your local economy. If you don’t have a list of growers and suppliers in your area, start with www.eatwellguide.org, enter your zip code for a list of sustainable farmers, bakers, restaurants, etc. in your area. You can do the same at www.ediblecommunities.com.
Grow your own produce. Be a locavores’ locavore. What better way to reduce the cost of your supermarket purchased vegetables than to grow the vegetables yourself, and trade or share with your neighbors. Grow your own food!.
