It’s all about how food today for day four of the no impact project

Looking at how you eat, where you buy food and how far food travels to get to you is one way to explore food greenly.

How are you doing in that department?

If you eat in fast food restraunts, drink soda, don’t cook and have no idea what foods are seasonal or what part of the world something comes from you may not be on the right track.

Main stream grocery stores or even the big box stores have confused most….red peppers from holland, asparagus all year round and no education really to guide you to eating seasonally or locally.

Sure in the fall there are pumpkins, but where are they from??  Have you ever noticed how many are left ? It’s not like those are turned into soup or bread later. While picking up that pumpkin there is candy corn and beer too!! One stop shopping makes it easy to get everything you need in one place. I sometimes get caught up in that, too busy, too tired, too many places to go verses one place.

It takes discipline and quite a bit of planning to make sure you have what you need to create delicious healthy meals and it’s a learning curve to eat seasonally and from local sources.

In my opinion it’s totally worth it.

I like the idea of slowing things down a bit.

I could be better at it.

I could have bought a ton of green beans at the farmers market and froze them. I could have put up enough tomato sauce to last me through the winter. From my own garden this summer I got two huge batches of tomato sauce, two batches of bruschetta and pico-de-gallo, from one plum plant! If I had three plants I’d have had tomatoes coming out my ears and could have potentially manufactured sauce for later. In jars? To store where ?  Modern kitchens are not set up like this and I’ve never canned before. This idea at some level however does appeal to me.  Another part of me has me say…it’s only me. I am only cooking for one.

I can say I ate from my very own garden this summer and loved it!!

It’s Autumn …to eat in season these are the foods that might be good to eat this time of year — imagine if you had a farm, these are the foods that are plentiful right now from the ground …

artichoke, beet, beet greens, bell peppers, carrots, garlic, cauliflower, corn, eggplant, potato, radishes, sweet potato and wild mushrooms

almonds, apples, cranberries,limes, melon, pears, plum, pomegranite, raspberries and tomato

Think of all the wonderful things you can make with the above ingredients!

above photographs by karen hanrahan