I am thrilled to have Tatiana from Mama Philosopher back with us again today sharing all about her local perspective! As you might recall from her previous post Books Worth Reading, Tatiana is a passionate educator, mother, homesteader and local food advocate! She firmly believes that we can all “figure out (our) truth and (live) it”, which is a statement I deeply resonate with and is a part of this whole adventure in local eating! Additionally, her parenting style is one that calls to me deeply as my Partner and I navigate how we want to intentionally raise our daughter. Tatiana’s gentle nature and beautiful writing have a magical way of drawing one in, even if just for a moment or two.
Please give Tatiana a warm “Welcome Back!” as she shares a bit of her life with us 🙂
xoxo,
M
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Local food is about so much more than just food. It’s about community, sustainability, and environmentalism. Everyone’s version of local is different. I live in Northern New York State, close to Vermont. So I define local as foods coming from New York or Vermont. In addition, I try to buy as much food as possible from people I know personally.
Eating local is important to me because it is one of the ways I engage with my community. I like to think of community in the broadest possible sense: it includes people, but also all the other plants and animals in my region. When I eat food, I am consuming another living thing, and I want to be sure that I am doing so in a way that benefits the community of living things that I am a part of. Eating local gives me the opportunity to feed myself in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. When I buy an item at the store, I know very little about it. When I buy something from a farmer I know, or when I grow or forage food myself, I can be sure that it was done in a way that is respectful to the Earth.
In my family, we incorporate local food into our diet in a variety of ways. One of our favorites is foraging for wild edibles. My husband, Josh, is very knowledgeable about edible mushrooms and his passion for searching the woods for these treasures means I get to eat lots of these incredible delicacies. We also forage for wild berries. Our region is especially bountiful in wild blueberries, blackberries, and elderberries. Another way we get local food into our diet is through a yearly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and weekly visits to the farmer’s market.
We are a (mostly) vegetarian family and I am especially careful about the animal products we purchase. I need to know that the animals who supply my family’s food are living healthy and happy lives. I buy raw milk and eggs from farms near our house. These are two foods I feel so much gratitude for! I can visit with the animals and see how well they are treated. In my own small way, my purchases support the economic well being of beautiful farms and good friends.
By far, the best way to eat local is to grow your own and preserve as much as possible. We have a garden every year, though it varies in size. We take seasonal trips to berry farms and apple orchards to stock up on fruit. I freeze, can, and dehydrate as much as I can, and I try keep storage crops in my basement. This year, a group of friends got together and ordered a bunch of storage crops in bulk from a local, organic farm. We got potatoes, cabbage, onions, leeks, and winter squash at a great price and they lasted us long into the winter. This year we also worked out a great barter with a friend down the road: She had lots of tomatoes and no time, so we took her tomatoes and canned them. Then we gave her some of the canned tomatoes in exchange.
I still end up going to the store once a week, and local food is often available there as well. We can get local butter, cheese, flour, fruits, and veggies at the store.
With all of these abundant resources, we manage to eat as much as 50% local food during the growing season. It drops down to around 5% during the long, cold winter. We aspire to so much more, though. Ideally, I would love to achieve something closer to 80% year round, by increasing the amount of food we grow and put by.
There are some foods in our diet that we will likely never get local, though I am unwilling to give them up. Coconut oil and coconut milk are important to our diet. Also we eat a lot of nuts. The best I can do is support organic and fairly traded. Also, we buy fresh greens in the winter that are imported from California. I’m excited to learn about farmers in the region who are experimenting with growing greens through the winter in unheated greenhouses. I hope that in the future, this will provide an environmentally sustainable and local source for winter greens.
Our family is a bit transient, as we have moved to 10 different homes in the last 10 years. We move a lot, but each time we land somewhere new, we start a garden. It is a bummer to have to move away from a garden that you have poured so much energy into, but we like to think of it as paying it forward by building soil health and helping the next tenants get a garden going. We have been fortunate to inherit some great gardens at homes we were renting. Currently, we are saving up money with the goal of buying our own land in 2-3 years. We look forward to growing an edible landscape of both perennial and annual plants once we put down our own roots.
By far, my favorite local food recipe is a good veggie scramble. On a warm summer morning, take 2-6 local eggs and scramble them up with a splash of water, salt, and pepper. In a warm pan, melt local butter and briefly sauté whatever vegetables are abundant. I like to chop ½ an onion, grate a summer squash, and chop up some chard. When the veggies are warm, but still crispy and fresh, I add the eggs. Once the eggs are cooked, the scramble is ready, or you can add some shredded local cheese and fresh tomatoes if you have them, cover the pan and let the cheese melt before eating.
Tatiana sees her life as a journey of rejecting perfectionism and finding peace in her life and work. She is passionate about mindfulness, women’s wisdom, and ecological lifestyles. Tatiana lives in the Adirondack Mountains of New York with her husband, Josh, and their two boys: Birch (5) and Bliss (4 months). She enjoys cooking with whole foods, knitting, getting lost in a good book, and being outside. You can find Tatiana on Facebook or twitter, or connect with her directly through her blog: mamaphilosopher.com.
