Suburban Foraging: Two Families Eat Only Local

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As for legumes, we got them fresh all summer – edamame, crowder and black-eyed peas, baby lima and fava beans. Shelling the peas made the more finicky kids willing to at least give them a try. But we were told by more than one person in the know that the mid-Atlantic climate is not favorable for producing dried beans. And we were unable to find anybody offering the “grain, bean and seed” CSAs that we hear are available in some parts of the country.

Trade-Offs

We never felt deprived by cutting out tropical fruits, frozen convenience foods or typical snacks. The kids whined about their loss of cereal and pasta the first week, but as time went by, they got into the experiment (Laura Ingalls Wilder analogies helped!). They loved the open-pollinated Amish popcorn, and homemade potato and sweet potato chips. To satisfy their craving for sweets, Renee made peanut butter cookies using maple sugar, while Kristi baked cookies with whole spelt flour and pecans.

We did spend more time than usual in food preparation, including some experimental baking. Renee made “graham nuts” cereal using a recipe off the internet in response to her five-year-old’s plea for cereal during the last week. Kristi’s week-long experiment making sourdough rye only yielded two edible loaves, but piqued her interest in preparing the dark rye of her northern German ancestors.

Baking required us to make an exception to the 150-mile rule for leavening agents. We also granted ourselves additional exceptions, such as for oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, and tea. Kristi’s husband, Bernd, couldn’t do without coffee. Forgoing treats like refined sugar, chocolate and spices was difficult. But we earned a profound new appreciation for globally-traded flavor enhancers!

Wild Price Ranges and Hidden Costs

Price comparisons revealed that no one store was cheaper across the board. Price ranges of local foods were startlingly wide, and defied stereotypes. Whole Foods – known in some quarters as “Whole Paycheck” – actually yielded some relative bargains, while the smaller health food stores, food co-ops and farmers markets offered both bargains and sticker shocks.

To keep from busting our budgets, we watched for sales, and limited the high-end gourmet stuff, such as artisanal cheese. By being a neighborhood CSA coordinator, Kristi received her share of vegetables for free. We also made bulk purchases and grabbed seconds. Nob Hill Orchards, of Gerrardstown, West Virginia, for example, sells bulk berries at a discount, albeit frozen. Overripe peaches bought at half price from Harris Orchard, of Lothian, MD, made a fabulous crumble, and a half bushel of apple seconds for a mere $6 made quarts of fantastic applesauce.

Bulk discounts are especially valuable in purchasing meat. At Springfield Farm, rib eye steaks are $18 a pound and ground beef is $4 a pound, but Renee bought a 20-pound box of mixed roasts, steaks and ground meat for $3.95 a pound. Whole steers, sides or split quarters are as low as $2.50 a pound. “It really is a very good buy for people if they have the freezer space,” said Valerie Lafferty, who runs the farm with her parents, David and Lilly Smith.

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