Simply: Home Cooking

Buying local...sort of

In Southeast Michigan, the summer months bring plentiful local produce and local, sustainably farmed meat and poultry are readily available, but there just isn't much ocean fish available! I could easily visit my local markets and buy a wide variety of fish, but as with many other ingredients, once you are concerned with how the fish was caught or farmed, what the process cost the environment, and how much of what I pay actually reverts to the fisherman/farmer, that option becomes less appealing.

Enter the concept of a buying club. While CSAs are a form of buying club, they tend to focus on local ingredients. A more general buying club is a way for conscious consumers to obtain non-local ingredients from conscientious producers, often at a fraction of the cost, since the group's order is as large (or sometimes larger than) a retailer's order might be. As with a CSA, the middle man is often eliminated, ensuring that the producer sees much more of the food dollar the consumer spends.

Buying clubs are usually made up of a group of consumers who form a sort of cooperative: by eliminating the middle man, you do have to somehow provide all the services s/he would normally offer - identifying products that you are all interested in and that meet your standards for quality, production method, etc.; taking the orders; dealing with payments; setting up delivery and distribution. These tasks now fall to the co-op members. But take heart - some producers, eager to tap into this growing market, make the ordering thru delivery process very simple, often with the help of the internet. Want to try out a buying club without committing to it 100%? Many times you can split an order with a current member - be aware that you will be responsible for payment (often up front) and will need to arrange with that member how you will pick up your product.

Looking for buying clubs in your area? A good place to start asking about them is at your local natural food store or co-op and farmers' market, particularly the vendors who run CSAs - they are usually delighted to connect you with producers who offer products other than what they themselves bring to market. Other places that seem to know about such clubs are local, independently owned "foodie" hangouts (restaurants, coffee shops, food salons) and even many churches. If you're really lucky, buying clubs in your area will have a website that can be found simply by searching for the name of the product + buying club + your area! Found a product you'd like to have but can't find locally? It's worth a call to the producer to see whether s/he'd be interested in a buying club arrangement.

Just in the last 18 months, I have been lucky enough to participate in a buying club at Lummi Island Wild (sustainably caught salmon, cod, halibut, scallops, and more). I've also split orders at Bariani (olive oil) and Celtic Sea Salt. Purchasing through a buying club is, I feel, a healthy compromise between militantly buying 100% local and buying whatever you want to eat, regardless of whether the item is in or out of season or even native to one's locality at all. While I try to buy local and seasonal as much as possible, I do like coffee, olive oil, ocean fish, and chocolate....

The Meat Issue

I was a vegetarian (and even tried to be a vegan) for several years before moving in with my husband, who is a committed carnivore. At that point, I had to make a choice: cook 2 meals for each mealtime (or add an animal protein on top of a vegetarian entree) or go back to eating meat. I have to admit, I was a vegetarian for health reasons more than for ethical ones, and I have always liked the taste of meat, fish, and poultry. I was a miserable vegan - love dairy and eggs to much for that to work. When I took a look at my vegetarian diet, I came to realize that I was probably better off eating some lean animal protein in place of so much dairy, so that was ultimately the choice I made.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I suddenly discovered that animal protein, particularly chicken, always tasted "off" to me, even after the initial morning sickness wore off. The first time it happened, I thought the chicken was just bad and returned it to the store. The second time, my husband swore it was fine, but I could not bring myself to touch it - it didn't taste spoiled, it tasted chemical. I started buying organic chicken - that seemed a bit better. We went that route until we lived in California, right next to a fabulous farmers' market that housed a pastured chicken vendor. Wow. I was shocked by the difference in taste and texture and never thought to buy another chicken from the store.

When we moved to Michigan a bit more than a year ago, I found a wonderful organic farm that also raises chickens - Two Creeks Organics. We have bought all our chickens and most of our eggs from them over the past year and happily joined their chicken CSA this summer. There's nothing quite like a chicken that has been happily ranging around eating what it was born to eat, then cooked before it's been frozen! Once last winter, we had a craving for a roast chicken but no Two Creeks birds in the freezer. I decided to buy an organic, cage free bird at a very high end local supermarket and paid a lot for it. Imagine my shock when I got home, opened the package, and could smell nothing but bleach rising from the bird! Not making that mistake again.

We've switched to buying local beef from McLaughlin Farms, pork, duck, turkey and lamb from Back Forty Acres and we belong to a buying club that delivers sustainably caught frozen fish to our group twice a year. The flavor and texture of these locally raised products are incredible - even my husband, who used to order steak any chance he got in a restaurant, now takes one bite and sighs disappointedly, "It's just not the same." If we eat in a restaurant that does not specifically advertise that they source locally and sustainably raised meat, my daughter and I often choose vegetarian options in restaurants simply because we know we'll be disappointed in the meat dishes and we don't want to support conventional meat production.

The point is, by choosing to eat locally, sustainably raised animals, we are not only being kinder to our bodies and our environment, we are also supporting our local food economy. Many small growers of sustainably raised animals are struggling - they face tight rules and regulations that are often applied across the board, whether one is a tiny producer or a huge industrial feed lot and slaughter house. These rules will ultimately put the small producer out of business. Yet where do we hear about massive recalls of hamburger, chicken, eggs, etc.? Invariably, it's the large-scale producers who are at fault. Want to feel good about the protein you bring into your house and onto your cutting board? Go local and sustainably raised. If you choose to support your local farmer, you will be shaking the hand that feeds you - and being acquainted with the owner of that hand goes a long way toward ensuring you will be getting the highest quality, safest product to your family.

Where to look? Local Harvest and Local Orbit are two organizations that work to connect consumers with local products, most of them sustainably raised/organic.

Of course, the major issue is cost. As odd as it seems, it does cost more to buy food that is not processed, has no additives, etc. Want local, sustainably raised animal protein? You will pay a premium price. But is the alternative to throw up your hands and go back to buying "cheap" meat from those horrific CAFOs (confined feeding operations), encouraging further deterioration of our environment and our communities? If you can afford to buy in bulk (1/2 a hog, 1/2 a lamb, 1/4 or 1/8 of a steer) and have a meat freezer, you will see savings - it won't seem that way when you write the check for the meat, but when you don't spend the money at the supermarket on a weekly basis, the savings will add up.

We've made the adjustment by buying the premium meat but eating less of it. Our weekly menus regularly include vegetarian meals, Chinese food (which uses meat as a condiment, not as the focus of the dish), and dishes where 1 lb of ground beef can be stretched to make 2 meals for 4 plus leftovers for packed lunches.

If you are serious about changing the food system, for your health, your environment's health, and the health of the economy, check out this blog post on Grist.org. Written by a producer of sustainable meat, it contains lists of questions/suggestions for those who are really ready to jump into the movement. Although I am not wild about the sometimes hostile tone of the piece and my inner niggler hates the lack of good editing, if you read through the lists, you will definitely see how far along you are in the journey from the perspective of the small producer - it's eye-opening to walk a mile in her shoes, for sure!

Most importantly, don't become discouraged - as the Chinese saying goes, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. Just make sure the step is in the right direction, and that you keep on, even when the going gets rough.

Tomatoes!

In recent years, my daughter (the resident tomato fanatic) has grown to understand that tomatoes from the farmers' market - fresh, local, vine-ripe, and in-season - are a garden treat unlike any other. In California, we could get wonderful tomatoes most of the year, fairly acceptable ones the rest of the time. In Michigan, she has come to scorn what she calls "tomatoes in training" (our son appreciates the acronym more than he does any tomato) and has told me not to bother buying them from the grocery store, preferring to wait for the market season. This year we got to try a wide variety of heirlooms, from bright yellow to funny striped ones, and it was fun to compare the flavors.

Tomatoes should be kept at room temperature - a mildly green one will even ripen nicely on a sunny countertop or windowsill - but they're quite delicate and need to be eaten quickly. Refrigerating them is not worthwhile - they lose too much flavor.

This year I planted Roma tomatoes from seed, starting them under lights in the basement (I'm sure my neighbors thought I was growing something else down there, judging by the constant glow emanating from the window wells!) and planting 6 of them along the east-facing wall of our house. I wondered whether there would be enough sun there, but I'd run out of containers and space in my raised beds. My worries were unfounded, though, and I've been harvesting a small bowlful daily - enough for my daughter to eat "as is" with plenty left over for salads and sauce.

While I would need to plant a lot more to make enough sauce to last through the winter, I've managed to freeze quite a few quarts of it. Canning still seems a bit beyond my schedule, although it's something I hope to learn in the future, and freezing is a great way to preserve vegetables. I know exactly what is in my sauce - tomatoes! - and don't have to think about whether the can liner is toxic, whether there are additives/preservatives, etc.

The one piece of equipment you'll need to make sauce from fresh tomatoes is a food mill, which pushes the sauce through while straining out seeds and pulp. It's a great investment for making applesauce, mashed potatoes, and baby food as well!

Washing and cutting the tomatoes into large chunks is all the preparation required for homemade sauce. During the week, any tomatoes that seem near spoiling or any of the harvest I know we won't get through simply gets washed, cut into large chunks, and placed in a quart container in the freezer.

Place the chopped tomatoes (frozen or fresh) in a saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and cover the pot loosely. Once the tomatoes on the bottom start to turn to sauce, turn the heat to medium low, uncover the pot, and stir occasionally. The sauce is done when all the chunks have broken down into a liquid with seeds and skins in it. At this point, you can let the sauce simmer for 10-15 m to concentrate it a bit, or you can simmer it longer, until most of the water has evaporated - this will give you tomato puree.

Turn off the heat and let the sauce stand until it cools to room temperature. Put it through the food mill, pour it into jars, and refrigerate. Tightly covered, the sauce will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge. Once it's chilled, you can freeze it for up to 6 months.

The amount of sauce you end up with varies based on the variety of tomato you use, but in general, a quart container of coarsely chopped tomatoes will yield about a pint (16 oz, 2 c) of sauce.

More on eggs

A bit more on the pro-small farmer side of the egg debate - Joe Laur concludes that the cost of cage-free/free-range/organic eggs really isn't so high: "It's cheaper than salmonella."

Ingredients: Eggs

In Ann Arbor, we're lucky enough to have a "chicken ordinance" that says something along the lines of "if you don't keep a rooster and your neighbors aren't against it, you can keep chickens." As much as I'd like to try it, Katia (our soon-to-be-11-year-old) has nixed the idea, and I can't imagine how we're going to a) keep them warm through the winter and b) find them a babysitter if we go away on vacation.

But reading the egg options at a conventional grocery store is just asking for a headache. Conventional? Organic? Free Range? Cage-free? Omega-3 added? The list goes on seemingly forever, and the difference in price between "regular" and the others can be as much as $3 or even more. There is a vast amount of information about these labels (and a lot of others) available online, but a good summary can be found at the Humane Society website.

Besides coming from happier chickens-producers, pastured eggs have been shown to have greater health benefits for us, the consumers. The debate about the study results continues, but you can read the pro-pastured side on Mother Earth News.

To top it all off - pastured eggs taste better. A lot better.

Of course, there is a huge difference in price at the grocery store between "factory" eggs and those from free-range, organic-fed, etc. chickens. But much to my delight, I have discovered that a dozen pastured eggs from several farmers in our area (visit Two Creeks Organics to learn about their eggs and chicken CSA) costs a lot less than a dozen organic, free-range eggs from the grocery store, even a little less than those at Trader Joe's. And occasionally you can find CSAs that include eggs in their weekly box. Part of the fun of buying locally is that our kids have actually visited the Two Creeks Organics chickens and know exactly who is producing our omelets and frittatas!

As with all ingredients, you'll have to decide whether you want to pay more for pastured eggs, but my feeling is that I'd rather buy high-quality ingredients that are better for our health, better for the environment, and allow me to support our local food system.

And here's a fun visual aid for this discussion (be sure to watch to the end)!

 

Egg Cage Match! Local Cage Free Vs. Conventional Eggs from Big Wheel Provisions on Vimeo.