Day 6 of National Downshifting Week: Eat Locally

Thursday - Day 6 of NDW US ~ What Have You Been Up To?

Purchased Local Produce from a Farmers Market, Co-op or CSA: Plan in August for local, winter produce.

Summer meals in the garden state of New Jersey are easy. We get to eat a lot of fresh produce, and everything in season is cheap! Fresh, local, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches have been a staple all week. August in NJ is sublime, with fresh tomatoes and Silver Queen corn, but alas, another month to wait. I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which made for great porch reading), about her family's year of eating local produce, and found it very inspirational! I plan to start making my own bread and soft cheeses to augment the fresh produce I already grow and glean from my local farmer's market and CSA.

I have always complained that eating locally only works in temperate climates like California, but I've been inspired by Kingsolver's book to begin to Put Food By. Canning is largely a lost art in metro and suburban US, but I plan to learn. I am starting with blueberry jam!

It's Day 7 of NDW tomorrow ~ what are you going to do, to 'slow down and green up'? Click here for a copy of our Downshifting Manifesto.