Eat Local - In January?

Posted by Jacqueline Church Jan 19, 2008

Though some of us begin to suffer "green fatigue" one can still make a reasonable effort to eat well and eat locally, sustainably, organically...you know the drill.

Here's a new tool I discovered to help you find local produce by area and season. I plugged in Massachusetts and Late January

Leeks and Kale are two items that came up. I found some Mache at my Trader Joe's and made some wonderful soup that could be made with either of these in place of Mache. The amount of information coming across the telly, the monitor or the radio daily about the best ways to eat is staggering to me. I've rarely been a "bright line" kind of thinker, eater anyway.

So, the mache was not probably grown locally. The potatoes were. And the distribution methods many small, local farms may use can actually mean that eating locally raised foods may have a larger environmental impact than a smaller one. Oy vey.

I did enjoy my NZ Sauvignon Blanc (Thanks Joe!) with my Nantucket Bay scallops and my soup this morning was the last I'd made with the locally grown Thanksgiving turkey, thawed out and spruced up with fresh veg.

Leeks and Kale, as well as potatoes are all according to my new tool, able to be had from Rhode Island growers. Not too bad an impact and pretty tasty, too.

Check how easy a warming winter soup Vichyssoise is to make. And if it pleases you, seek out locally grown ingredients and enjoy!