Can a person eat all local foods living in NYC?

It is rainy, cold and miserable in NYC today.   It doesn't feel like spring, and I have hauled sweaters out of the closet!

Not much left from last week's market to survive on this week.  I ate up all the asparagus and I'm almost through the remaining spinach.  I'm pretty much down to milk and eggs and I'm going to miss this Wednesday's market as well, due to work commitments.

I'll be resorting to whatever I can scrape up from the grocery stores and possibly the Thursday market (very small), and then what I've got in the freezer.  Wah.

Except that it is Thursday.  Boo.

Exciting happenings this week:  we made sauteed spinach with spinach and onions from our farmer's market, and have been enjoying local milk, yogurt and cheese.  Tonight I am making rhubarb-apple crisp.

Also, my tomato, pepper and basil plants arrived and are patiently awaiting their planting in our deck planters.
I am hoping for a good crop of cherry tomatoes again this year, especially since my daughter really loves them.
My last venture with pepper plants was an utter failure (they got too wet and died), so I'm hoping for better luck this go-round.

We'll be out of town on Saturday for Mother's Day weekend, so I'll miss the farmer's market this week.  I'm not sure how we're going to manage.  I plan to hit the much smaller market tomorrow and hope to tide us over until Wednesday's market next week.  I laid in additional supplies of milk, yogurt, apples, spinach and asparagus on Wednesday and I have some farmer's market stuff in the freezer, so we'll limp along until next market.

 

Happy Mother's Day everyone!
 

I took some photos and as soon as I get them off the camera I will post (and make some decent icons).

Today's bounty included:

Whole milk 
Lowfat milk (1%)
Salted butter
Unsalted butter
Lowfat plain yogurt
Dutch Farmstead cheese (which is like a gouda)
Fresh mozzarella
Queso blanc (goat)
Spinach
Broccoli rabe
Empire apples
Rhubarb
Asparagus
Mixed bag of apples for making applesauce

Pretty good for early May, no?  

They also had lots of other things that I passed on today since I still have things from my CSA distribution.  
Other bounty at the market included pasture-raised eggs, chicken, beef and pork, locally caught fish, a multitude of fresh greens (arugula, mustard, mesclun, etc), ramps (wild leeks), various root veggies (potatoes, onions, shallots, scallions, parsnips), and mushrooms.

I am trying to eat primarily vegetarian meals, so I skipped the meat, and I already have over two dozen pasture-raised eggs from the CSA.  I also still have plenty of root veggies and greens, so I skipped those.  If I need to stock up again on Wednesday, I'll hit the market for those things then.

How are you all doing today?  Anyone else have a spring market trip to report on?  Any good recipes for asparagus or spinach or other seasonal veggies?

Made it through yesterday with relative success.  My sauteed greens, spring garlic, onions, fingerling potatoes and pasture-raised eggs were a delicious dinner!!

I was talking about my local food adventure with another aspiring locavore yesterday, and she asked if I was going to eat completely local or if I had a "Marco Polo" clause.   I thought I knew what that meant, but thought I better look it up just in case. 

According to this article:

Locavores vary in their orthodoxy, from the ultrastrict (who might eschew ingredients like salt, sugar and vinegar that aren’t locally produced) to adherents of the "Marco Polo rule" (who deem acceptable dried spices like cinnamon and peppercorns that sailors could carry while at sea), down to the more lenient "wild card" users (who allow themselves a few indulgences—most commonly chocolate, coffee and olive oil—outside of their hundred-mile "food shed").

Given this explanation, I thought I should clarify what rules I am following in this regard.  

I guess I fall somewhere in the middle.  I have things in my kitchen right now--olive oil, canola oil, sugar, peanut butter, coffee, spices, etc--that are not local.  I intend to keep using them.  It makes no sense to let them rot or turn rancid when I've already got them in the house.  Also, the fossil fuels burned to get them here have already been burned and they aren't sitting in the grocery store anymore, so I can't retract my past support of their transport (by not buying them and therefore reducing demand).

What will be important is what I do when I run out of any of these things.  My current intention is to NOT purchase any more sugar, peanut butter, chocolate.  I will have to buy coffee or risk being divorced by my husband, but I will buy organic, free-trade.  I will make a decision about olive oil when I run out (since I know I can get lots of local butter--but that isn't necessarily the healthiest substitution).

I hope to get out to the farmer's market today, and I will *definitely* go tomorrow.

ETA:  I am pretty excited that there are so many great NY wineries!  I have been a fan of NY State wines for a long time and it is nice that I can continue to include them as I attempt to stick to a local diet.

I am embarking on an adventure, an experiment of sorts.   I am planning to eat a local diet while living in NYC.
I expect it to be difficult.  I love coffee and chocolate and bananas and all kinds of things that aren't grown anywhere near NYC.  I'm sure there are things that I don't even realize I've been trucking in from  thousands of miles away.

This is where I plan to document my experiences and if I am so enlightened, post any tips or facts I come across along the way.

Some questions that I would ask if I were reading this blog:

1. What do you mean by "local"?

A: I will get most of my food at my local farmer's market, which I believe includes farms up to 200 or so miles away.  I would estimate that I'm getting food in a 250 mile radius.

2.  Are you ONLY eating local foods?

A: Probably not.  I'll state right up front, so that there is no question later, I expect to have to get some things that are not local. 

Most grain foods are not grown in NY/NJ/CT/PA.  I am not going to be able to get local wheat, corn, rice, oats, soy.  

Also, I have a one year old daughter.  What does that have to do with it?  I am very likely going to buy some things that are not local to ensure that she has an adequate diet.  She is a pretty good veggie and fruit eater, but there is no guarantee that she will not go through phases of refusing certain foods.  Obviously, my first allegiance is to her and her healthy upbringing.  So if I have to buy bread or pasta because that's all she'll eat, I am going to buy it.  I will do my best to find organic, sustainable choices that are grown as nearby as possible.

3.  Are you going to eat vegan/vegetarian/meat/dairy/low-fat/low-carb?

A:  I'm planning to aim for a largely vegetarian diet.  I will include a lot of vegan meals, but I am not setting out to eliminate dairy and eggs completely (partly because my last winter CSA distribution included three dozen eggs, as did the one prior to it--so I have a few eggs to eat).  However, I don't know how long I'll keep this up.  I'd like to keep doing it as long as possible, and if I do, I will undoubtedly need to include local meat in the winter months.  I also may end up needing or wanting to include it for variety and/or nutrition.  We'll see how it goes.

I want to eat a healthy and environmentally conscious diet, so eating less-to-no meat is definitely an ideal.

4.  What about eating out, eating at the homes of other people, etc?

A: I plan to minimize eating out, with the exception of special occasions and business-related meals to stay within my local eating constraints.  If I am eating at the homes of other people,  all bets are off.  I can't dictate what other people buy and serve.  I don't often eat out at other people's homes anyway, so I don't expect that to be a big factor.  

When we have guests, they often bring food and we do communal eating.  In those cases, I will do my best to contribute local foods and if eating food provided by others that is non-local, I will endeavor to eat vegetarian and to avoid those items that clearly came a long way (i.e. pineapple). 

I'm sure that I will have more comments to make as I get rolling on this project.  It isn't as ambitious as the folks with the 100-mile diet, I realize, but then I'm just a thirty-something with a husband, a child and a full-time job (not as a writer or journalist) living in NYC, so it is a hobby and an experiment for me.  I (unfortunately) don't have all day to devote to locating local wheat or the like.  

But I still think it will be fun and interesting!


Tonight's menu will probably be mixed greens (spinach, chard) sauteed in spring garlic and onions with fingerling potatoes and poached egg(s).  A variation on "eggs in a nest" from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, using ingredients from my CSA distribution from this week.