Kimberly and I were laughing via email yesterday about the trafficking in local foods that happens between those that have been eating locally for awhile. Shopping for local foods becomes second nature, as does asking others to bring you back souvenirs or trade you something they’ve got or can get for something you have.
This morning I took Kimberly the soup bones I got from this year’s steer (4 of us split a full cow) as she mysteriously got none and we still haven’t used the ones from our 2008 quarter. She’ll use them to make soup/stock and I won’t have to feel guilty anymore that I won’t. After our breakfast at Señor Moose, we headed over to the Ballard market to find ingredients for our respective holiday dinners this week.
Just as we arrived, Tea called to say that she was coming our way with the pepperoni that Anita picked up for me in Napa in September. I’d hoped to get it from the Fatted Calf stand at the Ferry Building market when I was in San Francisco in September, but they didn’t have any that day and I hadn’t thought to call ahead and request it. Instead of me having it shipped, Anita picked it up when she was in Napa with Shauna, Danny, Lu and Helen the day after I left. Then she graciously sliced it and put it in her freezer.
When Tea left San Francisco a couple weeks ago to drive back to Seattle, my pepperoni hitched a ride with her. It’s been chilling at Tea’s place ever since as I live 40 miles north of her and we had to try to coordinate a time we could both be the same place at the same time. Now the pepperoni is chilling in our freezer, neatly sliced, packed and labeled to be used for 9 pizzas this winter.
Kimberly asked if I would count it as local and use it for a Dark Days meal. Of course I think it counts as no extra gas was used or trips made to get it here. It simply moved along with people going the direction it was already headed. Of course, it may or may not make it into a Dark Days post as we’ve recently developed a canned pizza sauce habit that I’d have to break in order to make a pizza that would count. We’ll see, perhaps I’ll have to pull up my big girl panties again and make a completely local pizza happen soon.
Anyway, what foods do you seek out to bring home when you travel? What do you ask others to bring back to you?
On our list is always wild rice (mom), citrus, olive oil and peppers. Of course, we also bring back foods from our favorite farms and vendors even if we can get something similar here.
Every time I am in TX, I bring back a suitcase full of salsa jars (well, with my other stuff to the 50lb) limit. Joe T’s and Clints are my favorites.
I love it! I do a similar thing and I think it’s fair game to count the food in local challenges (as long as no gas was used solely to transport food). Although, I often feel like I need to explain/over-explain myself each time I use the food in a challenge.
My best friend lives in VT and they have an exceptional local food movement up there. I bring back cheddar cheese from Shelburne Farms, Honest to Goodness Apple Cider Vinegar, and anything I can get my hands on from Vermont Butter & Cheese Company. When she visits, she brings me interesting local VT items she thinks I’ll enjoy, like Sapling (a VT liqueur made from the sap of maple trees). She was right–I enjoyed it!
Not only do I think it should count in a local food challenge, but maybe it should qualify for extra points! I mean, before I became a local foodie, I would not have spent my vacations visiting their farmers markets and farms. I think it shows a healthy interest in what’s local and seasonal in other places as well. Understanding and appreciating where food comes from and how it gets to us is part of the educational benefit of being a locavore.
I do need to visit friends in CA and HI more often…local coffee…hmmm…
After having it at your house, Laura, G. brought back wild rice last time he went home to Wisconsin. A friend in California brought us home-brined olives as well as two artisan olive oils (oh hey, maybe I’ll use those for the challenge when I need oil!).
I need to visit my friends in the Bay Area, I guess! And make some friends somewhere where citrus and avocados grow.
When we travelled to Montana last summer, I brought back local buffalo jerky. It made it home, but was eaten within the week. I seem to always find the local flyer on the local farmers’ market as we’re driving out of town.
It’s pretty easy to get lax thinking that it takes no extra gas to get that food. Around month 4 last year of local challenge I was jonesing for something crunchy and finally found popcorn grown just across the OR border by Azure Standard. I had to order some. The truck delivers once a month. And since the truck was already coming it was awfully tempting to not order anything extra. Like the pasta they make from locally grown organic duram wheat. And their organic dent corn to make cornbread. And then hey since the truck was coming they did have some citrus from California which we hadn’t had for months…I still struggle with that. But I think on the whole if you have a person coming it’s ok. That 100#s of olives I ordered last month from Chaffin Orchards, probably not ok.
I am all about the cheese. Which, of course, I can find locally here. But I can’t always get the kind of cheese I’d like. And so I am quite often carting home various cheeses at any opportunity.
I’m so glad the pepperoni made it to you at last!
We we just talking today about the “no added food miles” concept. Jeanne from World on a Plate brought back about 8 pounds of fresh cranberries bought directly from a Cape Cod farmer, and today she, Jen, my mom, and I made cranberry sauce for our local Thanksgiving meals.
There would be a small riot among my family if we didn’t have cranberry sauce, so it was either this quasi-local option, or the stuff from the can — I consider it the lesser of two evils by a LONG shot!
Hi Anita,
I know they grow cranberries in OR and WA state – perhaps you can find some that are at least from the west coast next year? I hear you on the sinful omission of cranberries. We almost were going to substitute plum jam but I found some at the UW farmer’s market a few weeks back.
Whenever I travel to Colombia to visit my dad I bring back suitcases full of platano chips (fried crispy green plantains), I bring back bocadillos (guava with sugar made into a crystalized type candy wrapped in banana leaves). My dad always brings back coffee for us when he travels back, I figure it kind of makes our coffee local – he’d be bringing back empty suitcases, so why not fill them with coffee. He also will bring back a Colombia pizza and we warm it that night and enjoy a welcome home meal together.
While I try to eat locally I still get things from far away (like citrus). I do however try to find a small farmer to buy from. That makes me feel like I’m still helping that local economy!
Sustainable Eats: Yes, we usually buy Washington cranberries — we used to drive by the bogs in Bellevue when we lived in Seattle. But this year Jeanne was already in MA, offered to bring some back. It didn’t make sense to buy trucked-in berries from an industrial source when I could get hand-carried fruit direct from the farm. And, if it were just me, I would use our own homegrown plum conserve, but I can’t make that choice for my extended family. I don’t want to be a militant-locavore grinch.
I go to Saulte Saint Marie every summer and bring back gallons (yes, gallons) of local maple syrup. I always seek out/ask of others: olive and nut oils, nuts, citrus, and avocados.
Anita, I didn’t even know they grew in Bellevue and that’s a lot closer than Eatonville. I’ll be looking that up next year – thanks for the tip!