Local Food Reconsidered

I began following Buffalo Ridge Orchard in Central City this year. In part, that means I am divorcing myself from a local farm where I worked for seven seasons. In truth, Wilson’s Orchard and Farm hired one of the best chefs available to prepare dishes made from local foods and gave him his own venue. They appear to have successfully transitioned from a mostly apple crop to add flowers, strawberries, and other common, locally sustainable produce. They went big into hard apple cider, long the mainstay and chief reason pioneers grew apple orchards on their farms. They continue to experiment and expand. What’s not to be happy about?

I seek a different relationship with local food. I will continue to buy select varieties of apples from Wilson’s as well as in-season sweet apple cider. As a consumer, that has been most of what I bought there through the years. I am more interested in a collaborative approach, like the one on display at Saturday’s pop-up market at Buffalo Ridge Orchard.

Early Saturday morning I received an email notification of the pop-up market that day. Products of nine different farms were available. I know three of those farms very well. While I didn’t make it over for the sale, partly because our pantry is already full of spring goods, it is more attractive than pursuing a basket of strawberries on a large, crowded operation when strawberries are in season.

I grow a large garden and we eat fresh from it from March to November. When I seek outside produce, it’s because I’m not having a good year or choose not to grow certain items. For example, my aging and soon to be goner Red Delicious apple tree produces every other year and I need to source apples somewhere every year. The ones at the grocer are usually not the best quality. Too, I can’t imaging buying someone else’s garlic. I have had a steady, year-around crop since I began planting it ten or so years ago. A certain level of independence is assumed when a person operates a kitchen garden.

Another consideration is our mostly vegetarian household cuisine. We don’t eat meat or consume much dairy in the form of fluid milk, butter and eggs. For the most part, I buy dairy at the wholesale club because their buying power makes it much cheaper than local. Expense does matter, especially with commodities. Maybe I should give up dairy. That’s a conversation for another post.

One day I plan to return to the Iowa City or Cedar Rapids farmers market. I don’t need to shop there, yet I enjoyed the atmosphere when I did and brought home items we used. For years I bartered for a Community Supported Agriculture share at a local farm, although when I increased the size of my garden, the need for that produce diminished. A kitchen garden has been a natural evolution toward independence from the very local growers who inspired me. Some farmers told me such independence is a positive thing, rather than an infringement on their business.

Over the years this blog has posted a number of opinions about local food. What I learned was the idea of local food is constantly evolving. I continue to purchase groceries from a large, retail establishment on a weekly basis. That doesn’t make me any less interested in available local foods. Am I a purist? No, I am not. Nor need I be. It is challenging enough to keep track of what local food is available and where. I leverage it when it makes sense.