Thoughts after 23-weeks of Locavore eating

Although I never seem to find the time to write regular blog posts and keep this blog up to date, I must admit that I really enjoyed eating local this summer.

Eating local has taught me to:

1. think about what's in season and appreciate what we are eating.
2. waste less food and food packaging.
3. learn how to preserve foods. Even for two vegetarians, the single farm share box at times contained more food than we could eat in a week, so we learned how to blanche the veggies and store them so we have food to enjoy even after our farm share is over.
4. try new foods (i.e. garlic scapes)
5. try new recipes and make up our own recipes
6. eat less processed foods. We have both lost weight and consider that to be a very positive side effect.
7. consider what is in the foods we are eating - especially when we buy form the grocery store
8. spend more time together as a couple since we have been preparing all the foods in our basket together
9. take the time to savour foods.
10. think from the ingredients perspective and make meals based on the ingredients we have on hand.

We are planning to eat local again starting next summer and hope to keep up many of these new habits throughout the coming winter months.

Last Farm Share Box 2010

Yesterday we picked up our final farm share box. It contained:

cabbage
lettuce
brussel sprouts
potatoes
squash
orange cauliflower

We roasted the brussel sprouts and made a topping for them with crushed mustard seeds and feta cheese. It was delicious, but the sauce was a bit too milky. I plan to try this again and use cream instead, but less of it. The strong flavours of the feta cheese really compliment the brussel sprouts quite nicely!