LOCAVORATIOUS! Adventures in Community Supported Agriculture

Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.

As interesting and as succinct as these words are, they’re not mine. They’re Michael Pollan’s. Pollan is a writer for the New York Times, and the best selling author of In Defense of Food, and the much more (in my not so humble opinion) transformative The Omnivore’s Dilemna. If you haven’t already, buy them. Read them. Devour them.

If non-fiction’s not your thing (it isn’t usually mine), and you only really have the appetite for one, read The Omnivore’s Dilemna. If you get nothing else out of it, is a fascinating, and absolutely eye-opening window into the modern industrial food system, and its oh-so-very-few alternatives.

What does any of this have to do with this blog? Everything.

In essence, it’s the catalyst for change, the reason why I’m embarking on Adventures in Community Supported Agriculture.

Reading my words, you’re probably thinking that I’m some sort of preachy, anti-establishment radical, whose ideology is enflamed by intellectual and self-righteous fury against industrial and consumer excess.

Sorry, but I have to disappoint you. I come from a far more honest place that that.

Quite simply – I love food.

It’s a core passion for me – and everything, from the selection, to the preparation, to the eating of food excites and energizes me. It runs in the family, too. My mom (who of course taught me everything) is a fantastic cook, and can whip up an elaborate, multi course meal without batting an eye. My brother, if anything, takes it to the next level, applying artistry (no one garnishes a plate like he does), complexity, and creativity to his meals, and, quite frankly, puts some pretty good restaurants to shame. My dad, well – truth be told, he cooks pretty much only out of necessity, but he definitely enjoys the fruits of our culinary labour.

So when a friend of mine (who, frankly, has definite anti-establishment tendencies) recommended The Ominvore’s Dilemna, I pretty much lapped it up. Despite two young kids, and a pretty busy work schedule, I zoomed through it in about two days, absolutely energized and inspired by Pollan’s thoughts and ideas, which at their core are about becoming very aware about the quality of your food, and where you food comes from, and (perhaps most importantly), making a personal connection with the people who provide your food.

Enter Community Supported Agriculture. For modern consumers living in today’s urban, industrial landscape, there are really only two choices when it comes to sourcing food. One is your big box grocery chains. The other is local farmers and food producers.

Big box groceries, of course, are optimized for the mass market, with their ability to leverage global supply chains, and significant economies of scale. To the average consumer, they provide the undisputable convenience of one-stop shopping, for just about anything and everything. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Consider the flip side. Other than convenience of your food supply, what is it that Big Box enables you to buy more than anything else? Processed food. Tons upon Supersized Tons of it. Brightly packaged, professionally marketed, stacked in neat little, consumer friendly rows, optimally positioned based on premium shelving space to attract your attention, and the contents of your wallet. Foodstuffs (note that I didn’t use the word Food) which have been enhanced (New and Improved!!!), labeled Low Cholesterol (cause it didn’t have any to being with), and enriched (with all the vitamins and minerals that were originally in what little actual food was in there prior to processing), all happily stuffed chock-full of preservatives, to extend shelf life. Fruit (Organic! Flown daily from Argentina) that’s been picked unripe off the tree, and gassed with ethylene, to artificially ripen them while they sit in their transport containers. Meat from animals biologically adapted to eat grass, but instead are fed corn, and corn by-products, which they can barely digest, and therefore require antibiotics to keep them alive and (relatively) disease free for the inevitable slaughter. Not so hungry now, I bet.

So back to the alternative – Local farmers and food producers. In theory, you could grow everything in your backyard, or go hunting and foraging for your edibles. But if you’re anything like me, live in a city, and don’t know the safety from the danger end of a firearm to save your life, this isn’t anywhere near the realm of the pragmatic. However, in the interests of balanced argument, let’s keep this thread going.

What you can definitely get (and I’m simplifying, for effect now) with local farmers, is inconsistent product. Ever been to a farmers market? Ever buy what looks to be a nice quart of potatoes, where the ones on top of the box are absolutely glorious, but the ones on the bottom are questionable at best? Sure you have. Also, face the dilemma of the great unwashed. Fresh produce, if it’s a fresh as they say it is, is picked right from its nourishing bed of soil. What is soil? Dirt. By its very nature, and definition – dirty. So if you’re looking for produce that’s scrubbed antiseptic clean, don’t look to Local to meet your expectations. Then there’s consumer aesthetics. Local produce, especially when compared to the high marketing standard for the supermarket, often fails miserably. Local carrots (they’re roots after all) might still have stringy, secondary root filaments attached. Local potatoes (good ness gracious me), might have those somewhat alien-looking eyes growing. Locally butchered meat? Decked out in plane Jane brown paper, not the haute couture of Styrofoam and Shrink-Wrap (so easy to stack!). And then there’s convenience. Let’s face it – the country drive out past city limits just ain’t the same as the quick run to the corner supermart.

So why local, and why Community Supported Agriculture?  One word.

Taste.

There is absolutely nothing in this world that compares to freshly picked produce. There is a quality of flavor, even to something as innocuous as lettuce, that just kicks things up a notch, intensifies taste by an order of magnitude. Everything, from salad greens, to herbs, to the much maligned cucumber, has that little extra je ne sais quoi. Carrots are, well, carrotier. Crisper, crunchier, and just that much more sweet. The Arugula smells incredible, adding a peppery, transformative twist to my salad (and I’ve never been much of a salad fan). The organic, locally produced cheddar cheese – crumbly, sharp, and undescribably rich, easily holds its own against some of the aged, premium cheddars I’ve tasted, sans premium price point. And the eggs! Oh my god the eggs! Instead of the rheumy, pallid yellow yolks that are far too often the supermarket norm, the yolks positively glow deep golden yellow, as glorious and vibrant as the sun. And the taste? They taste just as fine as they look. Which is to say good. Ridiculously good.

So back to taste. There’s all sorts of (perfectly legitimate) reasons to go Local, and to leap enthusiastically onto the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) bandwagon. It could be because you fundamentally believe that locally grown, organic food is healthier than Big Box Grocery. Maybe you believe that going local is more environmentally responsible, and that choosing Local ultimately reduces your ecological footprint. Perhaps you have ethical concerns regarding the treatment of animals (a pretty hypocritical position, if you choose to eat meat).

Although many of these arguments resonate with me (at the very least I understand where people are coming from), they’re really just icing on the cake for me. If ultimately, scientific or social consensus proves these things to be true, then hey – I’ve done my part. Regardless of the outcome of the debate – what I will absolutely get out of this is some pretty damn fantastic food – made all the more sweet, because it is due to a deliberate, conscious choice that I’ve made to deepen the relationship I have with the food I love, and build community with the people who produce it.

So that’s it – that’s my proud intro to, and the raison d’etre of my blog. Hopefully, you’ll see that far from being a rant, my words will be an unrepentant and exuberant celebration of good food, and even better taste.

Here’s hoping that you too, will become Locavoratious!