***Food Miles***
Our grocery
shopping looks a little different to most families’. A small part of me would
love to live out in the middle of nowhere with a prolific vegetable garden and
a cow to milk and some livestock headed in the direction of the freezer. But a
bigger part of me knows that I find it impossible to keep up with the two
square centimetres of vegetable garden I do have, so instead of growing our
own, we buy as directly from the producers as possible. On our grocery run last
week I visited the farm that grows our vegetables, the farm that produces our
raw milk and the shop that catches our fresh fish. Buying our food as directly
as possible from the people who produce it is important to our way of life. I
have a nutritional meme, from which I will remove the swear-words in order to
publish it here: The more a food has been tampered with, the less of it I eat.
This philosophy
has many benefits for our family. It serves as a natural brake on the amount of
additives in our food. It serves as an insurance policy that we are eating food
that is as close to it’s nutritional capacity as possible. It reminds us of how
much work goes into producing, for example, a broccoli head, and why we need to
be careful with using all of it. It enhances our connection to our immediate
environment. It serves as a link to the seasons – food which is grown locally cannot
help but be limited to what will grow in this time and space. It connects us in
with the people who are passionate about the food they produce. Janet and Judy
from JJ’s are inspiring in their passion for both the food and the soil from
which it is produced. Their knowledge is something that I look forward to
tapping in to, in any small way, each week. Paul Ashton from Lyndsay Farms, who
produces raw milk is passionate about every aspect of the cows’ lives – because
he has witnessed first-hand what a difference it makes to the quality of the
milk. I love going into Tangaroa Seafoods and asking the women there about the
fish in the cabinet. We have enjoyed many a fish-dish based on their
recommendations, which are borne out of their passion to fish sustainably.
Food which is
gathered in this way works for our family nutritionally, educationally and
philosophically. And it means that I don’t have to move out to the middle of
nowhere just yet.
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