Hungry and eating solo the other night, I baked a potato after having mined the fridge for embellishments. I found mushrooms, sour cream, a piece of bacon, a spring onion, butter, and chives from the garden. As I was ready to dive into this pile of steaming deliciousness, I recognized that virtually every component was local or regional. And the light bulb moment was that I hadn’t noticed at first.
Local/seasonal meals tumble onto the table without much effort with food from the Farmer’s Market. And, at the grocery store the origin of most produce is labeled these days so that conscious choices can be made about where food comes from, which of course has a direct link to its freshness, nutrition and carbon footprint.
The baked potato is an example of how easy it can be. (I understand that in many people’s minds this might not constitute a bona fide ‘meal’; add some salad, a couple of poached eggs and there you go.) I thought later that I could have piled some lettuce on the plate too, just to show how my eating habits are so well balanced. But no, I just went for the hefty potato with the tiniest bit of green sprinkled on top. I conveniently forgot the fresh spinach, which I could have chopped finely and stuffed inside the steaming potato along with the butter, sour cream and the rest of it.
The next day I did the salad thing. 
After a greens and *herb-snipping foray in the garden, I visited the Farmers Market and ended up with a collage of a salad: red and green leaf lettuce, arugula, snow pea vines, radishes, sweet baby onions, asparagus, fennel, chives, oregano, sage, mint, and then flowers, nasturtium, chive, arugula and snow pea. Saladicious.
A pile of stones or dried leaves can take my breath away, visually speaking, and this pile of salad was a little bit like that. Each is equally compelling in my book. On the one hand I wanted to keep it all hydrated somehow and just look at it for a day or two, feed my soul; on the other hand I wanted to eat it, feed my body. I ate it bite by bite and was thoroughly nourished.
Salad and baked potato are quintessential staples – and there are many others – to keep in mind for the weekly, bi-weekly, thrice-weekly mostly local meals we’re trying to achieve. Doesn’t have to be complicated, just easy local grub. Trusting our genetic food memories, maybe eating sustainably will be more easily ‘remembered’ and revived than we think.
Make a *dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar (3:1 or to taste), finely chopped shallot and tarragon. Wonderfully refreshing flavors with the tender spring greens. * More on homemade Salad Dressings and Snipping Herbs.
Entries(RSS)