Food Revolution

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

I am totally, completely, absolutely in love with the idea of getting all of our food locally. From local farms. Local chickens. Local pigs. Local cows. Local McDonalds. You get it. It is one of the reasons I love Austin and never want to move away. We can actually do this. We gets most of our veggies from our CSA with Johnson’s Backyard Garden (which is freakin’ awesome by the way). There are tons of farms around that we can get fresh eggs, local meat, fresh milk, shoot, even fish.

Today we went to the Farmer’s Market and I needed to buy food for the camp we are helping with next week (I’ll write more about this another day). On Friday we will be providing lunch for them and all the food will be organic or locally sourced. That day we will be teaching them about responsible consumerism when it comes to food. So I planned out a simple menu and went around getting everything I could from the FM. We’re making BLTs so I got bacon and mustard from Dai Due and tomatoes from JBG. For the vegetarians, I bought Hummus from the Mediterranean Chef (I would have made it myself except I can’t figure out how to make it taste good no matter how many times I make it – which is at least 50 times). I looked for lettuce but it’s so hot that it’s out of season now. I’m making mint orange tea so I bought some mint from JBG also. Later on in the week I’m going to buy blackberries from one of the farm stands and bread from Texas French Bread. It’s just awesome how I can get almost an entire meal from local, sustainable sources.

I’m also starting to understand the value of making things when they are in season and freezing them for when they are not.

I guess this all just makes me feel like part of the world. The part of the world that doesn’t live off of quarter pounders and coke. The part that lives of the bounty of the earth. I’m not going to say something as cliche as it makes me feel like I’m in a rhythm with the earth but I do. It also just makes me appreciate the earth and the seasons a lot more.

Man, if you thought I was hippie before coming to Austin, think of where I’m going to be in 10 years. Probably taking care of my own cows for milk and chickens for eggs. Hmm, that would be cool.

Anyways, I totally buy into this food revolution thing. I don’t like Jamie Oliver. I think he is super aggressive and hostile but I completely agree with his message and am happy he is doing what he is doing even if he’s doing it in a pain in the ass kind of way. If you could taste some of the delicious food we’ve been eating because of these veggies we are getting, you’d see how easy it would be to be part of a revolution that just tastes so darn good and no bloodshed. You can’t really beat that.