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eG Foodblog: phlawless - La Vida Local


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Thanks so much for the peek into your grand experiment. I love your list of what you learned last week. And for your nephew? Maybe you could continue the local food sourcing with one big exception -- get about 20 big boxes of cereal and let him eat that at will. It should last at least 3 days. :biggrin:

~ Lori in PA

My blog: http://inmykitcheninmylife.blogspot.com/

My egullet blog: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=89647&hl=

"Cooking is not a chore, it is a joy."

- Julia Child

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one thing i love about the food blogs, and phlawless' bog was exemplary of this, is how it makes me want to move to wherever the blogger lives!  it is such a great introduction to another area in our extremely diverse country.

Ditto!

And a second request for the bacon blondie combo recipe once you've recovered a bit!

Bridget Avila

My Blog

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Phlawless: You've given me my first glimpse of cardoons in bloom. If you're really ambitious you can pick the thistle and use it to make rennet.

Thank you for sharing your experiment with us this week.

I hope to see your name appear from time to time in other forums.

The rest of should think about starting threads related to locavorism. I know that in addition to budgetary constraints, I would not like to feel restricted to things produced nearby. Your need for Mexican food is understandable. Why not take advantage of an access to cheeses, hams, spices, oils and even produce that simply were not available to many of us until fairly recently?

"Viciousness in the kitchen.

The potatoes hiss." --Sylvia Plath

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I would love to have the corn ice cream recipe, when you have a chance to type it or direct us to a similar one at your leisure. I've never seen Silver Queen down here, but in Delaware that was almost all we ate. My husband is making a quick trip up north and I am adding Silver Queen corn to the list of food stuff for him to bring home.

Thank you for sharing your week, and good luck with your remaining weeks of the project. If you (or anybody) start a spin-off topic about locavorism before this blog closes, please feel free to bring it to our attention via a link in this topic.

Speaking of links, for those who haven't yet visited it, here is a link for the next blog, in progress. See you there.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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What I have learned this week:

1. I will no longer take the small farmer, or the mega supermarket, for granted.

2. Eating food made/grown from sustainable methods is expensive.

3. I really love my sourdough starter.

4. The area that I live is a much better food community than I've given it credit for.

5. My partner Chuck is such a great sport, and my daughter M will thankfully eat almost anything.

4. seems obvious from what you've posted here. You should definitely give thanks for 5. as well, and though I've never really been a big fan of sourdough, 3. as well.

1. and 2. are intersecting sets, and 2. is something I've lamented before on other threads here.

I know that many argue that the real cost of our current food system is much higher than the cost of a more localized system, and we won't even attempt to disentangle the various subsidies to folks like ADM that help contribute to corn products in absolutely everything, but I think that for most of us, the ultimate deal-maker or deal-breaker is what we end up paying for directly, and as long as that figure is two to three times as much for good local food as it is for the stuff shipped all the way from California, it's going to be hard--or at least harder--for most people to buy local. Pity we seem disinclined to send the subsidies where they'd do more good, like to the pockets of local consumers and farmers.

That said, you seem to have done quite well at living locally this week. Just curious: how much more did it cost you monetarily? (The time cost will go down as you figure out how to work the local sources into your shopping routine.) Congratulations on pulling it off and sharing the results with us this week. I'm impressed!

FWIW, it's Local Food Month here in Philadelphia. The Food Trust has been taking out ads on the Op-Ed page of The Philadelphia Inquirer explaining just how bad it is on the food to make all those long trips; it's a shame they don't have the budget to do the same sort of thing in, say, 30-second spots on 6ABC*, where two-thirds of metropolitan Philadelphia might get the message instead of about one-third, and a more affluent third at that.

*"Action News" on WPVI-TV in Philadelphia has long been the ratings leader. For many years, and for all I know still, it was the highest-rated local TV newscast in the country in terms of audience share.

Edited by MarketStEl (log)

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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What I have learned this week:

2. Eating food made/grown from sustainable methods is expensive.

1. and 2. are intersecting sets, and 2. is something I've lamented before on other threads here.

I know that many argue that the real cost of our current food system is much higher than the cost of a more localized system, and we won't even attempt to disentangle the various subsidies to folks like ADM that help contribute to corn products in absolutely everything, but I think that for most of us, the ultimate deal-maker or deal-breaker is what we end up paying for directly, and as long as that figure is two to three times as much for good local food as it is for the stuff shipped all the way from California, it's going to be hard--or at least harder--for most people to buy local. Pity we seem disinclined to send the subsidies where they'd do more good, like to the pockets of local consumers and farmers.

That said, you seem to have done quite well at living locally this week. Just curious: how much more did it cost you monetarily? (The time cost will go down as you figure out how to work the local sources into your shopping routine.) Congratulations on pulling it off and sharing the results with us this week. I'm impressed!

You could think about the expense by comparing it to what it would have cost you in time and effort to grow (and preserve, as this blog luckily coincided with summer harvest and eating like this in the winter requires lots of advance prep) this food yourself. My grandparents grew or produced (including dairy and meat) just about everything they ate, at every meal, every day, all year long, and it required full-time, hard work to do it. Never mind a 100 mile radius---more like a 100 acre radius.

Weirdly enough, my grandparents weren't poor, or at least they were pretty well off by the time I came along. This way of life was simply all they knew, and they couldn't imagine a better way.

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Can you pee in the ocean?

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Silver Queen corn and buttermilk ice cream

Oh my! I add my voice to those hoping you will share this recipe.

Its been a lovely blog, thankyou.

It was also a great treat to see Varmint's kitchen in action, as I read the remodel tale avidly.

And its good to hear I'm not the only one forced to simplify cooking due to a small-fry in the house. I hope it gets easier for us all as they turn into middlin' sized fries!

Thanks again, for a delightful adventure.

Great shoes rule!

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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