Friday: Eating without a crisis

I’m gearing up for the challenge of eating locally for the next 10 days, wondering if I need a plan — a menu plan. Ugh.

I generally buy food daily, a sort of whimsical eating pattern that suits a single person. For this adventure in eating, I’ll visit the local farmer’s markets and the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market to meet my needs.

One of my many reasons for taking on this local food challenge is that I’ve had a heck of a time growing my own food in Medford. It’s a bit embarrassing and certainly perplexing, as I’ve got a thriving perennial garden. I’ve failed or had erratic results growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and kale, none of which are particularly difficult to produce. I’ve even failed to get a bean crop. It might be my location, my clay soil or my sporadic planting practices. Maybe the veggies recognize I love flowers best.

Anyway, I admire those who not only grow food, but are willing to stake their livelihood on growing in this semi-arid, variable-weather, extreme-temperature valley. What a lot of heart! Successfully growing tasty food is an art and takes a lot of knowledge. I would like to support these people.

I think of living sustainably as the ideal place where energy taken from the supply system equals the energy put into it, so it is capable of being perpetuated. But what does that mean on a daily basis? It can’t mean that we should only eat from our own permaculture garden. Heck, I’m pretty sure that today the (vast?) majority of Americans couldn’t grow their own food to save their lives.

So I’m not going to eat like I’m in a crisis. My working definition of sustainable is that my “local eating” can be sustained beyond this 10-day challenge.

I will use items that can’t be produced locally or at least are not produced here yet: salt, pepper, and a daily cup of coffee (with half-and-half) are basic to my diet. Since my eating is further complicated by the need to avoid gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, rye and other grains, I will include rice, even it’s from way out of town.

So I’m going to try this like it’s something that anyone could and would do without a crisis. It has got to be fun. Still, I’ll probably end up eating a lot of squash, eggplant and tomatoes in complicated recipes instead of my usual New Zealand Fuji apple coupled with (local) Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese. Yum! I’m glad our local apple season has begun.