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Eat Local! Campaign details and update
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Eat Local! Update

 
The Eat Local! Campaign  launched July 11 with an inspiring talk and discussion by Vicki Robin. If you missed it, you can listen here.

How to start your "locavore" adventure this week...

Week 1 (July 11-17): "Exploring" or getting ready to eat local

First, define "local" in a way that works for you. Grown on Fidalgo Island? Grown in the Skagit Valley? On Fidalgo-Whidbey? Within a 100-mile radius? Washington state?

Second, pick 10 "exotics" you feel you can't live without. Olive oil, certain spices, chocolate, coffee, avocados? That's fine - "eat largely local" works too!

Third, explore where you can get local produce, dairy, breads, and meats. (We provide several resources below) Select one food (or more) and commit to sourcing it locally this week and beyond. Find multiple ways to incorporate this food into your diet and and start to plan menus for Week 2 (Aug 8-14), where we'll expand to all-local eating, share recipes, and put together a potluck.

Let us know where this week's exploring takes you and we'll get a group going to share around our discoveries and challenges (don't forget to check out our first"stumbling block breakthrough" following the resource list.) And please let us know you're on board to support our all-important local farmers, build self and community resilience, cut our carbon foodprints, grow local plant diversity, and nourish body and soul with fantastic food! Just email info@transitionfidalgo.org.




Places to find local foods

On Fidalgo Island...

Anacortes Farmers Market: Saturdays through Oct. 30, 9-2 pm, at the Depot, 7th and R Ave. Sign up for their newsletter at https://anacortesfarmersmarket.org/ and you'll see what vendors will be on hand each Saturday.

Anacortes Co-op: Open Mon-Fri (10-6 pm) and Sat & Sun (11-5 pm) at 2308A Commercial Ave. This is a member-owned grocery providing foods that are local, organic or sustainably grown. http://www.anacortesfoodcoop.com/

The Farm at 41st:  This CSA (community-supported agriculture) also has a farm stand at 1119 41st Street (just east of Mt. Erie school) that's open Tuesdays and Fridays 11am-6pm. Todd and Sara offer fruits, veggies, goat cheese, honey, eggs, grass-fed beef, & flowers.  https://www.thefarmon41.com/the-stand

Island Hospital Farm Stand: This stand in the 24th Street courtyard is open every Tuesday, 11-4pm through September 7. It offers local produce, artisan baked goods, fresh-cut flowers and more. Don't forget to bring your reusable bags! https://www.islandhospital.org/blog/island-hospital-farm-stand-2021/  Special bonus: the stand is a convenient place to pick up Water Tank Bakery breads, produced in the Skagit Valley (see next section)

In the Skagit Valley...

Skagit Valley Farm Stands:  From Blackburn Gardens and Bow Hill Blueberries to Harmony Fields and the Samish Bay Cheese Farm, the Skagit Valley is a cornucopia of delicious, nutritious foods. For food stand descriptions and directions, visit https://genuineskagitvalley.com/farmstand-fresh/

Skagit Valley Food Co-op:  Since 1973, the SV Co-op has provided natural, wholesome, organic, and local foods at fair prices. They feature more local produce than any other grocery in the County, from farmers who have done business with the Co-op for decades. 202 S 1st St, Mt Vernon.   http://www.skagitfoodcoop.com/

Water Tank Bakery: All products are baked exclusively with NW grown grains, milled at Cairnspring Mills. Flours are stone-ground and used fresh in order to retain much of the wheat's natural oils, fats, and vitamins. On Fidalgo, you can pick up their baked goods at the Island Hospital farm stand (above). https://www.watertankbakery.com/

Cairnspring Mills:  This Burlington business creates flours using grains from "local regional farms that use organic and other regenerative growing methods to protect the soil and produce cleaner harvests."  https://cairnspring.com/

Stumbling block breakthrough: You may have heard, or said yourself, that "Local, organic food is too expensive. I just can't afford it." Did you know folks used to pay a third of their household budget on food? But that was back when mortgages or rents weren't crushing people. It's understandable food costs are a concern for many now.

But ask yourself this: what's the true cost of buying and eating chicken, pork or beef raised in factory farms? The real story behind that deal of a price is a whole lot of misery going into your mouth. Or, what's the true cost of veggies bred for distance, not taste or nutrition? A whole lot of emissions driving global warming. What's the true cost of pesticides and herbicides used to grow the foods you may be eating? Collapsing bee and other insect populations. What's the true cost of supporting Big Ag instead of those you know who are treating the land with the love and respect it needs to flourish? A frightening lack of plant diversity, and the loss of nutrient-rich soils. (Some experts predict that at current erosion rates, we'll run out of farmable soil in just 60 years.)

So what, in essence, is the hidden cost of cheap food? The unacceptable degradation and destruction of a major life-support system.

As someone said, every purchase you make is a vote for the way you want the world to be.  Here's a great way to build that world and help the local food budget: eat seasonally! When it's strawberry or apple, zucchini or bean time, stock up! Make jams, pickle, dry or freeze food, bake casseroles and breads. Use what the land and farmers so bountifully provide when the season is upon us. This is how we once all ate and how we need to eat again.

 

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