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| Our last meal at Denny's for a year |
Today is the first day of my experiment to eat and live locally for one entire year. What seemed so straightforward before is now becoming incredibly complicated and full of questions I am not sure how to answer. The rules seemed simple, eat only locally sourced goods from local businesses, but in practice we are already in conflict on our fist day. The issue of banana bread seems to be a big one, does it make sense for us to buy banana bread from the farmers market if we know those bananas were imported? Home made Salsa in February? Coconut milk from the local grocers? The limits to our daily lives will be drastically altered if we attempt to live on only BC produced goods, but is that even possible? These are questions we are currently trying to tackle and would appreciate any insights people may have in our journey towards local, sustainable living.
As for day one, no major changes have become apparent to me yet, so far just another day. I brought back local organic cheese and Maple Syrup from Ontario and seeing as my local grocers is closed for the next few days I will be living off of cheese and crackers with syrup until Tuesday when I can go shopping again. A small sacrifice but a delicious one!
Here are the top 5 things I'm going to miss this year:
- Netflix (cancelled this morning)
- Avocados
- Blueberry Vodka Soda's with Lime
- Shopping (designers)
- Going to the Cinema
Think of all the money I'm going to save though!
Have a lovely day,
Melanie
Good luck! this will be very interesting. How much of our community and province is local owned? This will be an interesting road to explore. mgk
ReplyDeleteExcellent. You can do it!
ReplyDeleteIsn't local more expensive though?
ReplyDeleteWOW! What an undertaking! I would never make it a day, let alone a whole year! What about coffee? Can you get locally roasted coffee or just no coffee? *ouch* Good Luck! ms@gf
ReplyDeleteGood luck on this project! I think you should allow yourself a cheat meal a week in order to keep your sanity! I look forward to reading your weekly menu plans and recipes.
ReplyDeleteHome made salsa in February, coffee, tea, sugar, clothing - not everything is available locally (provincially, nationally), but even the pioneers that settled in our grand west relied on imports through their general store. Some creativity will certainly be needed to research possibilities and alternatives. Yes, we can survive without timmies doubledouble and Starbucks mochawhatever. I wonder how dehydrated tomatoes would work in a salsa? Is it the same without the imported Jalapeno? Khale chips vs Dorritos - so much to consider. What a great social experiment!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting problem is to identify if 'local living practice' is scaleable. Can PG be 'local'? Or is the 'local' goal attainable only for those pockets of truly concerned and hyper-aware residents?
ReplyDeleteI meant to add, Fun Project!
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