 |
| Angela and I at the University Farmers Market |
So I have finished my last expired can of chickpeas that I had in the cupboard and am now faced with a very serious issue...to hummus or not to hummus? As a vegetarian I love eating it and it adds an import piece of protein to my diet but chickpeas just aren't local are they. Which leads me to my conundrum, I can buy organic chick peas from my local grocers
Home Sweet Home but just because I can buy chickpeas locally, should I? On the other hand with the rule that I can eat locally prepared goods I can purchase delicious home-made hummus from them or the farmers market, but neither the raw chickpeas nor the prepared are truly local. How much sense does it make to purchase hummus I could make myself for much cheaper, only because I am not supposed to have the raw ingredients. Does this mean I can't eat hummus this year?
(Side note: here is a recipe for Balsamic Hummus that I am obsessed with! )
These are the types of ethical conversations I have with myself and often talk out with Angela on a near daily basis. I can agree that eating local is a very important part of this local challenge but the other part was to also include local living. If we take that into consideration, supporting local business', restaurants and suppliers would be in direct conflict with local eating ideals. Can I eat sushi that is from a local business even though they do not source locally? Even if I am eating at the most local restaurant in town which to my thinking is Nancy O's, will everything I intake be local? Most likely not, but definitely better than my other options and the option of cutting any dinning out at all. Therefore from hummus comes the larger questions of what I can eat. I can think it to death and never really find a comfortable position, so for now I am sticking with locally sourced, locally produced and locally made.
Even though I am surprised people know my name , we have still been getting attention this week. Yesterday CKPG News stopped by our University Farmers Market Kickoff event for a chat. And this morning we did a quick little interview with CBC Radio 1 for their harvest series, check out our conversation here. Thank you again for all the love and support!
Happy Wednesday,
Melanie
"What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action." - Meister Eckhard
Local eating vs. local living discussion could go on till the end of your study. Consider the pioneers and homesteaders that came to explore this land; they brought with them things they could not grow (sugar, coffee, tea) and even though they lived off the land they cultivated, they still depended on the traders to provide a few essential luxuries. Grains and seeds included. Purchase the dry goods and support a farmer.
ReplyDelete