The beauty of empty nesting is you can do whatever you want with your evenings.
I know. It seems rather obvious.
But before this can be embraced, first you have to get over the fact that you can do whatever you want with your evenings because your kids are no longer gracing your life with their presence. That has taken me some time to move beyond. Plus, by necessity, raising a family sets up some pretty serious habits and schedules. It's kinda hard to see past their rigidity.
But if this week is any indication, I'm no longer dabbling in this alien world of do-whatever-you-want, but actually immersed in it. I've been out every night this week.
My class on Monday on eating local was excellent. Did you know that if you set your food radius for 250 miles, most people would not be able to find fish? Olive oil? Chocolate? Wine? Coffee?
I know. How can one go on?
Problem is, that list also includes such necessities as salt, sugar, and wheat.
If you set it for 500 miles you could do slightly better, but most Americans would not be able to eat pineapple, mangoes, coconut, even oranges. And no bananas, folks. Yes, we have no bananas. I tried to give them up for three weeks. That was the best I could do.
And in the winter months, eating local gets really tricky.
The lady who taught the class says that if you want to eat locally in the winter, you need to start planning now. Right now you're cutting up your strawberries and putting them in bags and freezing them flat on cookie sheets. Later, you'll blanche your beans, peas, and corn and do the same with them. Even still later, you'll put up your peaches, stew your tomatoes, and jam your raspberries.
I remember canning. My mom was a teacher, and for a few summers during my formative years, she planted a garden. A rather large garden. We had peas, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli, Swiss chard, and corn. Rows and rows of corn. We had many vegetable meals come harvest time. But our favorite thing in the world was the corn. No kidding, we used to get the water boiling before we picked it, practically running the distance between plucking it from the garden and immersing it into the churning pot of water in the kitchen, shucking it along the way. We used to joke that perhaps the absolute freshest way to eat it would be to boil the water right there in the cornfield and dip the corn, stalk and all, into the boil. Buttered up with a shake of salt and a dash of pepper, it was the sweetest, freshest taste imaginable, and even though I hated having to help weed the garden in the hot summer sun, I had no problem whatsoever with the consumption of its bounty.
But canning? Me? Today? I could be stereotyping here, but when I think of canning, my mind immediately jumps to farm wives toiling under the steamiest of conditions; lifting heavy, boiling hot pots of water; worrying about whether or not her Mason jars would be completely sterilized; and sweating profusely in the Herculean task that lay before her. And did she work a 40-hour-plus work week outside the home in addition to preserving the season's blessings?
Maybe she did. Maybe you do this. Maybe you are a career woman who cans, jellies, jams, and freezes. I can barely make sure my house gets dusted. This concept of preserving my food to allow me to eat locally throughout the winter completely overwhelms me.
Which gets back to the main point of this whole "be green" movement. You have to take baby steps and do what you can. Do what you can today. Because if you do what you can today, tomorrow will take care of itself.
So, to eat locally today, I'm looking into buying a half-share of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) right here in my town. This means that I tell a farmer that I'd like to buy into the produce she grows on her farm. A half-share will provide enough produce for a family of 2-3 who eat vegetables on a regular basis. There is a pre-determined fee and a weekly pick-up and once it is arranged, I am set with local fruits and vegetables from June through October.
By doing this, I am supporting my local economy; I am going to have healthy, flavorful, organic, fresh food on my table every day; and I will have reduced my carbon footprint on the earth by a smidge. Mostly, it will be about supporting my community, being connected to the food I eat, and enjoying ripe and delicious foods in the season in which they were meant to be eaten.
All without having to pluck one weed.
...and that was just Monday.
P.S. Happy Birthday, Tony! I love you!
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