locavore

The Dirty Journey from Locavore to Backyard-avore

Posted in The Edible Garden on July 23 2009, by Plant Talk

Sunny Anderson is host of Food Network’s Cooking for Real. She will be presenting at the Conservatory Kitchen during this evening’s Edible Evening.

I’ve often thought of myself as a person who does the “small things” that make a difference because they do add up. So I satisfied my foodie need to be green by becoming a locavore, and I do my best to visit local farmers markets for produce. Farmers are the most friendly of purveyors, and a weekend just doesn’t feel complete without a stroll looking for the best produce.

As a locavore, I also have always talked of wanting to garden but knew I’d never have to ante up because, well, I didn’t have a piece of Earth to call my own.

Things changed earlier this year when I moved into a place in Brooklyn with a tiny patch of land in the backyard. I knew then, looking at the dirt and weeds, that while I wouldn’t have to go looking for a heavy equipment rental company to hire a small excavator to dig my patch of land, my mouth had still written a check my hands would soon sow.

Here’s the thing, gardening always looks so clean and pleasant in magazines and on television, and I never met a farmer at the market who didn’t have a twinkle in his or her eye, but when I began to garden it didn’t look or feel as I pictured it. Not once did I put on khakis with a denim button-down shirt over a white tank top. My tools are constantly dirty, and I also gave up on using my gloves because I somehow manage to get dirt inside them and they just don’t feel as good as my natural grip.

It also took forever to get the soil ready on the first day. I guess I thought I’d simply sow some seeds and then wait. I never thought about weeds and mulching, pruning, and watering. Also, no one ever tells you about the obsession with the weather you obtain or the sleepless nights thinking about if the next day will be the day you see a sprout. Is it possible to have gardening OCD? When I was actually happy and relieved that it was raining during summer is when I knew I was on my way to becoming a backyard-avore.

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Eating Local in the Big Apple

Posted in Uncategorized on July 22 2009, by Plant Talk

Leda Meredith holds a Certificate in Ethnobotany from the Botanical Garden, is author of Botany, Ballet, & Dinner from Scratch: A Memoir with Recipes, and hosts her own blog, Leda’s Urban Homestead.

When I set out to eat almost exclusively food grown within 250 miles of New York City, I had a lot of questions. I knew that eating a local-foods diet would reduce my carbon footprint as well as support small local farms and the local economy. I knew from my visits to farmers markets and from growing vegetables in a community garden how fabulous fresh food picked at its peak could be. But…

All of the other locavores I’d read about, including Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, had advantages over me when it came to eating local. They lived in a mild climate with a longer agricultural season, or had huge gardens or even farms. What I wanted to find out was could it be done by someone living in a tiny apartment on a limited budget, and with a hectic, multi-employer urban lifestyle? And what would I eat in winter?

I discovered that it is completely possible to eat a deliciously varied and healthy local foods diet in NYC without breaking the bank or requiring a 28-hour day. Local, organic food can be pricey, but it doesn’t have to be. There are ways to make a local foods diet almost as convenient as picking up the phone to order takeout or delivery.

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