Day 8

I was talking to my mom last night about this project, and she was so proud of the stuff she was growing. Her flowers are beautiful, but her prized plums were the smallest things i have seen. But because she grew them she was so proud. This made several of the class discussions that we had hit home.

Today I was so glad to finally have “real” food. There were a lot of realizations that I came to with week, first was the ideal that local foods are so difficult to find in the city. Although I was out of the city for most of my meals, I couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to stick to an entirely local diet. I also had a lot more energy this week. I realized that I was drinking less coffee, and sleeping less then I usually do. That also could be because I was eating more vegetables and fresher produce. This week was a good experience on several levels, it showed me how globalized my diet is and because of this project I’m going to take more deliberate action in choosing where I spend my money and show my support.
This is an interesting sausage combo i found at pike place...i didnt know how to react.

Day 7

I was so excited to start my last day of this challenge. Although I didn’t eat 100% local for the week, it was still very difficult to find and prepare an entirely local diet. I started the week thinking that this wouldn’t be that much of a challenge, especially because of where I lived. I was wrong, specifically with breakfast and being able to find local food in the U District. This week has really opened my mind and demonstrated several of the issues that we discussed in class.

I ended my week with a trip to the local Safeway store to finish my comparison of the prices of spinach. All of the prices were for the same product, organic spinach at roughly the same amount, ~1lb. The priciest was at Safeway, with $5.99. With was amazing to me, but then again it makes sense in the idea of price mark-up. The spinach at Carpinito’s never changed hands, the grower was the seller. The Whole Foods seemed to change hands several more time because the sellers didn’t grown their produce. Lastly, the most expensive seemed to change hands the most being picked, packaged, stocked and then finally sold. These different price levels make sense when one looks at the number of times the product was marked-up on the way to the shelf.

The price difference between the Carpinito's and the Whole Foods spinach is 800%...i was astonished. The idea that a vegetable could fall victim to the same comodification as we have talked about with coffee and chocolate.
Today for dinner I had my first local steak...i let it cook for too long but it was still fantastic.

Day 6

I ate the same cherries and yogurt that I had been for the week. This morning as I was packing lunch and eating a salad for breakfast, I realized that I didn’t really have a problem with eating local, it was eating seasonal that I was having difficulty with. I have been so conditioned to this global food market that the idea of eating leafy greens for breakfast to me seemed “wrong.” There is very little traditional breakfast food with the food shed that I live in, because of this I would most likely choose foods outside of my locality for the fist meal of the day. I couldn’t imagine doing this project in the winter or late fall, the foods that would be locally available would be so limited I would not be able to stay with in food shed.

Today for dinner I cooked some local spaghetti with ground beef and tomatoes. I was amazed at how “real” my food looked. The whole grain pasta, tomato chunks and the lean ground beef seemed so much more natural then the artificially red pasta sauce with fat laden meat on almost snow-white noodles. This comparison of the natural to the artificial was astonishing when seen side-by-side.

Day 5

Today on my way to school I passed by a community garden like some we have read about in class, but I had never seen before. Across the street from the Carpinito Brothers farm there is a conservation farm Somali immigrants. The land is owned by a local business, and the Ethiopian population has been allowed to grow and use the land for traditional plants so long as they give a certain percentage to the local food bank.

Today in class I was talking about the local food challenge with several people during break, we sort of became a support group of sorts. This made me ask the question “Why is it so difficult to find local produce on a mass scale?” This question would eventually be answered through the readings and discussions throughout the class, but it is still disconcerting that local and seasonal foods are not as readily available as the mass-produced mono-cropped vegetables.

I also went to a local butcher today. I was expecting that locally raised a slaughtered meat would be much more expensive then the grocery store, but I was wrong. The prices were very competitive, and even cheaper in some instances.

Day 4

I went to Carpinito farms this morning. They sell mostly local produce, which they grow themselves. Through talking with the people at the produce stand I got a lot of information on the way they are both economically productive. They employ 250+ farm workers, who they pay at about $10 an hour. Although I thought this was low for the strenuous work that these workers are doing, I was also surprised because this is a much higher wage then the vast majority that most farm workers get.

I have also noticed that most of the South County produce locations that I’ve been to also have plants, this is much different then the farmer’s markets in Seattle. (This is my neighbor who i was baby-sitting today) This abundance of plants allows for the Local Food movement to be put into gardens, rather then needing to run to the store. I suspect that this is because of the amount of land available in South King County

The spinach that Carpinito’s sells, which is organic (although not certified), local and freshly harvested is only ¢75.

Day 3

Today I needed to finish up my Farmer’s Market project, so I went to Maple Valley Farmer’s Market. This is a relatively new market at about 2 years old. I was talking to one of the people who were selling produce, she was an old woman who sold only local produce much like to guy at Pike Place. But unlike to Pike Place stall, this woman had only two things that she was selling (strawberries and tomatoes) and she said that she had grown them herself.

This showed me the problems of scale that we discussed in class, and the plastic definition of the word local.
It was really warm today and the woman selling tomatoes had a sign in her stall that read “Global Warming, Finally” which made me think that the need for seasonal and local produce is not tied to political beliefs but rather everyone needs this type of diet because of several aspects.
This is a woman who makes flavored pasta in her kitchen, i was lucky enough to find my "cheat" item with local origins.

Day 2

Today I began to realize how difficult this challenge actually is. Although there is a lot of local food that I have access to, I haven’t had time to go get it or been able to afford it at the rate the past 2 days has gone. I also thought I would be able to make it for a week without needing to pick my two “cheating” items…yeah right…I picked iced tea, and pasta.

I was in a rush this morning, so I didn’t have time to pack a lunch. Thank God we had the organic taste test today. I also went up to the Whole Foods on Roosevelt to find stuff for lunch and dinner later. I found some whole grain pasta (although not local) that I could survive on for the rest of the week. I also decided to start a price comparison for all of the places that I would go this week, with spinach. At Whole Foods spinach was $2.49 for a bushel.

This was a pasta salad that I made.

Day 1

I woke up this morning and realized that I forgot to buy stuff for breakfast; luckily my parents had some strawberries growing in the back yard. So I had 4 strawberries and some sweet peas for breakfast.

This made me realize how sparse fruit actually is in the Northwest climate, and how our diets need to change based on the season. Today for class we had the Theo chocolate factory tour (which I counted as local because the beans are processed here). I was surprised to find out that they are the only organic, fair-trade chocolate producers in the US.

After the chocolate tour I went to the Fremont PCC to ensure that I had breakfast in the morning, but surprisingly the only locally grown fruit I was able to find were cherries that were from the Yakima Valley. I was also able to find some yogurt from a dairy in Gig Harbor.

Day 0

This summer I'm commuting from home, Maple Valley. I drive to the bus stop in the Green River Valley then take to bus to the U District. Today on my way to school I though I would stop and take a picture of one of the largest local and most sustainable growing operations in south King County. The Carpinito Brothers farm owns several acres along West Valley highway where they grow several different vegetables types and markets it as produce in their stand in downtown Kent. They are fairly well known in the Green River Valley, an I’m sure I was make a visit or two there before my eating adventure is over.

So, today is not technically the first day of my Eat Local challenge but I needed to get some planning out of the way. It was ~90 degrees today and I though I would be able to make it to Pike Place Market before class today; but I didn’t make it...Sorry Teresa :) I was at Pike Place to get some shopping done for my "Local Week" and to do part of the research for the farmer's market paper. There were mostly tourists, as expected, but the locals were also there if you looked. Most of the people asking questions or making purchases seemed more like locals, several still being dressed in their business attire from a day of work.

There were several stands in the market, all carrying several types of fruits and vegetables most marketed as “locally grown; “ but upon asking these vendors about where their food came from much of it seemed to be outside of the 150mile zone. How then could this food be marketed as local? When talking with one vendor, and asking him about different local things he had me seemed apologetic that his produce was not local enough. They had just gotten in a new shipment of “local” Chanterelle mushrooms I asked where these mushrooms were from and the vendor replied “well they’re from all over, some of them were found down in south by Vancouver but it really depends on the season. Right now most of the Chanterelle’s are coming out of northern California.” This bothered me; if the uninquisitive buyer wanted local food, then they would be doped by the marketing practices that I found all over.

All in all this was a very good trip to the market, I got some Shelton shallots, and russets, some sweet peas from Tenino and some beef, chicken, and pork sausage that was raised in southern British Columbia and processed in Washington.
We’ll see what this week has in store.