New Years Resolutions

In the middle of winter, there aren’t as many ways to boost the slow foods movement. I can’t garden, aside from growing herbs in my kitchen, and I’ve been intending to plant some seeds for that purpose since Sept. when the first hints of waning summer hit me. I can’t go to the farmers market or the local farm stand – they aren’t open in the winter.

I can shop for organic items at the grocery stores, most of which carry a wider array of choices all the time. But those are expensive sometimes, and as I read in The Omnivores Dilemma and confirmed by tasting, the quality of organic items from very faraway, potentially Argentina and the like, can be poorer than industrially-farmed food grown nearby. I want to support organic methods to the greatest extent possible, and those extra dollars may be supporting struggling poor farmers in other countries, yet I can’t break the bank and buy all organic all the time.

I need some compromise, a middle ground on which I can live with my choices. Over the next few posts, I’ll try to outline some guidelines for myself. Produce, meats and seafood, dairy, and grains will be my main subjects. I think the best mindset is from Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Although she and her family went to the extreme and lived for an entire year on only what they could grow or raise themselves or barter form local products, she continually reminds us that we need not go to such lengths: "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil EVERY WEEK." (p. 5) So let’s not be too hard on ourselves.

Tonight I will try a Williams-Sonoma recipe for pork loin roasted on a bed of sauteed peppers, onions and chick peas. My pork loin is not organic -- I am really perplexed about how to get local and organic meats, but more about that soon... I did buy organic onions and red peppers yesterday, plus some organic baby spinach to make a simple salad. And I'll make a batch of bread dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Not from organic flour, but homemade items eliminate fuel costs of shipping and packaging.

Even little changes can make a big difference. So today, I will plant my basil seeds.