New Years Resolution

Rob and I welcomed 2010 with the resolution to eat less and also to buy local and organic produce and meat.

After I read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (1 year ago) I have wanted to buy local produce and meat. While my mom snarkily jokes that I’m turning into a busy body liberal, I retorted that buying local can be an incredibly conservative thing to do. One way to look at it is that by supporting my community, I am looking after my own interests by paying for what I think is best for my community. Anyways, conservative or liberal or somewhere in between, sustainable agriculture seems like an important challenge for our country…as much as it pains me not to pinch pennies and buy the cheapest stuff I can find. (that has been a long-running hobby of mine!)

So, to start with, we signed up for a CSA basket to come every other week from New Roots.** We also have been shopping at PCC, but I’m still on the hunt for better meat options. I am willing to pay top dollar for truly free range chicken and truly (100%) grass fed beef, and I’ve found Washington State farmers who claim to do this, but I haven’t seen these farm’s names on the meat at PCC. I guess I still need to do a bit of experimenting with where to find good meat products, and also take a few weekend trips with Rob to farm country.

To coincide with this resolution, Robert and I also want to limit our portion sizes. During the holidays and other celebration times, it’s so easy to go overboard with food. It all tastes so good and it’s so easy to indulge. Considering how expensive all this organic, local stuff is, eating less never looked so profitable!

** I made a really good soup from some of our veggis, but as is usual with my attempted cooking blogs, I took a few early photos, and promptly forgot to take any photos of the process. I get too carried away while cooking I suppose!