Junkfood Awareness Day

"What are we going to do with all the watermelons?"
"If we get another bunch of kale..."
"I think... I just... I... I'm tired of squash. There I said it."

Those now famous one liners will be less familiar at our house. Now we'll be asking what kind of crackers we want and who drank all the orange juice.

Our local eating challenge has come to a close. Whew! That was a whirlwind. We spent the past 5 months delving head first into a life constrained by where our food was sourced.
We asked people weird questions about their farming practices, we spent what seems like years discussing routine grocery store purchases, and we read every label trying to find the coveted organic and fair trade logos. Yes. We were those people. (I apologize to those who had to witness it. ;-) )

We trudged through all the weirdness and came out much more educated about food and its sourcing. Its amazing how previous grocery store enthusiast like myself (I mean come on, its a haven of all things delicious) can now be so uncomfortable in the weirdly lit, confusingly laid out zoo that is a grocery store. I had to pick up some produce from a local store for work this week and it was rather disorienting- wonderfully timed as well.

Now that I know about and have tasted seriously fresh produce, I don't know how to feel about red peppers from Chile in the middle of winter. How? How does that work? I have found myself making comment to my roommates like "What kind of greenhouse wizardry do they use to grow 'local' peppers in Massachusetts in January?" I said that. To other people. Luckily they understand what I meant and had the same suspicion but most shoppers don't. And that's disheartening.

I want people to question why stores carry things like red peppers in January when peppers peak in summer. Peppers plants want nothing more that to spend all day in the hot, humid sun. So why are we using resources, time, and money to grow heat loving plants in a season of freezing temps and snow? Not only are we raising the plants in a fabricated climate but agribusiness is willing to heat greenhouses via fossil fuels to do so. I know farmers in Virginia who stop growing peppers in September due to the falling temps and declining productivity of the plants.
We are using Earth's finite resources to grow food, that has a natural season, in an unnatural season. That doesn't sound crazy to anyone else?

Local eating is hard. It involves a lot of research and a lot of tough decision making. You miss food that isn't in season and get tired of food that is but isn't that how its supposed to be? "You can't appreciate the mountain tops without the valleys" becomes "You can't appreciate the sweetness of a watermelon in the summer without unending kale in the fall." Foods in season taste so much better because they thrive in the appropriate climate. Eating in season makes food taste so much better because you get to taste that food in all its deliciousness while experiencing it for the first time in months. You savor it.

This new way of eating is something I will certainly take with me for the rest of my life and I'm going to eat in season as much as possible, but this girl needs some citrus in her life.

My roommates and I are taking ourselves out to dinner tonight in celebration. We'll leave the confusion of the grocery store and daunting task of picking one kind of cracker from the 40 on the shelf for another day. Baby steps folks, baby steps.

(Please mark your calenders- February 1st: "Junkfood Awareness Day" and feel free to celebrate with us in spirit by indulging in your own favorite snack)