Alice Waters: Eat Local

This is really not that hard a decision to make…

Think about it…

Is there really any point in eating grocery store tomatoes in January?  They taste like styrofoam…

It’s worth the wait for the real thing in June….

Or canning and freezing local produce in the summer.  I do…

There are certainly challenges to eating locally, such as the decrease in the variety of food that is available in the winter months. At Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, we are lucky because we can find local produce all year long. However, we are always thinking about food in a sustainable way. In the winter, we focus on the winter squashes, root vegetables, and we use canned tomatoes and huckleberry syrup that we’ve made in the summer. I think eating locally is so much about being creative with your choices.

I am hopeful, as I believe we’re waking up to the fact that for the past 30 years we haven’t been eating food that’s really good for us, and we’re not taking care of the land or the farmers in our country. I’m seeing that this is changing as evidenced by the drastic increase in the number of farmers markets in the country in recent years, the fact that there are now vegetables growing on the White House lawn, and the incredible number of school gardens popping up across the country.

via Alice Waters: Eat local | MNN – Mother Nature Network.