One Local Summer::Week 4

I know I said I was going to jump outside my box and put together a meal a little more blog-worthy. I lie. Each week I do a little more research and bring a little more local food into the house, but with a newborn, time is still pretty rare to do things like cook a meal that takes longer than say, 10 minutes. And I can cook fish and beans in about 10 minutes so fish and beans it was. With some peppers because I love me some peppers.

I thought about titling this entry One Local Summer::Local-washing. You know, like brain-washing or green-washing but instead we’re being tricked into thinking we’re eating locally when “local” could mean “Western Canada”. And Western Canada? A pretty big place, I’m not exactly “local” to Regina, you know what I’m saying?
I walked into my local big-box grocery the other day (Save-On Foods) and noticed all these lovely signs next to equally lovely produce declaring them to be “local”. Some of them even had the farm name. Jack pot! Could it be? Could I be able to one-stop shop and eat locally? The hardest part of the this challenge for me so far is getting out of the house. Nevermind stopping at several shops for specific ingredients. I piled my cart high with local foods, beaming with pride and the thought of the all the time I just saved and how I didn’t have to endure the sounds of an unhappy baby and toddler.
Then I was lying in bed and thought to myself how that was far too easy. Even though local eating SHOULD be easy, the truth is, it isn’t. The next morning I did some investigating and sure enough “local” could be anywhere in Western Canada. While this is an improvement on say, California or Mexico, it isn’t really my definition of local.
Yesterday I went out to Coombs to pick up some truly local honey, which I hope to incorporate as the new sweetner of choice in the house, and took a look at their “local” eggs. Again we have a pretty hazy definition of local. There is a division of a larger corporation called Island Eggs where eggs are graded. The eggs are not produced on the island, but in Ontario. It is pretty easy to get local eggs where I live, but the idea of calling an egg that is graded here local bothers me. Nevermind the extensive amount of research that has to happen just to determine that.
On that note, I thought I’d post a picture of our hard-core little locavore. It doesn’t get more local than breastmilk, does it?!