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Mission Challenge: Corn Chowder Recipe

DAY 79 - It’s corn season, so let’s see some corn recipes (though what’s better than on the cob with butter, salt, and ground chilies?). To get you started, here’s a basic corn chowder from Johanna; it’s a 100-mile adaptation of a recipe in The Political Palate, a feminist vegetarian cookbook by the Bloodroot Collective. The original recipe calls for nutmeg, but there are plenty of local herbs and spices that you could throw in by the handful with this. My favourite is sage, especially after the leaves have been fried crisp, but I’m also big on thyme, cilantro, chili peppers, coriander, parsley, chives… –JBM

Cream of Corn Soup

1) Use fresh, local, August corn. Scrape kernels from cobs of 1 dozen ears of corn using a curved-blade knife, if available. Set kernels aside. Boil cobs in water to cover for ½ hour. (I add leftover cobs from corn on the cob if I have them too)
2) Chop ½ small onion, ½ red pepper and a sprig of lovage (about 6 inches or to taste) and sauté in 2 tbsp butter. Add 2 tbsp sifted flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add ½ cup milk and ½ cup whipping cream and bring to a boil.
3) Remove cobs from their broth and discard. Add cob liquid to vegetables and bring to a simmer. Don’t boil or soup will curdle. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now add corn kernels. If soup seems too thick add milk until consistency is right. You may add ½ tsp honey to intensify the sweet corn taste.

Serves 6 to 8

Mission Challenge: Recent Notes and Questions

DAY 77 - I was away for a week and now I have some email catching up to do. Here are some recent comments and questions. Check in on Tuesday for a corn chowder recipe, too.

Johanna asked:

Steve and Alex and I were talking today and wondering about corn for cornmeal. Do you know anything about good varieties and whether any of the varieties grown around here are appropriate?

I’ve been keeping an eye out for cornmeal for a while, with no luck. Alisa and I did grow cornmeal corn types (they tend to be drier-climate, less sweet varieties) in our garden last year, but produced only enough for this year’s seed–and this year’s crop isn’t doing too well. Does anyone out there know more about growing cornmeal corns in the West Coast climate? I don’t see anything from Salt Spring Seeds or West Coast Seeds (though the latter does have a popcorn).

Meanwhile, Angela weighed in on the lack of oats (a problem that might be remedied next year by co-operating with local farmers, who assure me they can grow them):

I saw that a few of you Scots are missing your oatmeal. I haven’t found any…yet…but I have found that if you coarsely grind your wheat and then sift it, the bran and the coarse wheat that is left tastes very similar to steel-cut oats. You make it the same as oatmeal (it’s particularly good with a drizzle of my caramel on top). I hope that helps your craving, I know it really satisfied mine. (I won’t ramble on about how this is yet another budget saving food by-product!)

By the way, I finally mixed up some of Angela’s honey caramel, and all I can say is if you haven’t made some–do it. I ate mine (it’s already gone) on slices of the year’s first apples from a tree in our co-op garden. That makes it sort-of good for you… Angela is also wondering if anyone has a sourdough muffin recipe. She thought Alisa and I would, but it’s high time that Alisa and I admit that we’re pretty unsuccessful sourdough bakers. You may have noticed that we haven’t posted any photos of our amazing artisan loaves? There’s a reason for that (Alisa does make a mean flatbread, though). As for muffins, we don’t even own a muffin tin. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Happy eating,
James

Mission Challenge: What is ‘Local’ Seafood?

DAY 74 - The other day I took an important phone call at 8 a.m. It was Steve, the Organic Ocean fisherman from whom we buy most of our seafood, calling to say there had been a very short commercial fishery for sockeye salmon heading up the Fraser River. Would Alisa and I want a fish or two? I raced off to the docks and picked up the best sockeye I’ve ever tasted–I ate the first round raw as 100-mile sushi for lunch, then baked up dinner with no salt, no sauce, no nothing. Just the flavour of the salmon and that was more than enough.

But fish are complicated. The sockeye was caught off Pender Island, comfortably within our 100-mile circle, but they were heading home to spawn in the Chilko River, well outside our “local” area in a landscape a world apart. How do we define “local” seafood?

I took up that topic with Gigi Egan of Iron Maiden Seafoods (she’s been fishing for 18 years and has put in more than her share of hours on various fisheries boards) at the farmers’ market a week later. We ended up talking about the world as it is versus the world as it might be, and where the locavore fits in between the two.

As Gigi explained, the world as it is makes the idea of local seafood complex. Suppose you live, like I do, in Vancouver. Wherever a fish or seafood is caught on the B.C. coast, it is likely to be processed or distributed (or both) out of Vancouver. A fish caught closer to Vancouver comes with fewer food miles, but the argument against eating fish from further afield in B.C. isn’t all that strong–the fish are coming here no matter what. While much of that fishery is not “local,” it is at least regional, and reduces both demand for global fish on our shores and the amount of fish shipped from B.C. to Japan, Germany, etc. Then there’s the population question. What if the two-million-odd people in the Vancouver area all decided to eat only seafood from within a 100-mile radius? That’s right–we’d pretty quickly wipe out every living thing. In fact, population pressure has already done a lot of damage, which is why most of the fish we buy in Vancouver is coming from far away. Finally, the most efficient way (in terms of fuel and catch) to hook some migratory, deeper-water fish, like tuna, is to follow them up or down the coast, sticking with the fish before returning to port. They’re almost never caught within 100 miles. Do we cross them off the list?

To me, all of these questions point to why a 100-mile diet can be such an interesting experiment. Eating locally pushes you to think about the questions that come up. Why does all the processing and distribution have to be centralized? How do we weigh the benefits of that centralization against the costs? (Our coast is littered with ghost towns and “cannery rows” from the era when much of the processing and distribution was local.) Does the current trend toward ever-bigger cities make sense, or do we need to keep our communities closer to the carrying capacities of the landscapes we live in? Shouldn’t we be working harder to restore the local stocks that can no longer feed us? And what about more distant fish stocks? Is it even possible to fish them sustainably? (I’m reminded of the fact that the East Coast offshore fishing fleet was once powered entirely by sail–the legendary Bluenose was one of the boats–and that the sail fishers warned that power boats would spell the end of the stocks.)

Ultimately, though, I still haven’t answered the question, What is ‘local’ seafood?

Gigi and I came to a kind of agreement. We both felt that people can learn a lot from a strict 100-mile diet experiment. The 100-mile diet makes people far more aware of where their seafood is coming from and under what conditions. It can make people care far more about the state of their local waters and local marine life. If the people of Vancouver had to depend on the Fraser River to feed us, we sure as hell wouldn’t have let things get to the state they’re in now.

But the 100-mile diet is just that, an experiment. It can open our eyes to what has been and what might make sense in the future. For that reason, when I’m on a 100-mile challenge (like right now), I’ll only eat fish caught from within the circle. But when I’m not on a 100-mile challenge, I’m more flexible. Here’s what I do:

- I try to get to know the people, like Steve and Gigi, who bring in the seafood I eat. I know their fishing practices, I know where the fish have come from, I know they’ll answer any question I might have, and I know they care.
- I only buy seafoods that are rated a ‘Best Choice’ (for sustainable harvest) by SeaChoice.*
- I prefer restaurants that are signed up with the Ocean Wise program.
- I prefer seafood species that are abundant and reproduce quickly, like shrimp and shellfish, and limit the number of “big fish” I eat (last year, Alisa and I ate one tuna between us, bought whole and butchered at home).

None of the fish that Alisa and I eat comes from all that far away. If it isn’t strictly 100-mile, it at least comes from the local fleet when they tie up after their sojourns out at sea or up the coast. Biologically speaking, we live on one of the world’s richest shores. If the day ever comes that it can’t feed us, then we, as a society, will have a lot of explaining to do.

Happy eating,
JBM

* Gigi adds that she supports the concept of SeaChoice, but considers some of their fisheries data “flawed,” noting as an example that Oregon trawl shrimp is listed on the website as a “best choice” (and B.C. shrimp is not listed at all) despite the fact B.C. shrimp had a “substantially lower by-catch and habitat impact.” I do note, though, that the SeaChoice wallet card offered by Sustainable Seafood Canada (available on the website here) does give B.C. sidestripe shrimp the green light (though it erroneously describes them as “trap caught”–in fact, they are trawled). Simple, eh? To my mind, all the complications point back to my number one approach, listed above: get to know your food producer.

Learning How Wheat is Grown With Love in Agassiz

DAY 68–When we met a farming couple in Agassiz, British Columbia, named Jim and Diane, we were reminded of everything that makes farming a life rather than a job. Picture a checkerboard of fields with snow-capped mountains rising behind, an age-silvered barn, antique machinery, 99 clucking chickens, happy grazing cows, waving fields of oats and wheat… Yes, wheat in Agassiz, just like a century ago. Jim told us he is willing to grow more, or any other crop, if he gets “commissioned” by enough consumers before the planting season. When he sold 250 kilograms of wheat to a group of us this year, we learned what it really means to know about your food from start to finish. Here’s what he had to say about it:

This is soft white spring wheat of unknown variety. The organic seed was supplied by Andrea Gunner, then at Anita’s Organic Mill in Chilliwack. We believe the seed was grown and cleaned in Creston [British Columbia]. It was planted April 1, 2007 (with a modified, formerly horse-drawn seed drill circa 1920) on land that has not seen herbicide or pesticide or artificial fertilizer for over 25 years, just manure.

The crop grew perfectly the first couple of months, but it was heavily infested with weeds when the rainy period hit. Unlike some of our other test plots, it did not lodge, though, and the bears avoided it in favour of the oat field (!). Fearing lodging and worse weather, we harvested earlier than we would have liked (Sept. 1), but a week before it became impossible to due to rain (whew). The combine is a 1958 Massey-Harris, (which lost its main drive belt in the field after finishing the wheat. Fortunately we had a spare and could finish the oats (whew). We cleaned the weedy wheat with a newly motorized 1901 Hero fanning mill, and dried the clean wheat for a week on plastic-covered hay wagons in the hot sun before packing it away as the rains hit.

According to the Canadian Grain Commission, soft white spring wheat is used for “cookies, cakes, pastry, flat breads, noodles, steamed breads, chapatis.” -ADS

Mission Challenge: Notes from Angela, with a Crème Fraîche Recipe

We challenged people in Mission, B.C., to try local eating for 100 days starting June 1. Nearly 100 people signed up—and we couldn’t resist signing up, too. Can a community change the way it eats? It’s never too late to get involved: Join in for a month, a week, even a single meal.

DAY 66 - I think this puts us at two-thirds of the way through the diet. To be honest, in my imagination, I’m already looking back on the Mission Challenge experience with a feeling of nostalgia - and it isn’t even done yet.

While we were renewing our site, Angela, who cancels her cable TV in the summer, sent in some really interesting notes. First up, she did her home accounting - and came up with some numbers that blow away the argument that local eating isn’t affordable for the average family.

Thought you’d also be interested to know that I totalled my grocery bills for this month and I’m exactly where I used to be, which says a lot because Mike used to eat out for most of his lunches at work and he’s no longer doing that. So if you work the savings of his not eating out into the grocery budget, we’re probably ahead by about $200! That offsets the $600 extra we spent the first month. I don’t think things have gotten cheaper, I think we’re learning to cook and eat differently. Plus now everyone realizes how much work and effort goes into putting that food on the table and that really effects how much you eat and more importantly how much you waste!

Of course, you have to be smart about how you spend. My earlier blog gave some general principles for local eating on a budget, and below, Angela gets down to specifics on some of those recommendations.

Just a little cost cutting tip for all you local carnivores. I only buy organic meat and organic steak is sooo expensive. But if you buy a cheap cut of steak like a blade marinating steak, you can marinate it in buttermilk along with some local salt, herbs, and garlic. Let it sit anywhere between two hours to overnight. It is so tender it’s like cutting through butter, so much cheaper than the expensive cuts of grilling steaks, and in my opinion much more flavorful. So what are you waiting for get grilling! Hopcott in Pitt Meadows will frequently have it on sale for $3 a pound…so don’t tell me you can’t afford local, organic meat!

And here’s another tip - with a recipe - based on the important local eating rule, DO NOT WASTE FOOD.

The longer I’m on this challenge the more I’ve come to realize that much of the food we eat is actually a by-product of something else. Now I know this doesn’t sound appetizing, but give me a second and your wallet will have a completely different opinion! Butter was difficult to find and when we did find it, it wasn’t organic and cost $5.29 a pound. So I bought some organic whipping cream at about the same price and popped it into my trusty mixer on low and walked away. About 10-15 minutes later what do I have…butter, with a whole lot of buttermilk as a by-product! Now I have 2 lbs. of organic butter and it only cost me about $5 - a 50 percent savings. But what to do with all the buttermilk? Let’s see…use it in pancakes, marinate meat, make crème fraîche and cream cheese, what else? Never thought you could have so many uses for a mere by-product did you!

Then, the other day my mom gave me some Saskatoon berries. Let me apologize ahead of time to all you Saskatoon berry fans, but I thought they were awful! It tasted like a smoker had previously sucked on them and spat them back into the bowl. But being as frugal as I am I couldn’t waste them..what to do. I put them in a pot with some water with a bit of honey and boiled the stink out of them! The liquid was poured off and I mixed it half and half with apple cider. The transformation was amazing, I think it’s my favourite juice to date! Now I’m left with all the skins and pulp from the berries…can’t waste that (you’d swear I grew up in the depression) so I left about 10% of the juice in them, added a little more honey and popped it in the blender. Now I have Saskatoon berry jam with zero effort, and again it’s surprisingly good…yet another food item made from a mere by-product…I wonder how many more there could be?

Crème Fraîche

500 mls 10% or 18% organic cream
5 tbsp buttermilk

Pour room-temperature cream into a sterilized jar and add buttermilk, give a quick stir then let sit overnight at room temperature. That’s it! You’ll never go back to sour cream!

You can make spreadable cream cheese with the same recipe, but using whipping cream. When set, sit on a sieve lined with cheese cloth and let the whey drip off. The whey, yet another by-product, is great used in cream soups or fruit smoothies and is apparently really good for you.

Thanks, Angela!

–JBM

Mission Challenge: Pastry Recipe, and Nova Scotia

DAY 64 - How do you get enough 100-mile bran to make breakfast cereal? Johanna, Frances, and Cassie sent in a recipe that gives you (a) bran, and (b) an excuse to bake a pie.

Pâte Brisée

1 ½ c sifted freshly ground flour (reserve bran for cereal)
1/8 tsp sea salt
½ c cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
¼ cup ice water

Mix the salt and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse meal. Add the water and blend into the flour mixture. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and press large chunks of dough away from you with the heel of your hand. Gather the dough together into a ball and repeat. Shape the dough into a thick circle, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Makes a double crust pie or two single crust pies. It can easily be made in a food processor. Makes a light, crisp, easily handled dough. Note: Based on a recipe from Silver Palate Cookbook.

Thanks, folks. Now here’s a nice letter from Pamela in Bear River, Nova Scotia - the other side of the continent - that captures the way local eating changes, and changes a person, over time.

We started growing our own food 10 years ago, and our diet seemed to naturally simplify as a result of the lifestyle that goes with working from dawn till dusk. When you have worked outside all day, a simple baked potato tastes great. Add a few chives and a dab of butter and you have gone gourmet. There is real abundance here, we live on 25 acres in a rural community near the Bay of Fundy. We aren’t strict about the 100-mile diet but we are very conscious of buying in season, and not eating anything processed. Finding oils and condiments is the biggest challenge, but I find as we become more nourished by organic and whole foods, we don’t seem to be as afflicted by cravings. We still haven’t figured out the perfect set-up for keeping everything we grow, but that has instigated a lot of bartering. It’s all good, and it’s all evolving all the time.

-JBM

Mission Challenge: Bran Flakes Recipe, and More

DAY 62 - Yes, the site looks different today…a little more streamlined, and with some updated features, such as a map that can draw your 100-mile zone no matter where you are on Earth, and a search engine. Many thanks to our friends at Biro Creative. Now we can get back to blogging!

Alex sent in her increasingly famous breakfast cereal recipe, which, if you’re grinding your own wheat, is a great way to use up any bran that you sift out to lighten your flour. And remember: it’s blueberry season, and blueberries pair amazingly well with bran.

Bran Flakes Cereal

2 c bran
2 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 c milk
1/4 c oil or butter
1 tbsp honey

Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and add oil, honey and milk. Mix well. Divide into four parts and roll out as thin as possible on a greased cookie sheet. (Parchment paper works best as you can roll out the mix between two pieces and get it nice and thin). Bake in 350 F oven 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned and crisp. If dough is not completely dry, turn oven off and let it remain longer. Break into small pieces. Store in airtight container. Makes 1 lb of cereal. Note: If you want a sweeter taste drizzle honey on halfway through baking.

Thanks, Alex. That should tide us over until the local food revolution inspires some local farmer to sow oats…which reminds me of a message that came in from Stephen Jardine, a TV journalist who recently visited B.C. on a holiday. He’s a Scot who’s eating nothing but Scottish food from Burns Night to St. Andrews Day this year. As he says, “It’s hardly a hardship.”

-JBM

Mission Challenge: Tea

DAY 53 — A few days ago Alisa and I were in Lake Forest, WA, where Plenty was selected as a community book and where, I might add, they have what I consider the perfect combination: a bookstore with a farmers’ market outside. And a great farmers’ market at that, where we found local ginger for the first time and — get ready for it — oolong tea. With caffeine.

We didn’t drink any (caffeine does nothing good to either of us) or even buy any, but it goes to show (again) that what we can and can’t grow on the landscapes we live in is still being explored. I see new examples every year.

Until a few more agricultural adventurers start putting in tea bushes, however, herb teas and traditional tisanes offer flavour galore. Here, from Angela in Mission, is just one recipe:

If you love Earl Grey tea as much as I do here is a recipe to try that will have you jumping out of your seat.

Nana’s Earl Grey Fooler
2 sprigs bea balm
1 sprig rosemary
4 French lavender buds

Cover with hot water in a tea pot and let steep for 5-10 minutes. You can put milk and honey in it if you’d like and it’s fantastic…so good I don’t know if I’ll ever drink the real thing again! If you prefer your tea with lemon, add a sprig of lemon verbena into the mix. If you can’t get used to the pale color of this tea you can simmer some onion skins in some water and use that to steep your tea with — it will look exactly like the real deal. Enjoy!

For more Mission Challenge blogs, including the rules, click here.

—JBM

Mission Challenge: Celebrate 50 Days with a Caramel Recipe

DAY 51 —Wait a minute: Did the halfway mark of the Mission 100-Mile Challenge just slip past? This calls for a celebration, and Angela has sent along just the thing — a recipe for caramel.

But first, my last blog was about local eating on a budget, and I received a lot of thanks from locavores across the continent for writing it (I also added some new tips from readers, so check out the update). Then, to show the proof is in the pudding, I got this message from Angela in Mission:

Thanks for saying happy birthday to Kaity. Her party was a hit! We had 60 people and I managed to do it on a budget of $130…including the cake! We had many types of salad, honey garlic wings, hot wings, marinated mushrooms, and home made pop and iced tea, to name a few. There wasn’t a single complaint about missing chips or candy…it just goes to show you that as a parent, if you take the time to lead by example your children will follow when they don’t see it as a hardship for you. It’s quite surprising to see how fast the local eating becomes the norm, even to young children. Anyway, I just want to put it out there that it is totally possible and really fun to entertain a large group of people 100%, 100 mile. I challenge you to try and let us know how it goes, maybe we could all share tips to make it even easier next time.

Sixty people fed on totally local food for $130! I’m a big believer in local eating being affordable, but I have to say that blows me away. Angela: You’re a legend.

And here, by popular demand (that is, I’ve been bugging her), is her recipe for a celebratory confection…

100-Mile Caramel

1/2 c local honey
1 c 18% cream

Heat the cream until very hot. Put honey in a deep pot on medium high for about 5-8 min (you’re looking for the honey to turn a deep rich brown). Once it looks dark enough, slowly add the hot cream. Be careful, as it will spatter a lot. Stir continuously until the sauce reaches its desired thickness (remember it will thicken more as it cools), then pour into a clean jar and let cool. Put whatever you don’t use in the fridge; it keeps for quite a long time. *Tip: if your milk isn’t the right temperature and the caramel goes lumpy, simply cool it, give it a whiz in the blender until it returns to a smooth consistency, and then continue to thicken on the stove. (You wouldn’t want to waste all that yummy honey the bees worked so hard to make for you.)

We use ours drizzled on top of warmed apple cider topped with whipping cream (we’re suffering sooo badly on this challenge!). This drink helped ease my severe coffee cravings so instead of a caffine buzz, I got a sugar buzz. It all worked out in the end. Enjoy, it’s killer.

Thanks, Angela, I’m trying that tonight. For more Mission Challenge blogs, including the rules, click here.

—JBM

Mission Challenge: Local Eating on a Budget

DAY 46 — The cost of eating locally comes up a lot. There’s an assumption that going local is only for people with time and money to spare. Somehow we’ve forgotten that cooking your own meals and putting away food for winter used to be considered thrifty things to do - and the fact is, they still are. Local eating does have its costs, but it has its savings, too.

Below is my all-time list of ways to deal with those costs and look for those savings:

First: Are local foods really so expensive?

1. Do a fair comparison. Farmers’ market foods often have a higher sticker price. But wait - that head of lettuce is much larger than the one at the supermarket, and it’s organic. Compared pound-for-pound with supermarket foods of similar quality, farmers’ market foods may actually cost less. Also, some so-called luxury foods (often foods that don’t keep or transport well, such as basil and artichokes) can be far cheaper at the farmers’ market than the supermarket.

2. Consider a box program. Weekly local-food box deliveries, especially community-supported agriculture programs (or CSAs, in which you become a subscriber to a particular farm or set of farms), often offer excellent value.

Second: Shop wisely

3. Arrive at the market early, or late. The best-priced foods can sell out quickly. On the other hand, vendors will often sell end-of-day food (especially in bulk) for less, rather than ship it back to the farm.

4. Do a walk-around. Quickly check the farmers’ market stalls for the best deals. Earlier this year I saw the first salad greens for $11/lbs. I gave those a pass, and instead bought a huge bag of wild miner’s lettuce - a succulent seasonal treat - for just $2.

5. Buy in bulk, buy in season. Local foods are cheapest in the peak of their season. That’s the time to invest in your food and freeze, can, or dry some for later. The outlay of cash can be a big bite, but in winter your grocery bill will be close to zero. Some real-life examples from Alisa and my experience: nearly 50 peaches for $3 (that’s total, not by weight); organic tomatoes for $1/lbs; wild salmon for $4/lbs (in stores I’ve seen it topping $20/lbs).

6. Buy cheaper cuts and ugly food. It costs money to raise animals in humane conditions. Expect to pay more, but expect better-tasting meat, too; keep costs down by eating less expensive cuts, such as stewing meats, more often. With vegetables and fruit, it’s often cheaper to buy “uglies” - products with small blemishes or funny shapes - that taste just fine but can be hard for farmers to market.

7. Look into farmers’ market coupon programs. Many markets now offer specific discount programs for lower-income earners. Ask at your market’s info stand, or check the market websites.

Third: Do not waste food

8. Do not waste food. When new research indicates we throw out one-third of the edible food we buy, it’s hard to take seriously claims that food “costs too much.” Make plans to use the food in the fridge or freezer, including leftovers.

9. Use everything edible. You eat radishes. But do you also eat their greens, flowers, and seed pods - all delicious? Carrot tops are tasty, and so are cauliflower and broccoli stalks and leaves. In Africa, I’ve eaten whole dishes made entirely of bean or squash leaves. Ask your farmer or food producer for ideas on how to use every edible part of what you buy, or troll the internet for ideas.

10. Remember the stock pot: Much of what we throw away - bones, fish heads, vegetable trimmings - can be saved to make healthful soup stock. Many older people remember keeping stock pots (or still do); ask your elders about what works well in stock and what should go in the compost instead.

Fourth: Cook smart

11. Use fewer ingredients. Fresh foods have bolder flavours than bland supermarket foods. Use fewer ingredients and let their simple flavours shine.

12. Prepare smaller portions of meat, eggs, cheese etc. Everyone knows that most of us eat too much of these expensive foods, but it’s hard to replace them with bland supermarket fruit and veg. Fresh, local vegetables, on the other hand, earn their place at the centre of the plate.

13. Eat smaller meals. Many locavores report that, over time, their meal sizes shrink and they also do less snacking. That’s certainly been my experience. We can’t say for certain why this happens, but my guess is that local eaters are getting better nutrition through their fresh, whole foods. What I can say for sure is that it’s saving us money.

Fifth: Community comes with savings

14. Buy together, cook together. Making big bulk purchases, with even deeper savings, is easiest in groups. Having food friends allows you to share different kitchen tools and appliances - not everyone needs a dehydrator or a storage freezer. Carpooling or splitting the labour of seasonal buying saves gas. We’ve even watched groups come together and cooperate with farmers to decide the following year’s crops and explore the costs together.

15. Get to know your food producers. The baker’s dozen is alive and well on the rural backroads! We still frequently see “honour boxes” - unattended roadside stands with a coin box where you pay what you feel is fair for the food that you take. Alisa and I rarely make a farmgate purchase without receiving a little something extra, like a newly ripe melon or a few onions. This year, Alisa was invited to pick our canning strawberries for free, just because the berries were otherwise going to rot on the vine.

16. Barter, trade, and work for your food. Some u-pick operations and other growers will pay you to pick for them as well as give you a good price on food you harvest for yourself. Some farmers appreciate offers to work for food (I used to do this weekly while in my mid-twenties). At farmers’ markets, some vendors will give free fruit or veg if you help set up or take down their stall. And don’t forget to barter and trade with other locavores with the extras of what you grow or preserve.

Sixth: Be a little more self-sufficient

17. Plant a garden. Even a small container garden can save you money on herbs, which are expensive at the shops. We focus on planting foods that are costly but easy to grow, like garlic, basil, herbs, and, this year, tomatilloes. We also also plant a winter garden, for fresh food when supermarket prices are at their highest.

18. Forage. Wild foods are free. And foraging doesn’t only happen in the wilderness - ask your neighbours about all that tree fruit they’re letting drop and rot on the ground.

19. Consider some livestock. Even in the city, rules and regulations increasingly permit people to keep bees, chickens, and — more rarely — goats or larger animals. Bantam chickens, for example, are small and can keep a family in eggs much of the year.

Finally…

20. Ask yourself - and your local politicians - why bad food is so often cheap and good food is so often expensive. Why does our system subsidize the producers who use tons of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, ship food huge distances, pay farmworkers the bare minimum, and treat animals as if they were machines rather than living creatures? Why not invest instead in a food system that is first and foremost local, organic, humane, and a decent place to work? Remember: If the food’s too cheap, it’s because someone else is paying.

Send me your own tips for eating good, local food on a budget. For more Mission Challenge blogs, including the rules, click here.

—JBM