Along with all of our garden produce, we’ve been trying to “Eat Local” as much as possible. So far we’ve made the following changes:
- Milk: from a local organic dairy, delivered in glass returnable bottles
- Honey: from beehives just about a mile away, as the crow flies, purchased in my own reusable mason jars
- Vegetables: from our own garden – fresh, frozen, dried, canned
- Eggs: from a neighbor’s chickens
- Beef: we just ordered a quarter of beef from a neighbor
- Bread: although I’m purchasing the flour, I’m making sourdough bread on a regular basis
Even though we typically haven’t been eating a lot of beef, we watched “Food, Inc.” and “King Corn” recently, and have been thinking about changing our eating habits from commercially raised meats to grass-fed meats with no hormones, antibiotics, steroids, etc. I think that eating better beef is better than eating commercial chicken, so until I find a good, local, affordable source for better chickens, it’ll be nice to have the beef and help out a neighbor who needed to sell another share of their beef. We’ve tossed around the idea of raising our own chickens, for eggs and/or meat, we just aren’t there yet.
I think we’re making great progress toward eating more sustainably and leaving the “formal economy”. Next, I’d like to consider getting a grain mill, to grind my own flours. I’d still have to buy the grain, however.