Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - Demo - (Page 8)

in my own words The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith Co-author of Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally Alisa Smith and James McKinnon have always tried to tread lightly on the earth. They rode bikes instead of driving; they were vegetarians who bought organic food. But in the winter of 2005, they discovered that they were unwitting participants in a system that substantially enlarged their ecological footprints. In their book, Plenty, Alisa and James share their experiences of eating only food from within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. The idea sounded simple, but their lives soon became anything but. Along the way, they learned the history of local agriculture, how to can tomatoes and make cheese, and the enormous satisfaction of knowing—and being part of—the story of their food. The first local supper We started thinking about where our food came from after a meal we had at our wilderness cabin in northern British Columbia. There is no road access, only train or boat. Once we were there, if we ran out of supplies, there was no corner store to go to for food. We’d been there for a few weeks and had used most of our supplies, and we had visitors coming. So we took a look around. We were on the edge of a river, on the edge of a forest. We went fishing and caught a Dolly Varden trout, picked some mushrooms from the forest, and dug up some potatoes we’d planted in the spring and had forgotten about. It was a very simple meal, but because everything was so fresh, it was so delicious. And we realized that it was the first time that we knew where everything on our plate had come from. Drawing our circle When we returned to the city, we started thinking more about where our food comes from. We read a study showing that food in North America travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to plate. We’re the kind of people who walk or ride our bikes or take the bus instead of driving when we can, and we were shocked to learn about all the fossil fuels going into our food. We wondered why this was necessary when much of it could be grown in our own back yard. There is no set definition for “local.” So we looked at a map, and there’s a mountain range that rises up about 100 miles behind Vancouver. That was a logical natural boundary for us. Our 100 mile circle included lots of natural farming landscapes and the ocean and a river, so we figured we’d get a variety of great food from that distance. The empty bread basket We leaped right into it on the first day of spring. The first six weeks, we were on a steep learning curve as we tried to find local foods for the first time. We knew from the get-go that we wouldn’t find local sugar and rice, but we were surprised not to be able to find wheat. When we read local history, we learned that there was lots of grain farming here 50 years ago; 100 years ago, our area was self-sufficient in wheat. So it’s not that grain couldn’t be grown where we live; it’s that the industrial food system has designated certain areas for certain foods. The Midwest is where wheat is grown, and the coast in our area is a big dairy region. It’s very segmented. We could find all the cheese we could ever want, but it took us seven months to find a grain farmer in our hundred miles. Purslane, medlars, and other food I’d never heard of We discovered Asian greens, like mizuna and tatsoy. We found purslane and lots of other vegetables we hadn’t heard of. Now, I don’t want the exact same salad—just greenleaf or romaine lettuce, tomato, radish—all through the year. Winter salads can be made of things like the leaves of baby kale or beets. We discovered medlars at a farmer’s market. They don’t get ripe until after the first frost, so they’re one of the winter fruits. Medlars taste like a cross between a date and applesauce, and they’re delicious. Even though fewer foods are available in the winter, they have different flavors, and we appreciate those more now. The story of a meal It’s harder to can your own peaches or March/April 2008 Alisa Smith and James McKinnon 8 imagine

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - Demo

Imagine Magazine - March/April 2008 Contents Letters Big Problems Big Picture In My Own Words Putting E-Waste in Its Place Big Juice Making Waves What Does "Green" Mean? Into the Woods Swimming with Whale Sharks Crash Course in Costa Rica Selected Opportunities & Resources Hooked on Logistics Off the Shelf Word Wise Middle Ground One Step Ahead Exploring Career Options Planning Ahead for College Students Review Creative Minds Imagine Sudoku Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - Demo

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.