I have always been interested in food, at least for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until I moved to San Francisco a few years ago that I became interested in local, organic food. My husband and I moved to the Bay Area in 2007 and we fell in love with it right away. There was always something to do in the city and we loved taking day trips to Marin, Half Moon Bay, wine country, and the many other lovely communities in the surrounding area. One of my favorite things about living there was the food scene. San Francisco has many amazing restaurants and there is big interest in local, sustainable food within the community. Two of my favorite leaders of this movement lived in the area- Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. We enjoyed eating at Alice Water's restaurant and I still enjoy using her cookbooks now. I loved the work that Alice did starting the farm to school program in Berkeley. I have enjoyed all of Michael Pollan's books and would recommend reading them if you haven't. I never got the chance to listen to him speak while we were living there, but I am pretty sure that I saw him in the parking lot at Berkeley Bowl one time. Unfortunately I didn't get to ask him for his autograph. Anyway, there was a lot of inspiration to become involved in local food there. I started checking out the farmers' markets- there were quite a few. So many, in fact, that I could visit a farmers' market almost any day of the week all year round. I tried to buy as much as I could from the farmers' market. I found a few great grocery stores that sold local produce & food- my favorites were Monterey Market, Berkeley Bowl, and the El Cerrito Natural Grocery because they were close to our home. We also joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which was available year round. It was very easy to eat local in San Francisco. The diversity of produce was also great- the mild weather in California made it possible to grow a huge variety of fruits and vegetables all year long.
When we decided to move back to Iowa to be closer to family and friends, part of me was excited for the move, but the other part of me knew that I would really miss the Bay Area. My husband and I made the move in May of 2009. I wanted to continue my local diet, but knew that it might be a little more challenging- especially in the winter. We moved at a great time of the year because the growing season in Iowa was just starting. I went to the downtown farmers' market every weekend in the summer and the fall, and also went to several of the other farmers' markets in the Des Moines area. I was too late to sign up for a CSA for the summer season when we moved, but I did sign up for a fall season CSA through Blue Gate Farm (much more information on them in later posts). I did pretty good for my first summer & fall in Iowa- I was able to buy the majority of my produce, meat, milk, and eggs locally. The winter was a different story. I was able to continue buying meat, milk & eggs locally, but not produce. My goal is to improve for next winter. I hope to preserve and freeze more produce this year to be able to last through the winter. For the first 6 months in Iowa we lived in an apartment in Pleasant Hill, but in November, we bought a house in Des Moines. We are very excited to start a garden in our yard this summer. You can't get any more local than your own back yard.
So, my mission is to continue to find local food sources here in Iowa & to figure out how to continue to eat local all year long regardless of the snow & blizzards that we are blessed with here. My goal is to buy as much of our food as possible from local sources. I know we won't buy 100% of our food locally because there are some things that I'm not willing to live without that cannot grow here in Iowa (avocados, lemons, limes, oranges- just to name a few), but I would like to buy the majority of our food locally. My other mission is to make a connection with where my food is grown- visit the farms, meet the farmers and learn more about how they grow my food. This blog will share the local sources that I discover and my journey along the way. Enjoy!
