California Dreamin'

After six months of living in New England - where I grew up - we have some perspective on what it means to eat locally here.  Because we both started with new jobs in the fall and I was fighting to finish my dissertation, we haven't begun this project in earnest until now.  We moved from Northern California - where Andrew grew up -  where the locally available produce, meats, and grains were plentiful and available year-round.  Our lives involved a lot of grocery shopping, making bread and pasta, and regular visits to the farmer's markets and our family's Sebastopol farm.  Our favorite flavors from our year of local eating in Berkeley are the lemons from our tree, Sebastopol plum jam, goat cheese, our own sun-dried tomatoes, and California wine.

Fast forward to New England: winter.  There is nothing like a New England winter.  The snow falls, the city gets quiet, and I love the sound of the snow plows going by in the night with the promise of fresh snow-fall in the morning!  We felt instantly at home here among our old friends and family, living in the simultaneously progressive and traditional town of Somerville. Living in the city has almost eliminated our need for a car, but we struggle with the energy demands of an old house in the freezing winter weather.  New Englanders have jumped at the chance to eat locally, and small farms and producers of all kinds thrive here.  However, when winter comes, our food supplies dwindle.  Without the preparation of canning and drying supplies, what were we to do?

Our solution has been to buy eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt, and butter that come from New England, and we stocked up on honey, molasses, jam, and King Arthur flour basics that are made (and sometimes grown) here.  But, what were we to do about produce all winter long?  In the autumn, we depended on our Davis Square farmer's market and the locally-available produce at the grocery store.  Now, we have decided to sign up for a winter-CSA box.  This is a Community Shared Agriculture box of produce that comes from Enterprise Farm in western Mass.  While this small farmer doesn't grow all the produce, he contracts with other small east coast farmers from Maine to Florida to provide us with organic produce all winter long...I shed a few tears of joy when I opened the first delivery. 

We hope this blog will provide you with a little bit of insight into our eating adventures - please share your own photos and stories here, especially if you are a New England local eater!