Simplify, make is easier for all of us to recognize what is local and what is not. Embracing the concept of eating local is only the beginning. I specifically had several hurdles to overcome when writing the cookbook freshalicious. What is local? How far away should my food come from before it is not local anymore? My local is to source as close to home in your community first, and then try your best to keep your food purchases on this continent. Not that hard I say!

Seriously, I have taken the time to write the cookbook with all of you in mind. If you were born in Canada, eating bananas everyday of your life without much thought of where they came from, do you stop eating bananas? What about rice? Another not so local food that is imported from far far away, a food source you have been enjoying for so many years all of the sudden is placed on the not so local hit list! Slowly , slowly I say.

By recognizing what is not local is a good start. Taking the initiative to shop smarter, read the labels and country of origin is the next step. Moving forward to find a more locally produced product will help get you on the right track. Not so local rice for example can be replaced by California Rices, Wild Rices grown in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. I still have not been able to source a local banana yet! However, when choosing to EAT LOCAL it is not about going cold turkey and trying to be all goodie two shoes about it. It is all about simply implementing the changes gradually, and choosing to find all your main ingredients from local food sources and use those foods that are imported less often, or as a treat.

I wrote freshalicious with all four seasons in mind , staring in January. This is a time when our greenhouses start to grow a new crop of tomatoes, cucumbers and or peppers. We still have an ample amount of squashes, potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, sprouts,leeks and mushrooms to keep us cooking until the spring. Let us not forget about apples, pears, preserves and flash frozen vegetables that are grown locally, like Green Giant peas and corn. Lets source  local chickens, pork, beef, turkeys and ducks that we all have access to all year round. We need to look and be aware that is is a necessary way to live a healthier more sustainable lifestyle around the food that we choose to eat everyday.

Here are 10 tips to get you started living local:

1. Get yourself a copy of freshalicious- a guide to living local.
2. Find a  grocery store that is supporting local.
3. Find your local farmers’ market.
4. Look for home delivery organic meat suppliers.
5. Find a farmer that has free-range eggs on your journeys.
6. Try growing a garden or make your own bread.
7. Choose to leave the imported food behind one day at ta time.
8. Get into being creative with your recipes that are seasonally inspired.
9. Read all food labels, and try eating less boxed and canned foods.
10. Take one day at a time and allow this to become part of your life gradually.

Some freshalicious food for thought.

Try researching the guidelines for food labeling in Canada and the USA and if it is voluntary to disclose all ingredients. For example it may say “PRODUCT OF CANADA” however it may not be an ingredient form Canada. Food labels that have more than 5 ingredients listed may not be that good for you, and certainly try to avoid foods with funky ingredients you cannot understand. It would be nice if you knew “the Country of Origin” for all foods and that “PRODUCT OF CANADA” actually means what it says.

We would like to have the choice to “EAT LOCALLY PRODUCED FOODS” in our lifetime, and have the farm still there to go to and pick our own if we choose to.

think fresh*live local*eat healthy
“EAT LOCAL”

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