Time vs. Convenience

Sometimes it can feel like living locally means driving more.

I venture out to so many different Farmer’s Markets during the week to get everything we want. Culver City has the trail mix Donny likes. La Cienega sells shrimp from Santa Barbara. Santa Monica sells blueberries I love to snack on. And Venice sells fresh squeezed organic orange juice in a ½ gallon that I’m drinking right now. I also end up having to shop around because vendors don’t show up or like today at the Santa Monica FM Lindner farms didn’t have Bison jerky and won’t have it for a few more weeks. It takes a lot of time and energy to go to all of those different places each week. It’s hard to manage all of that shopping, a full-time job and sustain a healthy relationship.

I’m worried about it because I haven’t been working for the last few weeks. I have had the time & luxury of going to 4 or 5 different markets in the week, plus additional excursions to the Whole Foods. How are we going to do this when I go back to work – tomorrow?!?

Donny is tired. He drives a lot for work – A LOT! I get it. He doesn’t want to drive to Beverly Hills on a Sunday just to see if they are selling whole chickens. He just doesn’t. And I understand that now, but there has to be a balance because we do need food.

When I go back to work Donny will just be finishing a job and then he will be in charge of this whole food debacle. But he wants it to be easy. He wants to just make one trip to one supermarket and not have to go anywhere else. Or he'll want to eat at California Chicken Cafe 6 nights a week. And if that happens we won’t really be eating locally. In my opinion the waste overload in landfills has come from the convenience of what happens when you one-stop shop. Convenience in packaging, in only buying from certain conglomerate companies and convenience in pre-made, instead of fresh.

In August we will have a Whole Foods market within walking distance from our home. We are both really looking forward to it opening, but that is still 2 months away. Until then only time will tell as to how we are able to keep up with local eating.

Planning

My ex-roommate and her boyfriend came over for dinner. I bought a 3 pound grass-fed bison roast from the Santa Monica Farmer’s market and my ultimate goal was to serve a completely local meal. Local in the sense that we could use ingredients already in the house, i.e. spices and condiments. And that as long as an item came from the state of California we wouldn’t discriminate. We already had asparagus from a recent trip to the farmer’s market. Early that morning we went to the Beverly Hills Farmer’s Market and bought potatoes and bread, in addition to Chilean sea bass and broccoli for another night. Donny has been snacking on apples lately and we didn’t find any good ones in BH, so I promised to ride my bike over to the other Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. This one edges on the Venice border, so it is just a short ride from our house. I pulled up to the awe-inspiring bike valet next to the petting zoo. So many people out and about. No good apples in sight, but I did pick-up some grapefruit and flowers. After I got home we started to go over the menu. Realizing we had not picked up tomatoes or garlic, Donny wanted to just walk over to the Ralph’s. This is where I started to get frustrated. I remind him about this “local” meal and we get into a whole discussion about organic vs. local vs. convenient. It’s hard for him because he doesn’t have the passion for this project like I do. If Donny wants something at the last minute, he wants to be able to go out and get it. Since he doesn’t taste chemicals on the fruit and he isn’t the one going to China to pick-up the vegetables, then he doesn’t think about its effects on our bodies or environment. Out of sight, out of mind, really. In the back of my mind I'm thinking - he's getting off easy. The couple in the 100 mile diet and the No Impact Man are extremists in my mind. I think their stories are very inspiring, but I'm not making him give up every chance at convenience. Right now I'm just asking for one complete local meal. After a long talk we realize that just a little bit of planning could relieve a lot of tension. It is definitely hard to plan every single ingredient. We have so many farmer’s markets in a 20 mile radius yet without any planning, 4 trips to the markets in one week is pointless. Genny and Jon brought over 2 bottles of California wine. The bison was a bit dry, maybe overcooked, but everyone wanted more meat and potatoes. It is sort of funny that we had such an American classic for our menu. I have never thought of myself as patriotic. In fact, I relate much more to the European style of life. If being American means cooking for friends, while eating literally home-grown food then I’m okay with that label.