Robyn Dochterman says:

June 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

I’d like to say I don’t distrust the food chain, Jaime. But I’ve certainly grown to be wary of it and reacted to that wariness by growing more and more of my own veggies. I’m not ready to give up things I can’t grow yet (bing cherries, anyone?) but my delight in eating locally or even hyperlocally, is growing almost as fast as my peas right now.

Jaime Chismar says:

June 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

Imagine the possibilities if the U of M developed a Zone 4 mango!

Amy F says:

June 11th, 2008 at 2:43 am

This is my first year really trying to garden — I’ve got about 15′x20′, although I keep planting more outside the edges. We’ve been members of a CSA for 3 years now and I feel like the combination of gardening myself and a CSA half-share is perfect. I have no desire to grow the huge variety that my CSA produces, but it’s nice to try pea vines and hon tsai tai for a meal or two this time of year. My garden’s only producing lettuce and radishes. I’ll be able to freeze peas and beans and can tomatoes from my garden, but I don’t need to make a root cellar because the CSA will do it for me and deliver root veggies through January. I get organic fruit through the CSA also, brought in from all over. I started my own strawberry, raspberry, and rhubarb patches this year, but I appreciate the availability of oranges and peaches and bananas. I try to eat what’s seasonal when there’s an option, but in March the pickings were slim around here.

If Dubner was really trying to make his own ice cream on a budget, he’d skip the food coloring and find recipes that would use the leftover ingredients. I’m finding out about buying clubs and other ways to lessen the costs of buying better ingredients instead of cheaper processed foods. It’s possible but requires more effort than going to Lunds or a co-op and trying to buy the local, organic version of whatever you would have bought at Cub.

judybusy says:

June 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am

I’ve eaten organic as much as possible for many years and more recently have tried to incorporate more local foodstuffs. My understanding of the salmonella outbreaks is that so much of our food is distributed centrally, so it’s easy for contamination to spread.

Another book which talks about food issues, focusing on meat, is The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend. She and her partner farm in the Cannon Falls area, so she knows this issue intimately. She also wrote a very charming book, Hit by a Farm, about how they became farmers!

bsimon says:

June 11th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

awesome picture