Did you know that even most organic foods that you find in health food stores and stores like HEB, Central Market, and Whole Foods have still travelled an average of 1500 miles to get to your fridge? Did you know that to meet the “free range” labelling requirements, the chickens in question only need to have access to a door and a small grass area outside the brooding house? These are just some of the thing that I learned this summer in my personal reading frenzy focusing on the United States Food Chain.
Between my reading, growing my first garden in 20 plus years and shopping at local farmers markets around Houston. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about about where my food is coming from, how far it’s travelled to get to the store I’m purchasing it from, and thought about how much fossil fuel is being used to produce/package the food I eat. And after a summer of hardly going to the grocery store and either producing my own food or getting to know the people who are growing the chicken and beef I’m eating, I’ve decided to take the leap and go off the food grid and become a locavore.
If you’ve never heard the term Locavore before, it means someone who only or primarily eats food grown or produced within their local area, usually within a radius of 100 to 250 miles. I have the following sourced already:
Beef – Law Ranch Cattle Company
Truly Free-Range Chicken and Pork – Georgia’s Texas Natural Meats
Eggs – Mrs. B has them.
Veggies – I raise my own and when I’m in the waiting time (like now) Mrs. B usually has some.
Dairy – Currently Promised Land dairy falls in the 250 mile range, but I’m hoping to find something that is closer than 220 miles from where I live. One thing I really like about Promised Land Diary though is the glass bottles they ship quarts of milk in. Those make great bottles to put water and store in the fridge. I don’t have to worry about chemicals leaching in from the plastic.
There are only a few things that I really don’t have covered – I’d like to find a local source for flour (preferably Organic) but I might have to bite the bullet on that one.
Other Grains – we do have rice fields in Texas so I have that covered. But other grains I may have to bite the bullet on.
Spices – If I read one of the books I have correctly, I would be able to grow a lot of my own spices (my ginger is thriving although I haven’t gotten brave enough to check out the root yet). But given that some things don’t grow in Houston, if I have to purchase spices, I’ll look for fair trade and organic if at all possible.
Coffee – again not something I can grow here, but I will purchase fair trade/organic when at all possible.
I’m really not sure where all this is going to end up. However, I know I’ll be doing my part for the environment.
Tags: Beef, Dairy, Food Sources, Free Range, Garden, Houston, Locavore, poultry, Texas, vegetables, veggies
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In Alvin, they have a rice mill (I believe it is RiceTec) that has great brown rice that you I have found at Kroger. It comes in a box like Rice A Roni but it is Organic. You can also get it in the bags. They actually have other products but would have to call the guy that works there that my boss knows.
Toni:
I was actually looking at the label on one of their big square containers this morning (those make an excellent container to store loose change
) and saw that they are in Alvin. I was kind of excited to see that they are less then 15 miles from where I live.
thanks for stopping by