You said earlier that you "came to thinking about food through farmers." Can you explain that a bit?
Coming at it from farmers' perspectives impressed upon me the extent to which the choices we make about food directly impacts individual people's lives.
People make fun of me for buying organic potato chips because they're junk food. But I know somewhere – probably in Idaho or Maine – someone is growing those potatoes and making a choice not to use chemicals and they're trying to make a living and I want to help them do that.
So you buy a lot of organic junk food?
No! That's just an extreme example. I try to buy most of my food from local farmers. For me, the greatest benefit of buying my food locally, and specifically at my farmers market, are the relationships that I get to have with the farmers. The food is wonderful and I love that for the taste and my health, but the community that I have become a part of and helped to build by buying food locally – there is nothing that can replace that. Anyone can have those relationships with the people who grow their food. It just takes a little bit of effort and the reward is so great.
Do you only eat local foods, with a few organic potato chips thrown in for good measure?
I'm in California and we can get almost anything locally. I let the things I can buy locally guide my meal and I make them as big a part of the meal as possible. And then I use things that come from other places – like pasta - to fill in. But I try to always let the local foods steer the menu.
Any tips for people starting to eat locally?
On my refrigerator I have a list of vegetables. Everyone thinks it’s a list of what I need, but it's a list of what I have – usually what I bought at the farmers market that week. Then I know what I have and can figure out what to make with it.
It's really a lesson from the Podolls. They come up with combinations that you might not think of when you're buying things at the supermarket, but because it's what they have they make use of it. My list on the refrigerator helps me remember to make use of what I have.
And then I have a thing I do when I'm on the road. I try to eat what reflects what's local, even if I'm at a truck stop. It's an interesting way to travel. As someone coming from outside of a place there aren't always a lot of access points, but you can always eat the local food and try the local dishes.
