Spice Sisters - Seasonal Pairings

I’ve always thought that if I ever had a blog I’d want it to be a lot about sharing foodie information with other foodies, and a little about whatever else crossed my mind. The truth of the matter is that just about everything that crosses my mind has to do with food;  eating it, buying it, cooking it, sharing it, reading about it, and now writing about it. Alas, it’s true. Food is my life. There, I’ve said it. I am Foodie, hear me roarrrrr! I haven’t really succumbed to the idea that I live to eat, but close. Fundamentally, the reverse is true. We eat to live; for energy, for the stuff our bodies are made of and for our health.

More than ever before in my lifetime (as in many, many moons) a growing number of us humans are becoming more conscious of what it is exactly that we eat in order to live. We’re seeing that it can’t just be about unconsciously shoving in a pile of filler. I’ve been there; a time in my past when that’s all food was about to me. Fill  ‘er up.

We’re finally realizing that it’s not just about what we eat, but where it comes from and how it’s processed before it gets into our bodies that matters. For me it feels like back to the future. All of the things my mom and dad tried to teach me when I was growing up that I thought were so old-fashioned and behind-the-times are now the things I’m rediscovering in my life. Planting and maintaining a backyard vegetable garden without pesticides made me despise weeding. But I loved the delicious vegetables that came out of it every year. I never thought about where our other groceries came from – they were just there – in the kitchen. Of course I didn’t care very much at the time, but that’s not the point here. Or maybe it is. We do need to care how the rest of our groceries get into our kitchens.

 Believe me; I am not that nostalgic about the good old days. But I absolutely do see the need for, not exactly throwing the planet into reverse, but downshifting enough to take a look at where we’ll end up if we don’t make the necessary adjustments. It’s way past the time to draw up a new map really pay attention to the road signs. Really.

OK – so what I’m trying to talk about here is local, seasonal, sustainable, clean food. I have seen the light. I didn’t intend for this to be a dissertation on global warming, oil consumption, et al. However, I do want to advocate the glory halleluiah of eating real, unprocessed, non-additive foods. And cooking and eating at home. I love eating out - love it. But cooking at home saves money. It’s more time-consuming, but the benefits annihilate the miniscule convenience of prepared foods. For example; it takes 17 times more oil to transport non-local food compared to stuff produced nearby.

I’ve been devouring Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (pun intended) and I’m not ashamed to admit, I needed this book. It has taken me to the next level of understanding the whole issues (s) of eating seasonal, local food that the rest of the world seemed to catch onto before me. But I warn you; once you read it you will be informed, armed and dangerous - like me! There are many much-more-enlightened-than-I foodies that have written so intelligently on this subject. Kingsolver is but one of them. I’ll name-drop a few more of my food gurus (foodrus?). Mark Bittman, Mollie Katzen, Michael Pollan, Alice Waters.

Eating what’s seasonal, what’s clean and what’s local just makes so much sense. Ta Da.