locavore | Late Bloomers Farm

When I think about it in a particular way, I think, how weird is it that I’m telling complete strangers what I’m eating and where I got it from. Yet such is the nature of the various local food challenges: a commitment to eat locally (your definition) for a given period of time; share your experiences, adventures, lessons, good futune, and encouragement (mostly menus, recipes, and perhaps leads on where to find a coveted item).

All in all, I’ve been viewing it as a positive experience. I’ve met (and virtually met) some interesting and wonderful people by taking these challenges. But I was wondering, what if there’s blowback? What if someone in North Dakota reads my blog, and based on my prose, simply must have CT cheese for his (potentially local) macaroni? If he orders CT cheese online, do I have any carbon liability?

Seriously though, I’m going to spend the next few weeks eating non-locally except for the challenge-meal-of-the-week. We still have numerous items in our pantry and freezer from before and we’d like to use them up, prepare for spring, and make some space. It will be strange to do this deliberately, for sure! It will be cool when we are unequivocally able to say, “We know exactly where everything in there came from.”

It sounds like the begining of a joke, which could as easily have begun: a Priest and a Locavore walk into a winery…

Anyway, we did (walk into a winery); McLaughlin Vineyards. It was Saturday afternoon and we’d spent the day Locavoring around New Haven. On the way home, we decided to stop into our neighborhood winery to replenish our Vista Reposa.

McLaughlin also sells eggs from Rough Cut Ranch, their neighbor. These are the most beautiful eggs I have ever seen. I wish I had a better camera to do them justice.

At McLaughlin’s, Dee Dee’s domain is the tastings and Frank (Francis) runs the retail store, among other things. We all got to talking about, what else, local food (and drink) and where you could get local honey. I told them that Holbrook’s carries honey and the Stuart’s carry honey. Frank wanted really local honey. I said that Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown has their own organic honey. And so the conversation continued.

As a matter of interest, Frank told me about this 93-year-old locavore in Newtown who keeps a Web site reporting on local foods and farms. I was intrigued–a kindred spirit, and a neighbor no less. He was impressed that this old biddy could still get around! I gave him my e-mail address so he could send me the link. He went on to talk about her Thanksgiving dinner of local foods and how she served McLaughlin wine. “So did I,” I told him. He continued, saying that she felt bad that the Tom turkey wasn’t local, but was a Butterball. The way he said it, got me thinking… That sure sounds like my Thanksgiving! “Are you sure she’s 93,” I asked? He was sure. He’d checked the profile at her blog and it said she was 93.

“Wait,” I said, “it’s me!” But I’m not 93. When I created my blogger.com account, I had refused to enter my year of birth and the original version inserted a year from the turn of the century (the other one). I recalled a friend making a joke about it several months ago. It turns out that the upgraded version allows you to leave it blank without making a wild guess. So, I’ve fixed it. I am sorry if anyone felt misled. Kind of comical, though…

So, while I am old by some standards, I’m young by others. I do have gray hair. (I might dye it if they start to grow hair color in my 100 miles.) If you really want to know how old I am, when I was a kid:
– We had to get up to change television channels (though we did have TV, even color, but only seven channels).
– Water wasn’t bottled.
– Coffee only came in one flavor: coffee.
– People smoked everywhere: in the grocery store (in every store for that matter), on buses, trains, and, airplanes, even in the doctor’s office. Really. (It was legal back then.)
– Cars only had AM radio and you actually got exercise opening and closing the windows.
– Soda did not have high fructose corn syrup.
– Margarine was thought to be good for you and butter was unhealthy.
– Jack LaLane was the only one working out on TV. Julia Child and Graham Kerr were the only ones cooking on TV.
I could go on–but you get the idea. Suffice it to say, I was too young for the first Woodstock and too old for the second.

Anyway, I hope you’re here for the local food information and not just marveling that an old lady can drive from farm to farm. If it’s any consolation, I’ve been told that I do drive like an old lady.