apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My favorite part in chapter 4 was where she said that we've gotten into this mentality where we want "every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard cutout of its former self," and that it actually is possible to wait for things to be in season, and appreciate them then. I really liked that idea, and I feel like it's moved me to enjoy the winter vegetables now, rather than pining for out-of-season produce that won't taste good anyhow. Bring on the kale and butternut squash!

The two points you make are two of the main ones that caught my eye as well, Stephanie. Since "locavore" was named word of the year, it's clear that it has been catching on. I've met people that consider themselves to be locavores, as well as both vegetarian and locavore at the same time. Personally, I do think it will catch on and bit a bit of a subculture - technically it already has, thanks to the growth of farmer's market and general eco-consciousness in our society.

The fact of import and export is one that I have read many times over the past few years, and it still makes me both upset and sick to my stomach to here ... it just doesn't make a lick of sense!

Another sentence that caught my eye, early on in chapter 3, is this: "Modern U.S. consumers now get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago." I just that short time, the American food system has transformed so drastically - no wonder we have so many issues with asthma, diabetes, and other damaging diseases ... it's all connected ...

I, too, was struck by the comment about how we import and export so many tons of potatoes. But, are they they same type of potatoes? Does that cover trade between the northern states and Canada and between the southern states and Mexico? Some of that trade might make sense, energy-wise.

Regarding locavore acceptability. Am I the only hostess tired of remembering who eats and doesn't eat what? Sometimes, I feel like, if I make everybody happy, I won't be able to make anything I want to eat.

Still, the rise of the corporate chain restaurant that serves the same menu year-round, at all locations, is disturbing. It has conditioned so many people to expect to eat whatever they want, whenever they want, and to pay the same price each time, regardless of seasonality. It is a mad fantasy.

I remember shopping with my mom and wanting certain foods. She wouldn't buy them because they were too expensive for our budget. She would tell me to wait till the food was cheaper (in season) and that it would taste better then, too. I sometimes wonder if my relative affluence is robbing my child of the joy of eating.

Supermarkets near my home carry more kinds of produce than 10 years ago, but nothing like the bounty at some of the larger farmers' markets. I was jealously eyeing the Hachiya Persimmons in a coworker's sack lunch. He offered to buy me some next Saturday, at the Santa Monica farmers' market.

I think I found a way around my inability to get to a farmers' market. Sadly, he drives a gas guzzler to get there. But, at least, he goes to the market each Saturday anyway and I see him at work every Monday.