Blogeth the 2nd

So it has been a week and a half since the resolution commenced. To help immerse you in my experience, please enjoy this brief dramatic retelling of:

Grocery Expedition the First!

Tobi (on her way to the grocery store): Tralala, I am going to go grocery shopping and will buy only local things from Ontario because I am conscious of where my food comes from and am therefore a good person. <Insert more self-important thoughts here.>

Tobi (entering the grocery store): How exciting, I am like a pioneer! I will use my excellent literacy skills and read some labels to learn where my food comes from.

~20 minutes later~

Tobi (leaves grocery store carrying.....beets).

What was learned as a result of this expedition:
1. It is going to take a lot of research to figure out where food comes from.
2. How to make borscht.

So I exaggerate my story slightly. I also came home with a squash, a bag of carrots, and some apples. And that was seriously it (I also really made borscht!).  So, point being, while the produce section labels the source of the vegetables and fruit, this is where it ends. I suppose this probably isn't be very shocking, but the optimist in me was disappointed. Ok, I'm still exaggerating a bit. Dairy products and eggs tend to have pretty good labels as well. It's mainly items that have more than one ingredient that are tricky.

A new approach was necessary in order to be able to eat a balanced diet and not die of the opposite of scurvy. Instead I decided to make a list of what I would like to eat and track down the items one at a time.

These were items that made it onto the list: sugar, spices, sunflower seeds, bread, fruit (other than apples)

We can have juice!

You may note that the majority of the items on the list are things that don't tend to be grown in abundance in Ontario, let alone Canada. Some googling was quite successful on the sugar, spices, and fruit front, however, and I discovered the following websites which provide or list locations where these items are available fairly-traded:

www.fairtrade.ca
www.lasiembra.com
www.tenthousandvillages.ca

Bread is turning out to be more tricky. After contacting several local bakeries I have learned that ACE bakery is the closest to having nearly all local ingredients. This is a excerpt from the email they sent: "We cannot make a  claim on having 100% Ontario ingredients because our salt is from the United States and our yeast is from Montreal.  Also, part of our flour comes from Hard Western Spring Wheat which is from the prairies." They are, however, the only bakery that I've found, so far, that uses Ontario flour at all, so (unless I suddenly get the desire to track down Ontario flour on my own and makes copious amounts of bread all the time) this is likely where we will be getting our bread from this year (which is extra awesome because their baguettes are delicious!)

Sunflower seeds continue to elude me

And now I think I've inundated you all with enough information this round.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

The Resolution

Things You Should Know
1. I’ve never tried this New Years Resolution thing before.
2. Agrarian means “of the land” (dictionary.com also tells me it means: a person who favors the equal division of landed property and the advancement of agricultural groups. Since I'm not quite sure what "equal division of landed property" implies, for now I will go with "of the land").
3. Chris endeavours to be a farmer. (Look, Chris' farm!)
4. Chris and I have spent a lot of time talking about sourcing local.
5. Buying local supports independent business and reduces negative environmental impact. 

The Resolution
Spend one year buying only regionally local food and clothing. (ie. We live in Ontario, so we will buy Ontario products – the closer to home the better.  If traveling we will buy locally within that region). Where we can’t purchase local, we will purchase used or fair trade.

The purpose of this resolution isn’t to push ourselves to extremes, but to see what we are able to find and to document our progress and what we discover. 

Exceptions
1. We like eating out with friends, and because local sourced restaurants are more expensive, we will follow our friends’ leads in these circumstances.
2. Free things....like coffee from work and gifts will be accepted (please note: gifts are ALWAYS accepted).
3. I expect this list will grow as we discover limitations to our plan.

Confessions
1. I love discount clothing shopping and in order to indulge this vice I went to an outlet mall in the states and shopped me some great deals because I knew with my resolution I would not be able to do this for a year.
2. I am not well researched on the topic of buying local and the resultant environmental impact but generally think it's a great idea. As I learn more I will share more and avoid getting on a soap box. Chris knows more than me, and I will try and keep him off the soap box too!

Wish us luck! Tips on local finds welcome!!