The first Monday of the month is the day one of us gets to talk about anything food-related she likes. And, as I like talking about food, it’s a great day for me.
We
all know the importance of trying to eat locally. The closer to home our food
is grown and produced the less it has to travel, resulting in less fossil fuel
expenditure, more jobs for people who live near us, and the food is likely to
be fresher as well.
It’s
not always easy, and particularly not for us Canadians in the depths of winter,
when the farmers’ fields look like this (The tracks are mine, returning from a walk):
The
rest of the year, I’m lucky enough to live in a farming district. Many of the farms around here are small-scale,
not industrial. My little house is surrounded by farms. I get produce from my immediate neighbours
when they’re feeling generous, and I have no more than a couple of kilometers to
travel to buy directly from the people who grew it. I try to stock up in the fall,
with lots of root vegetables that will store over the winter, and to freeze
sauces and soups for those cold winter nights.
This
picture shows a basket my local farmer gave me:
In
the fourth Sherlock Holmes bookshop mystery, A SCANDAL IN SCARLET, Gemma and
Jayne venture far outside of their comfort zone to a recreation-17th
century farm.
“Baby
pigs remain with their mother until they’re... uh, one year old,” said Jayne,
who knew as much about farming as I did. For all I knew baby pigs stayed with
their mothers until they graduated from high school.
A Scandal in Scarlet
by Vicki Delany
I’d
love to hear your stories of local eating (or maybe not!). I’ll give a copy of A Scandal in Scarlet to
one reader. Please leave a comment here, with your email address so I can contact
the winner
