The Locavore Chronicles: An Introduction

Locavore. n. A person who attempts to eat only foods grown locally.

Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver and her exciting adventure in eating all things local, I have decided to conscientiously incorporate more local foods into my dining and cooking repertoire. Kingsolver and her family took the path that is increasingly less traveled by vouching, for a year, to eat only what they could produce themselves or buy from local vendors. Their experience is chronicled in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I am a huge fan!

I have learned that to do so the first thing I must do is define what I mean by "local." It's a good question, because for many of us it wouldn't be ridiculous to define local as the whole United States. Increasingly the food we consume originates in other countries (ex. apples from Chile or fish from Thailand). However, it is probably appropriate to define local as a distance a little closer to home.

I would like to start by defining local as New England. I live in Boston and so anywhere from Connecticut to Maine can be local (at least for now).

My goal is to find out for myself just how difficult it is to buy and eat healthful, local meals.

The two major questions that I have are:

1. Can eating local be affordable?
2. Can eating local be convenient?
   

Full disclosure: this is going to be an incremental approach to eating local. It will take a lot of learning on my part and I hope to share some of my findings and challenges with all of you. I am excited to find out just how to incorporate more affordable, local foods into my family's diet. It will probably not be easy, but I am up for the challenge. I hope that what I find will help you and your family, too!