Confessions of a two-month locavore

[Rachel Morris]

After the February Locavore Potluck tonight, I was thinking about my fairly hard-line views about adding more "exceptions" to our locavore diet. I've got to admit - the concept doesn't interest me, and I feel rather protective about the simple agreement of three exceptions plus salt, and two "meals out." I don't want the pride of accomplishment, the power of example, nor the experience of natural living to be watered down.

But where have I taken advantage of the "gray areas" to step outside the spirit of the agreement?

Mostly, I have taken advantage of the "eat what you want when you travel." The first time, I was in Santa Barbara all day, and had a veggie burger with some associates. The second time I was taking an all-day class in camarillo, and ate a lunch they provided. I figured - I'm away from home all day, that constitutes! Of course, one of my locavore buddies showed up for the Camarillo class and brought her lunch. That's when it was clear to me I was not walking the walk. So I've changed my rule. Now it's "I have to be away more than one day to use the travel-food clause."

The second area is with "supplements." A question was raised - if a spice can also be used as a healing supplement, then may I use it to flavor my food? The answer - not unless you need it as a supplement. I ask the question another way - if a supplement tastes good, can I still use it as a supplement? My answer to that is - if I need it as a supplement, then even if it tastes good, I can eat/drink it. So several times on the verge of a cold, I put non-local cayenne and ginger into my lemon and honey. Also, when I feel wiped-out, I'll put a teaspoon of nutritional yeast on my food. If I just want those for flavor - then I don't do it. I don't plan to change this behavior unless someone can explain why it doesn't fall into the agreement.

The third instance was at a new friend's house. She invited me for dinner. She went to the farmer's market, asked the farmers, and got all local foods. I brought the local olive oil. After fussing in the kitchen, she put some dressing on the salad last minute that didn't look local. I couldn't bring myself to say - "hey what's that?" so I just ate the salad. Later, I found the ingredient was a fabulous local Ojai balsamic vinegar with pomegranate juice. (It's sweet, and you can get it at Rainbow Bridge.) So it turned out it was a locavore dinner after all.

Those are my gray areas. Thanks for listening to my confessions. I feel stronger for hearing everyone this evening.

Love and Good Food,

-Rachel Morris

[kristofer.young]

Rachel,

Thank you for the guidance that you provide me in this effort, in this project!

Now, on to my confessions.

Yes, I did feel tense at times last night at our second reunion, and first potluck since our launch party on the 1st of January. But, you probably felt that if you were in the room. My tension arose at the beginning of our discussions and votes on whether to relax our core guidelines. I have concerns very similar to Rachel's and Nilufer's. At our last meeting we loosened things by allowing baking powder, baking soda and yeast for baking. Now we have further loosened it to include another meal per month as a complete exception. I would feel quite relaxed if we were all just doing our own thing and choosing what felt comfortable to each of us. But, we aren't. We made this joint agreement. We have stated publicly what we are doing. As one of the founders of our project, I feel a responsibility to keep this baby alive and clean. I look forward to feeling proud of our accomplishment a mere 10 months from now (OK, and 5 days).

I am not sure how to handle myself should we have more discussions and votes on loosening the guidelines. What I mean by that is that I don't want to harm anyone with my stress.

Please know, that each of you are more important to me than this project. Please know that I am not judging any of you. Please know that I hope that you will do what feels right to you and that I will support you in that.

Evan and Heather Rilling, I want to thank you for stepping up and stepping out the core project. If anything, my love for you is greater for responding to your own needs.

I very much appreciate that many of us have needed time and experience to adapt to this new way of life. I am totally comfortable with the slips that have happened in these early days. I hope, however, that if there those who are not being able to follow the guidelines, that they will consider stepping out of the core, rather than attempting to create a new category of participation; "sort of core".

What an amazing group of people we are! What phenomenal food we made, brought and ate last night! I am grateful to be Eating Locally One Year with you!

In friendship,

[Chard Lady]

Thank you both for bringing up your concerns on this topic.
I will bring more cayenne to the next potluck, or next time I come by.  Thank you for all the wonderful dishes at the potluck.  What a treat!