Eating Locally, or, Ellie Goes Insane

I traveled to Austin, Texas, this past weekend to see some of my best friends from undergrad. I had, for the most part, a really great time hanging out with Jess and Jenn for several days, and with Mel for an afternoon in Waco. And getting to see Reckless Kelly play (at Antone's) was the highlight of yet another trip.

But that's the subject of another blog. I spent most of my two flights out to Austin, and some time sitting around the airport, reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. And I am now obsessed with buying and eating locally. I got up early (couldn't sleep) Saturday morning to check out the Austin Farmer's Market, which was awesome. I plan on doing the same this weekend to go to the Oxford FM. I made Jess take me to the Whole Foods World Headquarters in Austin, and then went back again on my own. I have even been researching places to get non-genetically-engineered (heirloom) seeds online so that I can have an herb garden of my very own. And I told my boss that I'd love to go down to her place over the weekend and pick some blackberries. And that I would take any extra squash she didn't want out of her garden off of her hands. I am trying to figure out how to spend as little as possible at the Wal-Mart (got to go soon anyway, have promised to burn CDs for various people) and as much as possible at the FM - the store or the parking lot version. And I really, really want a copy of Alice Water's works.

What has happened to me?

I spent all weekend telling Jess and Jenn about the book. Austin, of course, is a fantastic place to get interested in locally grown/organic food. Some people don't believe me when I tell them this, because they have a fairly monolithic view of the state of Texas (home of GWB, etc, I mean really, does anyone remember Ann Richards anymore? I might not have always agreed with her, but she was a hell of a lot more fun than the folks that replaced her. My dad was a big fan too.), but Austin can be a really liberal town. It is also the capital of Texas, so they've got the crazy politics as well, and the huge university, which brings its own challenges. But there are pockets. I really want to live in Austin now. It was such a fun place to hang out; I think that so long as I found a place that I liked living in, I would really enjoy it.

Anyway. We shall see if this fanaticism for locally grown food endures. I'm happy to be better informed, and it's always fun (in a disheartening kind of way) to find out another evil fact or fifteen about the Monsanto corporation. And I have believed for a while now that trying to put my money back into the local economy is much better than spending it at Wal-Mart or similar, where your credit card purchase simply transfers the money to a bank in New York (or possibly Charlotte, NC). Ok, yes, they employ people locally, but those jobs suck. So I might as well eat local food and try to give back to the community that way as well. Right?

I hear they're going to start having local eggs and milk at the FM store, courtesy of Larry Brown's son Billy Ray. Should be good.