I had a pretty inspiring couple of days. I went to hear Wendell Berry speak last night as part of the Spirit and Place Festival. It also coincided with a conference with the Ekklesia Project. So I spent two days being really inspired about staying and commiting to the people, place, commmunity we live in. (We also met some really cool people and their adorable daughter. I have to say, too, that Ragan Sutterfield was inspiring to talk to and I would have attended a conference with him as the main speaker. I was bummed b/c Chris really wanted a chance to speak with him and didn't get to.)
Tonight we went to another Spirit and Place event that was sponsored by Slow Food Indy on the slow food lifestyle, primarily buying and eating sustainable, locally grown food. Chris and I were really inspired. First of all, we eat too much. Second of all, I do the grocery shopping and I'm very susceptible to buying junk. Third of all, if we commited to eating in a different way, we'd both lose weight. Fourth of all, we'd be supporting our neighbors.
However, the food is just so expensive! Local, organic milk runs from $5-$10 a gallon. Eggs are $3 a dozen. Everything is about double the price. It's a HUGE cut in the amount of food we'd be able to buy. That's our frustration.
So this is our plan--use all but $15-20 of our weekly grocery budget to buy from our local, organic farmer's market, held at Trader's Point Creamery. and to try to base our meals around food available locally during this season (this will admittedly get harder in winter, as we didn't put ANYTHING up this year, not even applesauce!). We haven't been going to the market for awhile, because the prices were so high, but after tonight's session we understand better WHY they are so high and the importance of buying from local famers, despite the price.
We'll use the remaing $15-$20 for things we need from the regular store (tp, oil, etc). We'll see how it goes. Here are some of the venders we like at the farmer's Market. Sharritt Market Gardens, Apple Family farm,Brown Family Farm (we buy most of our stuff from Craig and Katie Brown and they are very, very nice), and The Swiss Connection. Every one of these farmers, except for the Brown family, were at the meeting tonight and I got to speak with them in depth for the first time. I have to say that Mr. Sharritt is funny, funny, funny--I dont' know why I found him so intimidating at the market before.
Anyway, here's my inspiration/frustration post written on adrenaline and probably impossible to understand.
Alex and Miriam were with other people about 90% of today and they did great. I love my little ones.
3 comments:
Jeni, what fun to find your blog! I've been blogging about the conference as well. Check out my new post if you want to read me gushing about your church. That slow food dinner thing sounds awesome. I wish we could have gone to that. We go through the same tug of balancing budget and food values. I really believe in buying locally, but I certainly fail frequently in my attempts. peace, caren
I am all kinds of green...(pun intended, I guess) Wendell F-in Berry is the man.
Your thoughts are good ones, and were referenced by your hubby on palmer's blog, and then I put my toe in the water and it's just a rampant topic lately...good stuff!
I really want to plan our kitchen garden better next year so that I can put up some veggies. And thinking more about local sources for dairy products is a good idea for us. (We've switched to organics... but not neccessarily local. Do you know of any local low-fat milk options?)
Post a Comment