New Beginnings

This is my food journey.  From the start, growing up in western Washington state, I have fond memories of my mother's garden.  As a young girl, my chores would include picking the peas, weeding the flowers, and pulling the carrots (which was my favorite!).  This is my mother's garden this summer.  Upon reflection, I can see how my passion for local fresh food began.

Later in life, my journey took my husband and I to live in Muscat, Oman.  Even while there, I made it a mission to find local, sustainable food.  Luckily, there are others with this passion all over the world!  We found a local grower who sold a box of whatever was fresh.  It was always a joyful surprise to see what we would get each week!

There was even a local farmer's market in Oman where artists, craftsman, and organic farmers sold their goods!

I loved getting the colorful Gerbera daisies!

No matter where we traveled throughout our time overseas, we found the best of what was local to eat and enjoy!

Sri Lankan bananas, coconuts, and mangos!

We took a trip to a local Thai river market.  The fruits and vegetables for sale here included rarities that I had never seen or heard of before.  We sampled jack fruit, rambutan, longan, and many others.

Our friend, Jane took us to a coconut farm where we chopped them open, drank the juice and ate the flesh by using the top of the coconut as a spoon.

My favorite part was buying local yellow mangos 

and eating them right then and there in the car 

with sweet mango juice running down my face and 

hands! 

Most recently on my food journey, my husband and I moved back to the USA, to a VERY small town in south central Pennsylvania.  The town consists of one main street, a city hall, bank, library, gas station, a few independent shops struggling to survive in this remote location and, ironically, a McDonald's (which breaks my heart!).  I have to admit that while I am originally from a rural community out in the country in Washington state, I was apprehensive to be so remote.  

As I began to explore the area, I noticed many small family farms selling goods on the sides of the road.  As a sucker for all things local, I made a mission of suddenly swerving off the road whenever a small sign advertising fresh fruit or veggies caught my eye.  In doing so, I've gotten to sample some of the local foods such as beautiful apples, pears, pumpkins, squashes of unique and rare varieties, corn, and so much more.  I had no idea that I would happen upon such a haven for local goods and food!  

I've always cared about the environment and the natural world.  I'm fascinated with interconnection and how our choices effect the earth, other people, and our economy.  As I choose how I spend my money, I consider the power of my choices.  One author recently referred to our grocery stores as the United Nations of food.  I hadn't thought about it this way before but as I walk through the aisles, I now see what she meant.  We get bananas from the Philippines, onions for Mexico, Pineapple from Uganda, and so much more, all year round.  We live in a world of excessive  convenience, but this comes at a cost.  All of this ease of access takes enormous amounts of energy mostly in the form of fossil fuels.  

My mission is to research, share, buy and use local as often as possible.  I want to dive deeper into this beautiful, hardworking community that I am now a part of through their products and passion.  This blog will be an opportunity to share my findings with others who want to connect and learn more about how to buy and eat local.  Although my focus is food, I also want to explore and share the local goods and services available.  

Thank you for joining me on this journey.  I hope we can connect and grow together and make a difference through our choices!