Shift The Way You Shop

Arizona is about to embark on an experiment to see if it can replicate the findings of an economic study in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
As the study by Civic Economics has proved, if all of the households in Tucson alone shifted 10% of our existing purchases from non-local businesses to Local Independents (locally owned and independent businesses) we would see thousands of new jobs created and millions of dollars of new economic activity. And all this can begin to happen as soon as people start shifting and without the use of one taxpayer dollar.
On October 1, 2010 Local First Arizona will launch a campaign called Shift Arizona with a press conference at Maynard's Market at 10 am.
After this, it is up to the citizens of Tucson and the entire state of Arizona to choose to spend a portion of their budget at local businesses. Individuals can make a pledge and see the impact of their shift at the new website, ShiftArizona.com.
Get out there Tucsonans and Shift! There is a friendly county by county competition already underway with Springerville in Apache County leading the state in percentage of residents pledging to shift. Crazy, huh?! Watch the competition unfold here.

Another (Local) Shopping Excursion

The other day I realized my household is down to 3 of the set of 6 wine glasses I bought last year at one of those big-box housewares retailers. I said perhaps I'd plan a trip there soon as we were in need of flatware as well.
Blessed be my finance who said, let's go to Table Talk. This is a locally owned housewares store. I kind of gave him a hard time about how much more we'd have to spend to get the same quantity. Also, I kind of like buying cheapo wine glasses because I am clumsy. Anyway, I knew he was right, that we should at least go to Table Talk. And, I knew it would be a much more enjoyable shopping excursion.
The local store did not disappoint. Firstly, the service was great from a warm greeting and offering of coffee to the demo on how to use my new knife sharpener.
Next we found a great sale on cookware sets. We debated the virtues of each and thought about our needs. In the end we realized buying a set wasn't necessary, since we only really need 2 or 3 pieces. So, we bought one small frying pan to try out and left the store with our needs satisfied and our pocketbooks none the worse for wear. We made a commitment to pop in there from time to time to build our new kitchenware collection bit by bit. In this way, we end up with great products at good prices that will last and we feel good knowing a lot more of our hard earned money stays in our immediate community.

Ratatouille

This is another reprint from my personal blog, from August 1, 2010


I followed Alice Waters recipe for Ratatouille tonight. I love her The Art of Simple Food. It is my first go-to cookbook and almost always has what I need.

It came out so tasty! Even my eleven-year-old daughter said it was yummy. At first she was really not into it. We talked a bit about that. I asked her, Is it the flavor or the texture? She took a bite with some buttered rosemary bread. A look of bliss came over her face. She said, hmmm, it’s actually quite good, it’s yummy! She said the favor was good, it was the texture that she didn’t care for.

We ended up having a very interesting discussion about the origin of food and how it’s cared for while growing and how fresh it is when brought to the table. Because we got the vegetables that were in our dinner tonight from the farm down the road, we were able to experience the amazing freshness of just picked vegetables. Because my daughter spends time at the farm helping the farmers pick and weed and wash pests away with onion water, she can appreciate what she’s eating even if she doesn’t like it.

I remember having a moment like that when I was a kid. I asked my mom if onions were good for me. Because she said yes I decided I would eat them without complaint because they were good for me.

I cannot say enough about the benefits of getting fresh produce from a nearby grower.

Saturday morning CSA pickup

This is a reprint from my personal blog from July 31, 2010
 
I just got back from the CSA farm where I picked up a wonderful share of summer vegetable. Let me just plug this for a minute. River Road Gardens is a beautiful biodynamic farm tended by two very dedicated and extremely hardworking and loving people: Jon and Emily. I feel so blessed every time I pick up my share of the crop.

Today Emily told me how much trouble they are having with vermin. There are lots of critters in the field trying to eat up all the food we humans have paid for. This is one trick about growing crops without poison. But, they are committed to poison-free growing. I didn’t feel like the voles got my food. I came home with a big bag of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, basil, onions and amaranth! I’ll do a bit of research on that one. I have only ever had amaranth inside baked goods.

So, this week I will make Ratatouille for the first time. What goes with it? Good crusty bread I am thinking.

Stay tuned for a delicious meal...

How to cook with all those CSA treasures

Cook What You Have is a new blog by River Road Gardens that highlights individual vegetables from the biodynamic farm. Need to know what to do with all that eggplant or peppers or squash? Check out this blog.