Day One

My family began eating locally today. I think we will lose weight on this locally grown diet. I was quite hungry all day.

I began the day at 8:30 driving to the farm with my dad. We ate local bread and jam with milk for breakfast. We traveled 43.8 miles to buy locally grown beef, lamb, and chicken. All their livestock was grass fed. We arrived around 9:30 and were greeted by the farmer and his son, Mike and Brandon. They took us to the barn and introduced us to all the sheep. They didn't have many sheep, but they were cute, though very shy. They had some lambs that had been born recently.

Mike and Brandon farm on six acres. Each had another day job and their farm was work on the side, though a full time job in itself. Next they brought us to their giant freezer. They brought out boxes of meat for us to choose from. We bought two chickens, two pounds of ground beef, three steaks, a rack of lamb, and lamb for stew. It cost us $85.00 and they threw in three bacon burgers. It was very expensive meat, but we felt like we were also paying for the time they spent talking to us. Other people would not be paying to get a tour and I am beginning to realize eating locally is very expensive.

Next they took us to see the cattle. They were stored at Mike's father's farm, a 40-acre lot. We met Swissy, the milk cow, who they had pulled from the herd because she was being bullied. It was nice to see a farmer who was able to tell when a cow was being bullied or getting too skinny. Swissy let us pet her and seemed very docile for a cow. We also got to see the bull. He was huge and we didn't get close to him. We asked a few more questions and it was obvious the farmers were passionate about their work.

My dad and I took away two main ideas from this visit. First we learned how difficult it is for small scale farmers to make a living. With limited markets, materials, and animals, these farmers have to work extremely hard to break even. Secondly, we found out that eating locally can be quite expensive. While we knew full well that Mike and Brandon worked hard for these animals and deserved the price they marked, it was difficult knowing we could buy the same product for much less at the grocery store. For instance, we bought a free-range, grass fed, chicken for $14.00; at Lund's you can buy a much plumper chicken for $4.50.

For lunch I ate a bagel and cream cheese. It was surprisingly delicious. I also ate some dried cherries. My whole family has commented on the difference of the spread. Our butter and cream cheese from the normal grocery store is very smooth and easy to put on. These spreads are very tough, as if lacking oil.

For dinner we cooked a chicken (we put on seasoning that was not local...). It took over an hour to cook. We also cooked a giant beet, four potatoes, and some peas. It was a good meal, but the chicken had very little meat on it! It had very fit little legs and about a third of a normal chicken's breast meat. The skin on the chicken was very tough. I would not say it was the most enjoyable meal as it took a very long time to cook and was not the tastiest.

At ten o'clock I was starved. My boyfriend and I were planning to go to Perkins, but then I realized that Perkins is not local. It was kind of sad having to go home to eat. It made me realize how making a decision about the way you eat not only affects you, but also the people around you. I went home and had a peach yogurt.