Local and seasonal to me are driven by wild foods I can harvest and what I can get from farmers near me. There isn't much of a contradiction. I can harvest or buy what is truly in season. The [deer] burger and [bear] ham that I eat came from 15 miles from me or less. I lived in cities earlier in life and knew seasons of food in passing and by reading. Having lived in rural areas for the last 30 years and foraging, angling and hunting for much of what I eat, local and seasonal are what I know. It's interesting that in this part of rural Maine, the only egg shortage I notice is at Walmart, where large eggs were $7.45 when I last looked. Yet this is the season where farm eggs overwhelm the farmers after the dark winter. $4-5 a dozen for local eggs is the going rate. And most of those farmers are on social media pushing the eggs because they have too many. In December here, eggs were hard to find. Not because of Avian flu but because chickens don't lay eggs without lights!
So true! That was the point of the recipe I wanted to share. The dessert was originally created to use as many eggs as possible as there was overproduction on the beginning of spring!
It's important to question our notions of seasonal and local as you've done here. While governments and institutions use metrics like mileage, it is such a broad data point that falls apart under any real scrutiny, as you've shown.
Each ingredient has its own story, and if we don't know that story, it's hard to evaluate if the recipe it is a part of is seasonal. If you can trace that story, the time of year the ingredients are grown and available, and where/who grew it, that is a big piece towards cooking more seasonally.
I have a forthcoming article showing how I do this step by step within the next few weeks.
Great article with some thought provoking questions here! Especially on the ethics of suggesting ingredients affected by price hikes. While avian flu is a real concern, there are companies along the supply chain that will take advantage of a narrative to price hike...whereas local producers will be more reasonable.
Love this, Eli -- and as you know, it's a topic near and dear to my heart (and core to the idea of radical eating). Having made a concerted effort to eat seasonal and local for the last few years, I've found the biggest key to making it "stick" is engaging in your community. For us in New England, I'd be willing to bet that there is a good farm or farmer's market within a thirty minute drive of wherever you live. When eating (and cooking and shopping and everything else in your life) becomes less about convenience and more about connection, an hour round trip feels cheap. Once there, you can get to know those who produce your food, put your hands in the literal dirt (if you'd like) and make a true connection to what you're buying. Ephemeral ideas like "animal well-fare" and "soil health" mean a lot more when you can look a pig in the eyes, knowing you'll be consuming it at some point the future; the conditions it lives in, the soil it roots through, it all starts to matter more.
Likewise, if you start talking to your neighbors (both immediate and in the broader sense), you'll expand that connection. You'd be surprised how a simple conversation at the mailbox can turn into a connection for fresh, backyard eggs or garden produce. For locally raised meat, or fresh caught fish, or venison. When you're isolated in your own world, you're limited to what is easily accessible -- what's at the grocery store, provenance be damned.
You start looking at the world like this, and then all of a sudden you're not shopping for ingredients for recipes when you head out, but instead, figuring out what to eat after the fact, based on what is available, fresh and alluring. In spring you're picking up leeks and greens and raising the pantry for holdout garlic and onions and root vegetables -- making what's fresh the star. In the summer, quickly cooked -- or raw -- produce and proteins counteract the heat and highlight abundance; fall shouts for slow cooking, warming meals, bracing for the scarcity of winter -- where you're subsisting on what you've tucked away, preserved, and and stored.
Eating this way, as you've pointed out, is harder: you can't and "don't need to have everything... all the time." It takes, as most rewarding things do, time and effort -- which unfortunately can also be luxuries not everyone can afford. But ultimately, it's a failure of the system that we find ourselves in this position, and I do believe that anything you can do as an individual to shift closer to (literal and proverbial) home is a shift worth making. Thanks so much for writing about this!
(PS -- my definition of local is if I reasonably drive to pick up the ingredient, drive back home, and then still have time to make dinner.)
Thank you so much, Lou! I think you raised such an important point. It’s about human connections and being part of the community, so we can all support each other. I like your definition of local! So happy you liked my reflections!
En el meu cas, no puc entendre l'alimentació i la cuina si no és des d'una visió localista o, com es diu ara, km0 amb el que això comporta: estacionalitat, sostenibilitat, tradició gastronòmica... Però soc una privilegiada en molts aspectes, i no puc pretendre que tothom cuini i mengi de la manera que jo ho faig. Tinc un hort, tinc gallines, tinc projectes agroecològics a pocs quilòmetres de casa i el privilegi de poder-me permetre aquests productes també en termes econòmics (hi ha una part de sacrifici també, no ho negaré). I per la part que em toca com a divulgadora, no puc ser immune a les diferents realitats que m'envolten. En una illa a on hi ha dificultat per pagar un habitatge, què he d'anar jo a explicar-li a la gent que amb prou feines arriba a final de mes?
És un bon meló, com dius. Per una part estic 100% d'acord amb tu, i per l'altra, com també menciones, no és realista per el 95% de les persones. I crec que la dedicació que comporta crear el teu propi menjar (no només cuinar-l'ho sinò plantar-lo i criar-lo, en el cas dels animals) ens podria retornar a períodes pre-industrials.
Crec que com a mínim hem de ser conscients del privilegi que tenim si sóm capaços de fer-ho, i de poder analitzar les contradiccions del sistema.
Local and seasonal to me are driven by wild foods I can harvest and what I can get from farmers near me. There isn't much of a contradiction. I can harvest or buy what is truly in season. The [deer] burger and [bear] ham that I eat came from 15 miles from me or less. I lived in cities earlier in life and knew seasons of food in passing and by reading. Having lived in rural areas for the last 30 years and foraging, angling and hunting for much of what I eat, local and seasonal are what I know. It's interesting that in this part of rural Maine, the only egg shortage I notice is at Walmart, where large eggs were $7.45 when I last looked. Yet this is the season where farm eggs overwhelm the farmers after the dark winter. $4-5 a dozen for local eggs is the going rate. And most of those farmers are on social media pushing the eggs because they have too many. In December here, eggs were hard to find. Not because of Avian flu but because chickens don't lay eggs without lights!
So true! That was the point of the recipe I wanted to share. The dessert was originally created to use as many eggs as possible as there was overproduction on the beginning of spring!
It's important to question our notions of seasonal and local as you've done here. While governments and institutions use metrics like mileage, it is such a broad data point that falls apart under any real scrutiny, as you've shown.
Each ingredient has its own story, and if we don't know that story, it's hard to evaluate if the recipe it is a part of is seasonal. If you can trace that story, the time of year the ingredients are grown and available, and where/who grew it, that is a big piece towards cooking more seasonally.
I have a forthcoming article showing how I do this step by step within the next few weeks.
Great article with some thought provoking questions here! Especially on the ethics of suggesting ingredients affected by price hikes. While avian flu is a real concern, there are companies along the supply chain that will take advantage of a narrative to price hike...whereas local producers will be more reasonable.
Thank you for commenting Colin! I am looking forward to reading your article!
Love this, Eli -- and as you know, it's a topic near and dear to my heart (and core to the idea of radical eating). Having made a concerted effort to eat seasonal and local for the last few years, I've found the biggest key to making it "stick" is engaging in your community. For us in New England, I'd be willing to bet that there is a good farm or farmer's market within a thirty minute drive of wherever you live. When eating (and cooking and shopping and everything else in your life) becomes less about convenience and more about connection, an hour round trip feels cheap. Once there, you can get to know those who produce your food, put your hands in the literal dirt (if you'd like) and make a true connection to what you're buying. Ephemeral ideas like "animal well-fare" and "soil health" mean a lot more when you can look a pig in the eyes, knowing you'll be consuming it at some point the future; the conditions it lives in, the soil it roots through, it all starts to matter more.
Likewise, if you start talking to your neighbors (both immediate and in the broader sense), you'll expand that connection. You'd be surprised how a simple conversation at the mailbox can turn into a connection for fresh, backyard eggs or garden produce. For locally raised meat, or fresh caught fish, or venison. When you're isolated in your own world, you're limited to what is easily accessible -- what's at the grocery store, provenance be damned.
You start looking at the world like this, and then all of a sudden you're not shopping for ingredients for recipes when you head out, but instead, figuring out what to eat after the fact, based on what is available, fresh and alluring. In spring you're picking up leeks and greens and raising the pantry for holdout garlic and onions and root vegetables -- making what's fresh the star. In the summer, quickly cooked -- or raw -- produce and proteins counteract the heat and highlight abundance; fall shouts for slow cooking, warming meals, bracing for the scarcity of winter -- where you're subsisting on what you've tucked away, preserved, and and stored.
Eating this way, as you've pointed out, is harder: you can't and "don't need to have everything... all the time." It takes, as most rewarding things do, time and effort -- which unfortunately can also be luxuries not everyone can afford. But ultimately, it's a failure of the system that we find ourselves in this position, and I do believe that anything you can do as an individual to shift closer to (literal and proverbial) home is a shift worth making. Thanks so much for writing about this!
(PS -- my definition of local is if I reasonably drive to pick up the ingredient, drive back home, and then still have time to make dinner.)
Thank you so much, Lou! I think you raised such an important point. It’s about human connections and being part of the community, so we can all support each other. I like your definition of local! So happy you liked my reflections!
Molt interessant aquesta qüestió, Elisabet.
En el meu cas, no puc entendre l'alimentació i la cuina si no és des d'una visió localista o, com es diu ara, km0 amb el que això comporta: estacionalitat, sostenibilitat, tradició gastronòmica... Però soc una privilegiada en molts aspectes, i no puc pretendre que tothom cuini i mengi de la manera que jo ho faig. Tinc un hort, tinc gallines, tinc projectes agroecològics a pocs quilòmetres de casa i el privilegi de poder-me permetre aquests productes també en termes econòmics (hi ha una part de sacrifici també, no ho negaré). I per la part que em toca com a divulgadora, no puc ser immune a les diferents realitats que m'envolten. En una illa a on hi ha dificultat per pagar un habitatge, què he d'anar jo a explicar-li a la gent que amb prou feines arriba a final de mes?
Gràcies per obrir aquest meló.
PS: m'encantaria conèixer la teva tieta <3
Moltes gràcies Marina!
És un bon meló, com dius. Per una part estic 100% d'acord amb tu, i per l'altra, com també menciones, no és realista per el 95% de les persones. I crec que la dedicació que comporta crear el teu propi menjar (no només cuinar-l'ho sinò plantar-lo i criar-lo, en el cas dels animals) ens podria retornar a períodes pre-industrials.
Crec que com a mínim hem de ser conscients del privilegi que tenim si sóm capaços de fer-ho, i de poder analitzar les contradiccions del sistema.
La meva tieta té una granja-restaurant al Solsonès. Just fa una setmana s'ha publicat un reportatge que vaig escriure jo: https://www.regio7.cat/empreses-locals/2025/04/03/de-la-granja-plat-i-al-vestit-pla-dabella-solsones-115871877.html
Si per casualitat hi vas, digue's que ets amiga meva i segur que t'ensenya totes les instal·lacions! 🥰
Tenc una visita pendent al Principat i em sembla que m’hi hauré de quedar mínim un mes per visitar tota la gent que té projectes bonics 🥹🫶🏼
🥰
Hard questions - and no easy answers. But as you point out, we can open our eyes and minds.
Exactly! Thank you for commenting :)