Local Food

Wow! That's about all I can say about this fantastic idea that I just saw on a friend's facebook. Check out this video!

As I wrote about the other day, the boys and I dropped out to Saffire Farms on Friday to learn how to tap maple trees. Of course, since there is never any rest on a farm and always another job that needs to be done, we got more than we'd bargained for and learned quite a bit about the care and feeding of the cattle. When we arrived we knocked at the farmhouse door to be greeted by Janet, who told us that Gord and their son Brad were over at the barn dealing with the cattle. Being familiar with the lay of the land on the farm, I headed off that way with the boys, to find Gord rounding up some calves into the pen, to tag their ears. This is how each animal is identified and tracked. You'll notice my comments in the video that the jittery calves must mean that the tagging hurts them, but Gord explains it is more a matter that this was the first time these calves were getting this close to humans, and this was a far bigger issue for them.

In the video you get a glimpse at the vast pastures on Saffire Farms, which is impressive given there are only a dozen or so animals which get to share them. The video is shot mostly in the pens where the tagging takes place. We get to see how pens are used to segregate animals for various reasons. In one case there is a pen for calves that are being weaned. In another case, there is a pen for the 2 grain fed cattle - Gord rounds them up into the pen long enough to feed them their daily dose of beet pulp, soy, and barley. This is the first year they are doing grain fed beef at Saffire - something Gord agreed to try at the request of some of his customers. The majority of the cattle are still 100% grass fed, but by making use of the pens he is able to do some grain fed beef as well, yet still allow all the animals relatively free roam of the land.

By now, everyone has heard about the 100 mile diet, which took North America by storm a few years ago when Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon decided they were going to live a whole year eating only food grown within 100 miles of their home. Many of us even before this ambitious project recognized the ecological importance of eating food grown locally, but as Smith and MacKinnon found out, it isn't necessarily easy to do.

This is intended a guide for the rest of us, who would like to get more local food in our diets, but are not just sure how to go about it. The first thing to mention is that going cold-turkey from one day to the next is just insane. Even Smith and MacKinnon agree it was extremely difficult to do, and that it is not for everyone. I believe that cold-turkey is the surest route to failure for most people, which is why I am writing this.