vegan meetup and local foods

Yesterday I went to a Critical Mass bike ride and a "sustainable happy hour" and made friends, today I went to a vegan potluck and made a different group of friends. I've never met so many people in such a short a amount of time. I'm so used to thinking of myself as antisocial that I limited myself a lot in the past. Now I realize, I can still be the type of person that generally draws more energy from being alone than with others, but that's just a generalization, and I can do

One woman has two children and is a passionate "lactivist". I love talking about breastfeeding with people who don't find it too radical at all, and unlike myself and all my friends, has personal experience. She actually tandem nursed, her son was a toddler when her daughter was born, so she nursed them both for awhile. She also trained at a raw culinary institute and eats high raw, but isn't one of those dogmatic types. Most interestingly to me, is that she is trying to eat mostly "locavore" (except for olive oil, certain spices, special occasions). She was inspired after seeing the banana plantations and banana ships in Costa Rica--horrible pollution though bananas has the advantage of being done on a high scale (and are thus more efficiently shipped).

 Most of the local foods people tend to use it as an excuse for a very high meat, high dairy diet--I guess they feel they can use it as an ethical cover for their addiction (in my opinion). Unlike them, she is all vegan and feels she has an abundance of foods eating this way. When something like raspberries is in season, she eats as many as she can. By the time the season is over, she's had her fill and is ready for the newest, freshest thing. Right now that feels restrictive to me, but it was inspiring and I found myself thinking about it more than usual when I went shopping. I'd rather by local fresh produce and keep non-local to dried foods like beans, grains, and dried fruit (less shipping without water weight). I bought a New Zealand apple and afterwards realized it was over $3--more than even a mango. Another good reason to stay local and in season.

Winter local eating will be interesting--but frozen and canned foods also help fill the gap. A good reason for stews... There is also more here than in MN apparently, the bit of extra warmth makes a difference.

I also hear there are blackberries here, and there is a mushroom club I will be going out with, to gather (normally expensive) mushrooms with. I am very excited to go exploring and learn more about what is out there.