Buy Local – Eat Local; this is a growing, positive trend in the U.S. I am eco-minded, but the whole “buying local” seems to be pretty difficult in the lifestyle that we are accustomed to in the states.

 It wasn’t until recently that I thought about my experiences in four different countries and how they demonstrated an achievable, “eat local” economy.

 I spent time in San Jose Village, Belize, near Punta Gorda in 2002. I first arrived shortly after a hurricane had destroyed parts of the rainforest bordering the village. Things normally free and plentiful in nature, like bananas and guavas, weren’t as abundant as before. The local diet consisted of corn, which they farmed themselves using manual labor (no machines), rice, “jungle food” like greens and roots (like ginger), beans (also farmed locally), sometimes eggs (from free range chickens roaming around the huts),  and the very occasional chicken (of which every part was consumed, even the feet). I never saw any cows or fresh milk. Powdered milk was available for purchase.

Pork was for special occasions, like when the raising of a new hut required feeding the hungry men who volunteered for the job. One pig would be slaughtered and everything would be consumed except for the bones. The meat from the head was made into tamales.

 Once a Mayan asked me, “Do you eat lots of tortillas in America?”

“No,” I replied.

“Oh, I see. You only eat rice and beans.” She concluded.

 This glimpse into her perspective totally amazed me!

 Meals in San Jose were very predictable: breakfast was beans, tortillas, and rice, with the occasional scrambled egg.  Some people cooked over an open fire in a kitchen shack that was separate from the main house, and some of the more well-to-do households had a modern oven connected to a propane tank. Some people had both, and still preferred to cook tortillas on a comale over an open fire. 

After the corn was harvested, corn would be eaten for every meal for several days if not weeks. There was a drink made from crushed and strained corn, a steamed corn dumpling/tamale made from a creamed corn mixture and rolled into a palm leaf, corn on the cob, and of course corn could always be taken to the guy with a gas-powered grain mill in his hut to be ground for making corn tortillas. As a spoiled American, I quickly got “all corned out”, but I didn’t have any other options or choices. This was life! There was no other option than eating local!

 Another handy meal for a large crowd was “caldo cash,” a chicken soup served with tortillas.

 On rare occasions, a birthday cake would be baked from scratch and served in huge slabs on a handkerchief, eaten with no frosting. Another rare treat was gingerbread, made from fresh ginger roots dug from the rainforest.

 Besides the main “plantations”, which was what the Mayans called their bean and corn fields, I saw small veggies planted randomly all around the huts. A scrappy tomato plant here, a hot pepper plant there; I couldn’t decipher a method in the madness. Over the course of my three months there, I bought veggies several times from the backpack of a child who wandered up to my hut. One brother and sister team came several times bringing heads of cabbage, which they sold for about one dollar. I would chop these and boil them with butter and garlic to eat for breakfast when I wanted some variety in my life. This is something I never would have chosen for breakfast in the states!

 In agricultural societies (like most third world countries), producing food is of utmost importance. And in virtually every culture, food is an important basis of celebrations!

However, unlike in a modern society, preparing a feast in a third world country involves an element of sacrifice. In places where most of the population is merely subsisting, people rarely eat desserts. Instead, special sweet delicacies are used to celebrate special events in life.

 In one of my favorite cookbooks, Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, the introduction to the desserts section reads,

“With abundant resources at our disposal, we eat as though every day were a festival, with fresh fruits and vegetables year-round and desserts every day. But our eating lacks the mirth of a long-waited, well-deserved holiday. When we serve and eat desserts too often, we miss the sheer delight of a rare moment of pleasure.”

 My experiences have challenged the way I think about preparing and serving meals. Just because I love to bake or really enjoy broccoli casserole doesn’t mean we have to have either of those things every week!

 I also found that my children seem to be more receptive to simple foods than to elaborate concoctions. Rice, beans (not touching each other!), noodles, bread, cheese, steamed green beans,  raw carrots, and fruits are all simple things that we can enjoy for a no-fuss, well-balanced meal. Less fuss, and more time to enjoy just being together.

 I encourage you to try at one simple dinner per week! I love to cook, but I love relaxing even more! One extremely simple dinner that I enjoy is offering an assortment of crackers, bakery breads, a couple of different cheeses (doesn’t have to be elaborate!), raw veggies, and fruit. To simplify the fruit thing (because the choices are overwhelming), I decided to have a “fruit of the day” with our dinner. Since my children are small, I cut the fruit into manageable pieces in advance.  Once you get on the “simple dinner” train, you will be inspired to start thinking creatively about ways to enjoy more food with less effort, less expense, and less impact on the planet.

 Baby steps, my friends!

Candice Broom is a blogger, writer, adventurer, and mother of two young boys. She shares her “green” tips at My Greening: Going Green  and sage world travel advice at Mom Most Traveled . She has upcoming trips planned to Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Tags: Candice Broom, eat locally, extending a table, foreign foods, local food, Mom Most Traveled, world community cookbook

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under green living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.