Edible Blue Ridge Summer 2022

LIVING LOCAL

There’s more than one way to eat local

WORDS CHRISTINA NIFONG

I AM SELLING one of the two small chest freezers that’s been sitting empty, taking up precious space in my tiny basement. It feels like a concession to do this, an admission. By parting with this appliance that has, through the years, held ziplocks of shredded zucchini, cored whole tomatoes, corn cut from its cob, green beans snapped and blanched, batches of pesto, slices of summer squash, and trays full of berries, I am making my peace with the truth that my garden will never again be so large that I need two freezers to hold its bounty. Nor will I likely ever again have so many mouths to feed that I need to store 10 whole chickens and half a local hog, butchered and bagged, as I once did. ere’s just three of us living here full-time these days. Two of whom don’t even really eat meat. I’m not big on change. But that doesn’t stop it from coming. Just as sure as the spinach bolts and the okra plants take off once the heat of summer kicks in, the kids grow up and move on and leave me with no need to spend my June making jam and my September canning sauce. For much of the last 20 years, my husband and I have sown nearly every square inch of our yard in fruits and vegetables. We’ve spread strawberries where others would plant pachysandra, we’ve dug in blueberry bushes where many would landscape with azaleas. We organized a three sisters garden in the front yard one year and let butternut squash vines completely cover the patio another. Since 2015, we’ve kept a diminishing and aging flock of chickens. Which is giving me something of an identity crisis.

Seafood. ere are several businesses in the region that specialize in raising fish, like trout, or in driving to the coast to pick up the ocean’s bounty caught just a few hours from here. Which is a far cry from seafood shipped from thousands of miles away, caught using methods you’ll never be able to track. Flowers. Local flowers were not raised in greenhouses, coated in chemicals, and expensively shipped to our shores. By contrast, locally raised flowers are healthier, more beautiful, and longer-lasting. And for their grower, who may search for many income streams to help pay the farming bills, local flowers often bridge the gap. Mushrooms. As a culture, we are just waking up to the amazing ways mushrooms can feed us — as dinner, of course, but also in teas, coffees, and healing powders. Seek out local mushrooms and prepare to up your health while supporting a local grower. I will be sad to move my freezer on. I have fond memories of my kitchen counters overflowing with peppers and beans and tomatoes at the height of the summer growing season. ese days there’s more than one way to eat local. Which is, of course, exactly how it should be. I’m excited that Roanoke’s local food scene has grown — just like my children, just like a watermelon vine in July — to reach new places, new opportunities. In fact, having more farmers and food producers grow and create for people like me who want local food, without making it ourselves, only strengthens the local food system. While I’m no longer purchasing half a hog to store in my freezer, I am searching for handmade pickles and kombucha, quick breads, salsas, and ready-to-eat meals, as well as wreaths and candles and soaps made from local ingredients. And each item I source locally creates a web of businesses that support those products. If the goal of any movement is to change behavior so that the radical becomes the everyday, then having many avenues for eating local means we are on our way. So, as we enter the long, light-filled days of summer, here are a few ways to expand your local living. Try eating local:

is spring, the last hen died.

But just because I am no longer feeding a hungry family of five, just because our garden has been moved (a pup now reigns over the backyard) and reduced to a few raised beds, just because our egg-laying girls are gone, doesn’t mean I’m not eating local.

I’m just doing it differently.

Today, I find my local food at one of Roanoke’s thriving farmers markets that run — especially in summer — nearly every day of the week. I can shop for locally milled grains and locally roasted coffee at a number of smaller stores around town. If I wanted, I could sign up with an area farmer and pick up a pre-arranged order of milk, eggs, cheese, meat, veggies — even pre-made salads — using a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. I can order local food online now. And there are more options than ever to eat at restaurants that support local farmers and producers.

Photo: Smoke in Chimneys farmed trout

Just because I didn’t grow it in my backyard doesn’t mean it’s not local.

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