Turn, turn, turn

Convincing people to eat locally-produced food doesn't seem to be all that difficult. Once they get past the price--or at least accept the reasons for it--it makes a lot of sense. Support for the local economy, lower transportation costs, fresher produce are all benefits of eating within your "foodshed." And with almost 13,000 Chinese children sickened by melanine-tainted milk powder (!--that any rational human being could put fertilizer into baby formula and then be able sleep at night is beyond my comprehension) , it seems pretty smart to get your food from a nearby, reliable source.

One part of the equation that is a bit trickier to accept is the notion of seasonality in food. With some things, it's obvious--peaches, cherries, corn-on-the-cob--you just don't see them in the grocery store, except in the summer. Other items are being flown in from distant, warmer countries that have a much longer growing season and aren't fettered by winter weather--asparagus, watermelon, strawberries. But did you know that--at one time--the availability of most other fresh food was also dictated by the season.

For instance, eggs; chickens lay year-round, but their production slows considerably as the days shorten. Sunlight is the natural stimulus for egg-laying, so the hens start to take it easy during the winter months. The lights for caged chickens are on most of the time, to discourage any reduction in output, so there are always eggs in the chain grocery stores, and no one has to go without. Altho, the hens might go a bit crazy (wouldn't you, with no sleep?).

Meat also used to have a season, depending on the lifespan of the animals. It was (and still is) wise to encourage farm animals to give birth in the winter, to cut down on the dangers from insects to the newborn animals if you're not using antibiotics. So, if a farmer was going to butcher a calf or lamb, he would do this in the early spring--probably why lamb is a traditional food for Easter. There was also more butchering going on in the late fall, so that not as many animals would have to be fed from storage over the winter months. As with canning and preserving of the summer's crops, there was also much "putting up" of easy-to-store meat (sausage-making, smoking) so that there would be something to eat in January.

Like the eggs from caged hens, meat from factory farms is not dependent on any time table, other than the amount of time it takes to build up enough muscle mass to be worth slaughtering. This stuff is always available.

But I'm not sure the modern consumer (myself included) would be able to go back to that traditional, more-restrictive a cycle. Sometimes you just feel like a lamb chop (thank goodness for freezers). But being aware of when food is truly available is part of being more in tune with how your meal gets to your table. You can appreciate the convenience of year-round produce, but also be more understanding of what cycles controls a small farmer's yield.

Something to think about...