Going Green

I was just cleaning up the toys when I noticed that Esme's little shopping cart was full of cardboard boxes of play food, complete with a much-used brown paper shopping bag, and I realized that it's not an accurate mimic of our actual shopping trips. We use reusable bags (which are much nicer to carry than plastic bags and never break like plastic bags), and we hardly ever buy frozen or prepared foods. We even make our pie crust from scratch these days. We are definitely on the road to being a green family, although we have a long, long way to go.

I've been reading increasingly about a trend to attempt eating locally, or in other words, using only foods that are grown close by. There are a number of reasons why this is a good idea: it's a healthier, more sustainable model of farming than big agribusiness. It's also healthier to eat the freshest foods available (i.e. food that hasn't been shipped or flown a great distance).

I have been trying to buy mostly local produce from the grocery store or G. Berta's produce stand (which I haven't been to lately because I haven't been driving to Half Moon Bay much), but I'm not being totally strict about it. When local corn popped up, we were stoked. It was so much tastier than the corn that was being brought in from Southern California just a month ago. Ditto with the green beans. I'm contemplating signing up for a local produce box delivery service. We did it years ago, but I had trouble using all the veggies and fruit before they went bad. But now, with a family of four, we might be able to make it work.

I guess living a healthier, better-for-the-environment lifestyle will always be a journey because no one's perfect and our knowledge is always changing. But it feels good to be making baby steps.