What if Local Isn't Tastier?
In my heart I would like to be a locavore purist, eating food grown or raised within a 500-mile radius of my house. When I read about Broadway East, a restaurant opening this fall in New York City that is going to serve three locavore squares a day, I applauded. I believe in local food, slow food, and every other kind of "food" movement that supports local farmers and sustainable agriculture. I pledge allegiance to Alice Waters every day. But what's a localist to do when the cherries taste better from Washington, 3,000 miles away from where this local yokel calls home?
All summer, I have been eating local cherries sold at both my local farmers' market and at Whole Foods, and though every once in a while I hit a vein of firm, sweet cherries, more often than not I'm left holding the bag (of cherries, that is) because the cherries weren't good enough to finish. So I am forced by my obsessive, compulsive search for the perfect bite to buy Washington state cherries at my local supermarkets and to even have them air-lifted to me at some justifiably inflated cost. And those cherries grown oh so far away are invariably better—firmer, sweeter, and tastier.
I have talked to farmers in New York state and in California about this issue. I have spent days on both coasts in the company of these farmers in their fields and orchards and at farmers' markets. My conclusion: Local does not trump nature and science. The best peach growers and cherry growers in California, for example, use sophisticated farming and irrigation techniques to produce cherries, peaches, and nectarines that just taste better. That superior taste is also a result of the climatic conditions they deal with. For example, Ron Mansfield of Gold Bud Farms combines his degree from the University of California Cooperative Extension and the requisite amount of sun, water, and cool nights to grow peaches that are far superior to anything you can get in Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, or any other state that proclaims peach superiority.
Conversely, Jim Kent at Locust Grove Farm in Milton, New York, grows apples on the land that six generations of his family have tilled that are so good they put any apple I have eaten in California to shame. And I have eaten New Jersey strawberries from Tim Stark's Eckerton Hill Farms in a restaurant with Alice Waters that had her swooning with delight. After she could swoon no more, she said, "We just can't get strawberries this good in California."
So I still pledge allegiance to Waters, localism, slow food, and sustainable agriculture, while at the same time recognizing that sometimes things just taste better grown in one region rather than another. Jim Kent explained this phenomenon this way: "As farmers, we can only work with what God gives us." That makes Jim not a religious man but a realist.
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12 Comments:
Having grown up in Northern Canada, if we ate local it would mean a diet consisting of basically meat, lichen, blueberries in summer, and labrador tea. While some local greenhouse initiatives are on their way - the math as to whether or not heating the greenhouse over the winter is cheaper than carting produce in from California has yet to be done.
We can't all be perfect all the time, eat local when you can (even if it is a little blad) - but its not a religion!
B
Hand to Mouth
Making Stock of the Situation
A blog for penniless gourmets
handtomouth at 8:24AM on 07/30/07
Ed, you are brilliant and I am so glad to hear you say this. I mean see you write this. I mean, oh, you know. THANK YOU!
mattbites at 8:38AM on 07/30/07
Eating local 100% of the time isn't feasible, and the difference between California produce and NY produce is clear to me, as someone who grew up in Cali and now lives in NYC. But I guess the question is whether the sacrifices in tree-ripening necessary to allow the fruit to make its cross-country trek makes up for the innately better flavor. Also, I don't know where you were getting your cherries, but I had wonderful luck with them this year at the Union Square Greenmarket! Though, of course, they're sadly going out of season now.
producestories at 8:40AM on 07/30/07
I'm still waiting for Pennsylvania and Maryland farmers to start growing avocadoes.
emily20008 at 10:13AM on 07/30/07
As usual, Ed, you're right on the money. Supporting local growers must have some limitations. I think the reasonable approach is to buy local as often as possible for produce, meat and seafood that is of high quality. For example, I live in a great corn, tomato, apple and peach-growing region, and I make damn sure that I eat as much of the local product as possible while it is available. But second or third-rate crops don't really merit that kind of support.
ronfrankl at 11:58AM on 07/30/07
On the other hand, eating local can be more than just an aesthetic choice... it can also mean changing your habits of consumption, e.g. choosing not to eat cherries from Washington and finding new ways to use New York apples and New Jersey strawberries. And being ready to take advantage of them when the occasional vein of delicious local cherries does come around.
Of course, that's all easy to say, but I still buy Washington and New Zealand apples at the supermarket here in NC where most of the local apple crop for the season has been killed by frost.
aeschylus at 12:13PM on 07/30/07
Hey, aeschylus, where are you exactly? I'm in Henderson County, NC; are you as well? Small world. Sorry for the digression, Ed.
ronfrankl at 12:41PM on 07/30/07
No need to apologize. That's awful news about the North Carolina apple crop. How are North Carolina apples?
Ed Levine at 1:23PM on 07/30/07
Terrific, some of the best I've ever had. NC is one of the largest apple growing states, and 90% of the state's apple crop is grown in Henderson County, which is just south of Asheville. There's even a three-day Apple Festival every September, just as the year's harvest begins. Earlier this year, after a very mild six weeks, we experienced a hard freeze that lasted over several days and virtually wiped out all of this year's crop. It's a disaster for this county which, despite its proximity to trendy Asheville and its appearance as a growing suburban and retirement area, remains highly dependent on agriculture. The loss of the main crop isn't merely an inconvenience to shoppers, it's a catastrophe for many families. Sadly, these events will force some farmers to sell out to developers, hastening the "strip-mining" of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the name of progress. But to answer your question, yeah, the apples are great.
ronfrankl at 1:58PM on 07/30/07
And it might not even be more environmental...
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/07/how-much-better.html
nycfd at 5:06PM on 07/30/07
Hey ronfrankl.. I'm in Carrboro. Actually was just up in Weaverville not too far from y'all this weekend. I hadn't thought of the connection to development in Henderson County, but is a tragedy. Around here you can see it in the fact that whole stalls at the Farmer's Market in Raleigh are closed completely for the year..
aeschylus at 8:56PM on 07/30/07
Our Farmers' Market in Hendersonville actually closed for good last year. Unfortunately, here and elsewhere, unchecked development will continue to force changes in agriculture, as more family farms will disappear and with them our choices will be narrowed and quality will suffer. After having lived 26 years in NYC and experienced the relative magic of the Greenmarkets and the arrival of more responsbile supermarkets like Whole Foods, I will be royally pissed if I will soon be forced to eat supermarket produce that's shipped in from 500 miles away. I want corn and berries that were picked within the last 24 hours, and I want to eat heirloom tomatoes that taste even better than the way I remember them. That's the reason to support local growers, to ensure that our array of choices remains in the forseeable future.
ronfrankl at 10:02PM on 07/30/07