We’ve been trying to make a series of changes in our own lives as we try to live out our mission toward sustainability. One of them is to eat locally. To that end, we joined the Oklahoma Food Coop, which is an outstanding coop. We order online (www.oklahomafood.coop) from Oklahoma producers, most of whom produce their products naturally or organically. Then once a month we go to a site in our region and pick up our groceries. (And we save our errands to do in that town on that day.)
Living in the country, we don’t have short access to farmers markets without spending half a tank of petroleum to get there and back. The farmers we live near grow wheat and cattle and hay. So we’re trying to grow more of our own vegetables – naturally, without chemicals. We have a lot to learn and it’s not so pretty around here as we try to suffocate weeds with cardboard and plastic. We are making progress.
And so it was with deep delight that we enjoyed the first bowls of strawberries last weekend. Red, ping-pong ball-sized drops of sweet sun that taste – well, like strawberries. Strawberries don’t always taste like strawberries. But these do. Tender, melt-in-your mouth, except for the slight crunch of tiny seeds. I think they’d win a blindfold taste test. But I think they taste especially strawberrish and especially wonderful because we know, without a doubt, that they have no chemicals in them. And it didn’t require using any of the sunshine stored in oil to bring these to our table.
Cheers!
