Even before reading the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I’ve been interested in buying more local. This book documents the yearlong story of her family’s journey after moving from Tucson to rural America where they vowed to eat only food that is grown in their garden or their neighbors. If they couldn’t do either, they would learn to live without it.
I love the idea of supporting our local farmers and artists. Lately I’ve been looking at everything I buy and it seems like everything is from China, even candy. We are doing a lot of what they are doing, since we grow most of our own veggies and fruit. However, there is so much we can’t get locally.
Sunday we took a road trip to Ferdinand Indiana for their annual Christkindlmartkt. In four different places, vendors were selling their “stuff.” There were hand-blown glass items by Lisa, Anastatia’s jewelry made from antique buttons and typewriter keys, and Ruth’s Quilted Creations. One of the vendors, Lou Speller, talked me into sitting down and playing a duet with him on one of his handmade mountain dulcimers.
There also was an abundance of food for sale including Strudels, knackwurst, and pfefferneuse. But the main reason we ventured down the highway was to buy some of the Monastery Sisters’ springerle and almerle cookies. We also purchased the Hildegard cookies, which are made from a recipe of St. Hildegard, a Benedictine abbess, musician, artist, writer, and adviser. She recommended these cookies be eaten for “slowing the aging process, creating a cheerful countenance, lightening a heavy heart, and releasing intelligence.” Sounds like a great excuse for me to eat cookies! Lucky for all of us, these cookies can be ordered online from their website, simply divine bakery. They are just one of the business who belong to Indiana Artisan. This group supports entrepreneurs who create high-quality art, crafts, and food in the Hoosier state.
To continue this buying local, today we picked out our Christmas tree. We usually buy our Christmas trees from the Boy Scouts. I like supporting them, but since we are trying to buy local, we opted for one of the local Christmas tree farms. It is always difficult for me to decide between the trees on the lot. Now I had to choose, with hubby’s help, among the hundreds of trees on the Ubelhor Farm! But it didn’t take us long and we found the perfect tree. We’ll be picking it up in a couple weeks.
I like the idea of buying local and supporting our neighbors. Now if I can find someone local who grows cocoa trees!
I’d imagine there would be quite a market for the cocoa tree!
I also think that the internet is not helping when it comes to buying local – it is too easy in many cases to let your fingers do the walking. Supporting local growers is vital – we try to wherever possible.
Amy,
Really!
The internet doesn’t help local businesses, but sometimes they don’t have what we need. But if we can just support our local growers, that would be a big step. Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Just stumbled across your blog…
I too, have been moved by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle…had been wondering lately if my “cutting a tree” down would be good for the environnment (which I love doing with my family) or detrimental..well I was happy to hear that is much better to cut your tree down!
I just heard recently that it takes 20 years to reduce your carbon footprint from a plastic Christmas tree because of the fact that most of them are made in China and made from many un-earth friendly chemicals, plastics and such…so kudo’s to you for your local Christmas tree!! By the way…just love all of your biscotti recipes!! ( : Happy Holidays!
Annemarie, Wow! Didn’t know about the 20 years. It’s worse than I thought! Thanks so much for dropping by.