waiting for asparagus 35and realized I could buy any ten things there I wanted. Not the lobsters in
the aquarium, okay, but not just dented cans in the bargain bin, either. I
appreciate the privilege of food choices.
So why give them back voluntarily? It is both extraordinary and un-
sympathetic in our culture to refrain from having everything one can af-
ford. Yet people do, mostly because they are allergic, or religious. We
looked around the table at one another, knowing we had our reasons too.
Strange, though, how much it felt like stepping into a spaceship and slam-
ming shut the hatch.
“It won’t be that bad,” I said. “We’re coming into spring.”
It wasn’t spring yet, however. We were in for some lean months before
the midsummer bounty started flooding us with the real rewards of local
flavor and color. But April is a forward- looking time on the farm, full of
work and promise. It seemed best to jump in now. Sink or swim.
Hedging, we decided to allow ourselves one luxury item each in lim-
ited quantities, on the condition we’d learn how to purchase it through a
channel most beneficial to the grower and the land where it grows.
Steven’s choice was a no-brainer: coffee. If he had to choose between cof-
fee and our family, it might be a tough call. Camille’s indulgence of choice
was dried fruit; Lily’s was hot chocolate. We could get all those from fair
trade organizations that work with growers in Africa, Asia, and South
America. I would rely on the same sources for spices that don’t grow lo-
cally; a person can live without turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves, I’ve
heard, but I am not convinced. Furthermore, dry goods like these, used
by most households in relatively tiny quantities, don’t register for much
on the world’s gas- guzzling meter.
With that, our hopeful agreement in place with its bylaws and back-
stops, we went back one last time to our grocery list. Almost everything
left fell into the grains category: bread flour and rolled oats are big- ticket
items, since Steven makes most of our bread, and oatmeal is our cool-
weather breakfast of choice. We usually buy almonds and raisins to put in
our oatmeal, but I crossed those off, hoping to find local substitutes. Then
we came back around to the sticky one. fresh fruit, please???
At the moment, fruits were only getting ripe in places where people
were wearing bikinis. Correlation does not imply causation: putting on