Here's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Just as we have a local watershed, we have a local foodshed. And the number one piece of advice I give when folks ask how to regenerate their diets is this: choose one food you eat a lot - just one - and source it locally/direct from a farmer. Directly from your foodshed. Only one? But aren't there more impactful things to do?
Remember, the most sustainable choice is the one we can stick with. That's the power of choosing just one food. It keeps it easy and keeps it fun. I started by raising our own chicken eggs, but maybe a windowsill herb garden or getting lettuce from the farmers market works better for you.
Slowly, as I had bandwidth and budget, I added more local foods to our meals over the years. Because the process was enjoyable for me, it created its own momentum. Today, six years into this regenerative food journey, grass-fed lamb and our dry aged beef filled our freezer (the flawed packages that don't make the cut for retail!), and we started getting milk from our neighbor who has a microdairy. And I joined my first veggie CSA!
Participate in your foodshed is its own reward. You might notice the deeper flavor from locally sourced foods. How the color of the egg yolks changes throughout the seasons. You might find yourself invested in the weather, knowing your local farmer is out there growing tomatoes as part of your CSA. Your meals will become more seasonal, your enthusiasm around cooking will increase, and you’ll waste far less.
This is the beauty of connection. Of having skin in the game when it comes to food. The weather matters, the soil matters - because now it’s feeding you directly. You’ll find yourself, suddenly, interwoven in your foodshed, an important part of the web supporting food producers and local produce. And the food will taste all the more delicious for it.
