Eat green(s)

This weekend we ate the first homegrown produce of the season - fantastic! OK, they were just small lettuce leaves, but they tasted great, even my daughter liked them, and there is something very satisfying about eating stuff you planted yourself. It was nice to get a boost on the food side of being green, because frankly I struggle quite a lot on that front.

We still eat vegetarian at least twice a week and we definitely eat more local produce than before, but I still think we have an awful long way to go to have proper sustainable eating habits.

When I go shopping it keeps churning in my head that we should eat local and in season, but I am not sure how I would feed the family that way. Trying to think of fruit that is in season just now mainly points me to rhubarb, and that wouldn't really work in my daughters snack box for school...

When we started out some things came relatively easy, e.g. saving on energy use - it doesn't take new knowledge or a lot of effort to achieve. Other things have been a bit harder, for example it is only recently that my bike has had proper usage, but we have managed to lower our petrol usage considerably - it mainly takes a bit of effort, no new knowledge required. Food is different!
I feel I need to be completely re-educated. I have spent most of my life being told about the importance of getting your daily fruit and veg, but I don't know how to do that solely on local produce in season? I simply haven't got the required skill set.

On top of that comes the problem that we are all used to eating dishes from all corners of the world, and living primarily on food grown/reared locally would limit choices a lot. I am not suggesting that would necessarily be bad, but it would take quite a lot of getting used to and I am not sure how I would present it to my kids. How would I explain to them that they can't eat bananas like everybody else just because that fruit doesn't grow here - they would definitely answer 'but you can buy them in the shops'. Not to mention they would have the argument that fruit is good for you. Even harder, how would I convince them to eat whatever local alternative I might find to ensure they get their 5 a day, because green or not I still don't want my kids to suffer malnutrion.

I have no doubt that it helps slightly that we are trying to grow stuff in the garden, the kids are fascinated with it, and it should give them some kind of idea about seasons etc, but it would never really convince them to give up bananas, cucumbers and a whole long range of other things. (I am here completely ignoring the fact that my gardening skills are totally insufficient anyway to grow food of a quality and quantity that could feed the family!)

Actually thinking about it all just now, I realise that I have to accept this as a very long term project - that is the only solution. That way I can spend the next 15-20 years improving my gardening and cooking skills, which should then give us a much higher level on the self sufficiency scale and by that time my kids will have left home and I don't need to worry about them having tantrums at the dinner table. Yippee, all solved - who said you can't plan your way out of problems...?