The Locavore at Riverdale Farms

The Locavore Sarah Elton chats at Riverdale Farms.

This week I combined my exploring farmer's markets for this blog with my Directing job of working on the Documentary Eco Losers.

I met up with the Locavore author Sarah Elton at Riverdale Farms this week to discuss her book and how it relates to helping the Eco Losers Family with their year long challenge to change their lifestyle.

Sarah talked about how she looks forward to things being in season and thinks it makes food more special to only have it when it is at it's peak of freshness. She stressed that the reason she prefers to be a locavore is because the food tastes so much better.

She decided to start thinking about where her food comes from when one of her children came home with a shrink wrapped cookie that was made in China.  She decided it was time to investigate where the food her family was eating was coming from.   In an effort to be socially responsible and feed her children the best possible food they can have access to.   It changed her whole way of life and sparked the book The Locavore.   Sarah is a journalist who has gone on her own personal journey to make better choices.

We did our interview in front of an area where there were cows relaxing in a fenced in area of the Farm.  I swear one cow was very interested in our conversation as the cow just watched our every move.  If you think about cows having intelligence then I think you would think of how you eat a bit differently.

After we wrapped our interview we both picked up some local food from the Farmer's Market at Riverdale Farms.

On a side note.  It took me about a half an hour to head down to the market by car to meet with Sarah but it took over 45 minutes sitting in gridlock on the Don Valley Parkway at 4pm to get back home.    Reinforcing my thoughts on shopping local and being able to support local communities.   Sarah had the luxury of living near the market but unfortunately I didn't.   But it did make me think about food transport and how many trucks there are on the highways these days.  And while I was sweating sitting in my car on in the hot afternoon rush hour sun it made me think about how the weather around the world has changed dramatically and how governments aren't acknowledging that there has been a shift in the world.

Pick up Sarah's book and if you can make some changes in the way you buy your food and influence more people to do that then maybe we can encourage grocery stores to buy products that come from shorter distances instead of Asparagus from the U.S.  maybe it can come from a farm in Ontario.   Just a thought.