Eating Local In The North Is Easier Than You'd Think...Most Of The Time

I came across a great article today that speaks of several of the products Shannon D. and I have been buying this summer.  If you want to get a visual of the panoramic mentioned in the first paragraph, click here. This is a picture I took of my kids on Radley Hill, two years ago. It is breathtaking!!


We are so lucky!


Part 2 - Added later today.


I'm miffed. I'm annoyed. I'm not sure what to do. 


Let me start by saying I'm going to be vague about this a little bit because, should we ever end up with more than a couple readers, I don't want to get anyone in trouble. 


I was at a store the other day and noticed small sizes of a staple in our house that has been a bit of a challenge to get my hands on. I've found a source for it, but it means a trip in to the city just to pick it up, and that's not always convenient or practical. I was thrilled when I saw it at this store so close to my house. I went back this morning to buy some and found two other products from the same producer. What a gold mine! I bought stuff I didn't need, just to send the message that these products are wanted! Unfortunately they only carried small servings of what I needed, and it's more economical/practical to buy in a bigger size, so I asked the manager if he could bring some in. I was shocked by his answer. He said he wasn't even allowed to carry what he did have on the shelf, that he was sneaking it in! The store chain allowed him only to carry the big labels, and that was it. I couldn't believe it. I thanked him for making the effort to carry it and told him that I was making special trips in to the city to buy it and that I was so happy to see it on his shelves. I left bewildered.


It never occurred to me that the absence of some of our finest local products on grocery store shelves had anything to do with politics. I just assumed there weren't enough people willing to shell out an extra dollar or two for a local product, so the store managers didn't bother ordering them. I always thought they had a fair amount of control over what they carried, but I see now that this was quite naive. So in many ways, we are being forced to buy what's in the store, not what we really want. It really makes me wonder what would be more readily available to everyone, not just those with money and wheels to get to ELS, if the managers could order what people asked for.


Shannon A.