Links

Urban Greens is a cooperative of Providence residents, businesses, and food producers that connects Providence people to Providence food. Urban Greens provides fresh, local, affordable groceries to Providence. (thanks Kristin D)

Providence Open Market up here in the big city. Haven't been yet (on account of rain) but it looks fun! (thanks Erica)

Kafe' Lila up in Pawtucket is opens soon. Enjoy great fair trade organic coffee and teas from irie tea, ice cream makde form Rhody Fresh dairy and eggs, vegan ices, and ice cream too, and food made from local farms like red planet organics. (thanks Erica)

Farm Fresh Rhode Island lists the local farmer's markets and has info on local foods.

What I've found

After my initial search which started on 5/27/07 I've found the following (in no order)
-Cabot cheese: VT
-Handmade Mountain Mozzarella: Maplebrook Farm in VT
-Butterworks Farm yogurt: VT (this is really yummy, sweetened w/ maple syrup)
-hydroponic tomatoes at Whole Foods: VT (Water Fresh Harvest) and CT
-Rhody Fresh milk: RI
-Newport Storm beer: Middletown, RI
-Harpoon Beer: MA
-Narragansett: CT (for real)
-Otter Creek beer: brewed in VT
-bread from Seven Stars bakery: RI
-Corn Bread and Muffin Mix: Kenyon Corn Mill in Usquepaug, RI
-Haddock at Eastside Marketplace: off the coast of MA (also available are mackerel, clams)
-no local meat or poultry at Whole Foods
-Casey Farm which sells meat and produce at farmer's market in Sounderstown, RI
-beef and lamb from Watson Farm (sold at Casey Farm market)
-beef and pork from Stoney Hill Farm in Charlestown, RI
-Ben & Jerry's ice cream- now in organic flavors: VT
-Ocean Spray cranberry juice: MA (well, I hope so)
-American Flatbread frozen pizza from Whole Goods: VT

And so it begins...

With all this talk of carbon footprints, global climate change, and the price of gasoline, I wanted to to something locally that might have greater impacts globally. I won't be solving any global problems but I thought that for the summer, I would eat foods that where grown here in New England. The reasoning behind eating locally is that you are a) supporting local agriculture and b) by buying a locally grown product, you are not contributing to the oil needs to transport the goods across the nation.

The idea in my head has gone through many phases of feasibility. First I thought about only eating stuff that was grown of produced within 150 miles which is about how far a local grower will drive to deliver their produce. Well, that seemed a bit restrictive in New England. So I decided to include all of New England (CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME) in this experiment. That done, I decided to think about WHAT I would be able to eat during a New England summer. Thankfully there are farmer's markets and farms that offer a bounty of fruits and vegetables during the summer. A friend of mine initially thought I'd be eating "taters 'n squash" all summer but there is much more than that. Fortunately Whole Foods has a current campaign running highlighting locally grown goods. I'll post what I find. Eggs and dairy are pretty easy to come by here in RI. Meat and poultry are a bit harder but I am looking into some options for that. A lot of the seafood in the supermarkets is shipped in, not a lot is local.

Here's a sample of what's off the list: bananas, kiwi, mangoes, avocado. Exceptions will be made for coffee and grains, neither of which are grown around here. Then there's the food chain. If lamb is grown in RI but fed grain that was grown in Iowa, does that count? Actually I don't even know if sheep eat grain but I'm drawing the line at the end product, not what it eats.

The self-made guidelines are the following:
-when buying produce, meat, and dairy, to buy as locally as possible
-eating out is allowed in which case the rules may not always apply.
-I can finish whatever is in my cupboards currently which includes spices, sugar, flour, rice, etc.
-local alcohol is allowed: Newport Storm, Narragansett, wine from Newport, and a host of New England micro brews.

The experiment started prematurely this Memorial Day weekend. It is still early for fruits and vegetables and the farms don't open until June 1st. But, I found a few things to start me off. I imagine it will get easier as the summer progresses and the farmer's markets start up.

Stay tuned for a list of things that I have unofficially dubbed as "local".