Eating like a local in Earltown

Welcome back, friends! After what felt like a long winter of frozen and canned fruits and veggies, it feels good to be at the beginning of another season of local eating on the North Shore. Once again, my wife Nicole and I are planning to do our summer/fall "eating like a local" diet starting this...

Taking out the trash–Looking at a month of plastic

It seems that these are the kinds of things I get into when my wife's not home: when she's on Camino in Spain, I decide that our household is going to do our best to cut out single-use plastics this summer; when she's away at her parents' for the weekend, I dump out our plastic/glass/tin...

Making What the Store Doesn’t Carry

It's funny how some months just fly past you. June has been like that for me--I can't believe we're already halfway through the month today! In the past two weeks since I started the second year of "Eating Like a Local", I can tell you I have eaten like a queen! The month started off...

#KickTheTube: Getting rid of single use plastics in the bathroom

My entire life is wrapped in plastic. Food, soap, hair care, tooth care, "beauty products", vitamins and medications, cleaning products--this is only the beginning of the beginning of the list. While it has bothered me for some time that so much of my life now comes in totally redundant plastic packaging (why is it that...

Eating like a Local when it’s too damn hot to cook

Hello friends! I've been away for a few weeks at a church conference, followed immediately by a happy, busy house full of company for 2 weeks so I haven't had a chance to write until now. Since I got home from my conference, my household has been a picture of industry--my dad, my brother, and...

What to do with All Those Garlic Scapes?

After worship last Sunday, one of my church families was telling me how they had been trying to sell bags of garlic scapes that weekend, but couldn't get any takers. "No one knows what they are," one woman said. "I'll take a bag off you!" I replied, thinking maybe there was a small bread bag...

Eating Strawberries Like a Local (and other adventures)

Ack! There have been so many food adventures in our house this week that if I don't write now, I really don't know how I'll tell you about them all! So, first things first: it's freaking hot outside. And if you live in the Maritimes, you are probably a) trying to cool down, and b)...

Eating Like a Local: Is It Worth It? (June Calculations)

When I announced we were doing this challenge, a friend told me she wanted to hear about our budget for this project which I thought was a great idea. Often times I've thought I would eat more local if I could only afford it, and I know many others who have said the same thing....

Long Weekend Edition: Eating Junk Food like a Local

So, here comes the confession: I love junk food. Particularly Hawkins Cheezies--you know, the crunchy cornmeal shapes coated in real cheddar? If there is a stressful day at work, a sad time I just can't handle, a success worth celebrating, or just a movie night with Nicole, Cheezies are a part of it. Sadly, Cheezies...

Seven Tips on How to Eat Like a Local

This week, a friend of mine asked me to talk about some tips or tricks I might have on local eating. After some thought, Nicole and I came up with 7 tips (and learnings) that have helped us through this first month of eating locally: 1) Start with what you can manage and work from there: Early on,...