Corn season is underway in NW Indiana; I picked up a dozen ears from Jackson Farms in Hobart, Indiana. Most will go in the freezer but it was also the star of my OLS meal for Week 8. To accompany the corn I had a salad of halved cherry and grape tomatoes (my garden), two types each of basil and parsley (also from my garden), an onion grown in Michigan City and purchased at the Chesterton European Market, and a cucumber from Jackson Farms.
Along with the corn I cooked a few new potatoes purchased from the same grower as the onion in the salad. I rounded out the meal with some cantaloupe from Southern Indiana melons which was purchased at the Chesterton Market. The corn was tasty but the melon was not as good as they will be in a couple more weeks.
The real joy of this meal isn’t captured by simply describing what I had to eat. The real joy is in the story of much of the food. Sure I could have bought corn already cleaned and ready to drop into the pot; perhaps even more cheaply. But had I done so, I would have missed the quiet contentment of sitting on my deck, peeling the back the husks and silks as I inhaled the earthy scent of the corn. While cleaning the corn my eyes wandered over my container garden and watched a ruby-throated hummingbird and bees flutter about the blossoms and feeder. My thoughts were filled with the satisfaction of gardening successes and ideas about what to do differently in the future. The onion and cucumber came from the Chesterton European market where I buy from vendors who recognize me and some who even seem as happy to see and chat with me as I am to see and chat with them. I have shopped at some nice grocery stores and I even miss living near a couple of them but food from the corporate food stream doesn’t provide the sense the place, the sense of season, or the sense of community provided by local foods — not to mention the difference in taste.
So if you are thinking that dipping to your toe into the waters of your local foodshed, don’t stop there. Dive on in — the water is wonderful.
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March 14, 2009 at 8:16 pm
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