re-greening our life

Yesterday I started reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, a family memoir/local foods handbook about a year in author Barbara Kingsolver’s life in which her family moved to a farm in Virginia and made a pact to, “feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew.” The book passionately describes, “how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.” I, in turn, passionately agree with the principles that prompted Kingsolver to write her book. Eating food grown and raised locally is one of the most important ways a household can invest in the place where they live. It cultivates knowledge of growing seasons, local geography, weather patterns and lore that informs an awareness of the earth. Eating locally, which includes eating produce naturally in season, also saves carbon miles, keeps money in local economies, and directly compensates the people who contributed their labor to grow the food. Local eating is also healthy eating, as the products are unprocessed and lack the additives (mostly high fructose corn syrup) that find their way in to almost every grocery store item. One of the reasons I was excited to move to the Faroe Islands was because I assumed I would find a thriving local produce economy. The country is isolated and the independence sentiments strong, so I thought that it would be relatively simple procuring a small range of local food for Ben and myself. I was wrong. The grocery stores are true representations of globalization, with only milk, eggs and cream evidence of Faroese agriculture. Granted, there are environmental challenges here that make food production difficult. If we were to eat strictly Faroese-grown food our diet would consist of fish, lamb and potatoes, seasoned only with salt. Still, I miss the “green” awareness increasingly present in the United States. The small organic food section in the local store is exclusively seen as the “stuff no one buys because it is too expensive.” But I know there is more to the local food scene here. Everyone loves Faroese mutton, people connected to farms savor homegrown potatoes, and hunters bring home wild hares in the fall for dinner. My problem is that I am not connected to local agriculture. There is no Web database of local producers; if a Faroese person wants something, they know exactly which neighbor to call. Inspired by my current read, I am reinvigorating my efforts to live locally. Sixty percent of you who read this blog are Faroese, and you know the farmers, growers and doers of this country. I need your help to find out what resources are available. If you have any ideas, leave a comment or send an e-mail!

• Who would sell me local lamb meat? At what times of year can it be purchased?

• Is there someone living in the Klaksvík area that would let me use their property to start a small garden this spring?

• What kinds of vegetables will grow here? When is the growing season?

• Does anyone in the Faroes produce cheese, from either sheep or cows?

• Could I buy butter, milk, cream or eggs directly from a producer?

• I would like to build a small window box for growing herbs and starting plants. Is there anyone with a workshop where I could bring my materials and assemble them?

• Where can I buy vegetable seeds or seedlings?

-a