A Local Egg Community Writ in Cartons

My husband recently returned from his much-anticipated "midlife crisis" walkabout in Vermont with 25 dozen eggs. Not quite the outcome I'd expected. It turns out that Cobb Hill Cohousing, where he was staying, was experiencing an egg crisis. Their egg manager had quit, and they had dozens of eggs piling up. My husband sent out email to our friends and managed to sell about 22 dozen eggs for them (which means we have 3 dozen or so extra, in case you'd like some.)

So our dining room table is now covered with cartons of eggs. And here's the interesting thing: every one of those cartons has been reused. The cartons come from all over New England, some from grocery chains like Shur-Fine, some from large commercial egg businesses like Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs, and some from much smaller farms. The most intriguing carton is entirely blank with a handwritten label: "Maple Knoll Farm."

Not a single one of these cartons has anything to indicate that it contains eggs from Cobb Hill Farm. All the folks at Cobb Hill added were small pieces of tape with the collection date on them. The cartons of eggs I buy from Chestnut Farm are also unlabeled. In both cases, these eggs have no need of labels because they are bought directly from the farm that produces them.

This is locavorism at its best. Looking at the pile of cartons, you know that customers brought them in to the farm to be reused, not just because it's the best thing to do for the environment, but because they have a personal relationship with the farmers and thus with the food they're eating. I certainly enjoy gathering cartons from my cohousing neighbors and bringing them to Chestnut Farm every month. Boy, will they be getting a surplus of cartons next week!

If you'd like to become part of the supply chain for your eggs, but you don't have a convenient farm to donate your used cartons to, consider bringing them to your local farmers' market, now that they're open again. I'm sure the egg vendors there will thank you.

HFCS vs. Cane Sugar

Slate.com today has a very interesting article on whether cane sugar is environmentally better than high fructose corn syrup. The simple answer is yes. Beet sugar is also better than HFCS, but it's unclear whether cane or beet sugar are better. Sugarcane produces more sugar per acre, and its byproducts are used to power the plants that process the sugar, making it rather efficient, but it requires a huge amount of water to produce and can only be grown in tropical climates. Beets grow happily in northern climates but require more processing.

Which raises the locavore question: is it possible to get locally produced beet sugar? If so, would the reduction in transportation costs offset the processing cost? Does anyone know of a source of local beet sugar? And how does this measure up to maple syrup and honey as sweeteners?

The general conclusion of the article, incidentally, was to use less sweeteners overall.

First Farmers' Market of the Season Tomorrow!

The first farmers' market of the season starts up tomorrow in Copley Sq. from 11am to 6pm. Check out the revamped Mass Farmers' Markets website for more details. Don't raise your expectations too much, though. It's mighty early in the season, and you're not likely to find much other than greens (lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, etc.). If you get there early, you might find some asparagus, garlic scapes, rhubarb, and fiddleheads (edible fern shoots).

The City Hall and Davis Square farmers' markets will open on May 27th, Central Square starts on June 1st, and Framingham Village Green on June 11th. From there, it's probably open season everywhere. Hurray! Time to cancel my Boston Organics box.

Know Your Stuff, Too

Paul Krugman's column in the NY Times today presents a compelling argument that any efforts we make toward stemming our carbon emissions will be insufficient in the face of China's rapidly growing carbon emissions.

How can we convince China to make improvements to their infrastructure? Simple: vote with your dollars. China can churn out junk that is cheap because they use highly polluting coal-burning power generation facilities, passing on the cost of environmental degradation to the rest of the planet, including their own people.

If we refuse to buy their products and instead buy locally, thoughtfully, sustainably made products, we not only support our local economy, we promote better environmental standards worldwide.

So before you buy that cheap plastic toy stamped "Made in China," think again. I will do some research over the weekend to find locally made products that are sustainably produced.

Packaging

It occurs to me that another compelling argument for buying local goods is packaging. My very first job out of college was working as a technical editor for Kraft Foods in some suburb of Chicago. I was editing recipe specifications for various products (Blueberry Morning cereal, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc.), and while there were generally two or three specifications for each product that were actual recipes, the vast majority of the specifications were packaging. For Mac'n'Cheese alone, you have the foil bag for the powdered cheese mix, the small paperboard carton for the macaroni and the foil bag, then a corrugated cardboard carton in which 12 or 24 paperboard cartons go, and sometimes there's an even larger corrugated cardboard carton in which four of the smaller corrugated cardboard cartons go, and finally, a pallet on which the cartons are stacked, frequently with more cardboard between the layers of cartons, and wrapped in plastic wrap.

Pallets account for an appalling amount of lumber usage and are rarely fully recycled. Vast amounts of cardboard are used to protect the product while it is shipped over large distances. And foil packets are completely unrecyclable.

By contrast, locally produced foods have almost no packaging, and most of that packaging is reused many times before being recycled. Our farmshare comes in reusable waxed corrugated cardboard boxes, which we save and return to them each week. Occasionally, loose greens will be packaged in plastic bags, but other than that, even the rubber band used for bunches of vegetables like kale can be returned for reuse.

Meat from our meatshare does come vacuum-sealed in plastic, but it is delivered in wholly reusable coolers. And their eggs are packaged in reused egg cartons. I've organized my cohousing community to save all their egg cartons and deliver them to Chestnut Farm each month when I pick up my share.

Produce brought to farmers' markets is typically brought in reusable plastic totes or bushel baskets. If you plan ahead and bring reusable bags, you can avoid taking home plastic bags as well.

Even locally produced goods such as maple syrup, honey, cheese, soaps, jams, jellies, flours, and breads probably use no more packaging than is needed for the product itself. That means far fewer trees felled to produce pallets and packaging cardboard, and far less energy consumed in producing the packaging.

I'm curious to know whether glass milk bottles are more energy efficient than plastic or paper bottles. They're heavier and more costly to transport, but they use renewable materials more effectively and, in my opinion, better preserve the flavor of the milk. Does anyone have information on this?

The Story of Stuff

The New York Times today reported on a wonderful little web documentary called "The Story of Stuff" on consumer economics and how it is trashing our environment and destroying communities and cultures. On the Story of Stuff web site, they briefly list buying local as one of the ways to reform the system:

When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community.

This inspired me to do a quick search on "buy local reduce waste" which turned up a great article on Bright Hub. Food for thought.

Cocoa Mulch from Taza Chocolate

I send email to Taza Chocolate asking how to buy their cocoa mulch. Laura Cere responded, saying that you can "call and order for pick up at our factory. The cost is $25.00 for 40lbs."

This a great, highly sustainable product. Cocoa mulch is made from the shells of the cacao beans. Since this is a natural byproduct of the chocolate-making process, it's sustainable. The beans are shelled locally, so you're not buying mulch that has consumed extra fuel to travel here. And the price is quite competitive. Best of all, it makes your yard or garden smell like chocolate.

Two warnings:

1. Cocoa mulch contains high levels of theobromide, which is toxic to cats and dogs. While cats generally aren't all that interested in chocolate, dogs will happily eat the mulch, which can cause serious illness and even death. So do not use cocoa mulch in spaces frequented by dogs, probably not even in a front yard without a fence.
2. Cocoa mulch is fairly alkaline. If your soil is alkaline, as, alas, mine is, you may not want to use this mulch. However, if your soil is rather acidic, for example, in a yard with lots of pine trees, this could be a very useful amendment.
   

Weekend of Locavore Mania

Ye gods, I don't even know where to start. This weekend, I packed entirely too much locavore activity into three days (I don't work on Mondays). Rather than sock you with a ridiculously long posting, I'll give you the highlights and flesh them out over the next few days.

Saturday

• Noon: Toured the Taza Chocolate Factory. Cool new thing I learned: locally available, sustainable cacao mulch can be bought there.
• 3pm: Visited Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds. Bought soap made with "saponified local pork tallow."
• 4pm: Verrill Farm's temporary farmstand. Mmm... their own hothouse greens and spinach, plus locally raised and highly seasonal fiddlehead ferns and ramps.

Sunday
Collapsed. Well, cooked fiddleheads and ramps, along with delicious london broil from last month's meatshare.

Monday
Got two great things I heard about in email:

1. http://tinyfarmblog.com/ - Organic micro-farming. What a great concept.
   
2. http://www.namanet.org/csf/cape-ann-fresh-catch - A fishshare! I just told my husband last week I wanted one, and lo! one appears. Amazing. Hope they have herring.