I try to eat as much local, organic food as I can, but there are some things I have to buy nonlocal. A few of these are preferential - I have New Mexico green chile on my breakfast burrito every morning. I've tried growing it here, and it just doesn't come out right. Then there are things that just can't be grown in New England that we consider essential: coffee, black tea, chocolate, bananas, olive oil, cinnamon and similar spices.
And then there are the things that ought to be available locally that I can't find: nuts, mushrooms, oils, and sugar. I was delighted to find a workshop at the NOFA conference on growing black walnut trees for nuts and timber. Hopefully, I will meet other nut growers there and find out where I can buy local nuts the way I used to buy pinon nuts on the side of the road in New Mexico. Similarly, there are lots of workshops on mushrooms, which I have yet to spot at a farmers' market anywhere.
Oil and sugar are the two that burn my noodle most. In the land of maple, you can find lots of maple syrup and maple candy, but no actual, commercial granular maple sugar. Why? And beets grow prolifically in New England. Why is there no beet sugar available? Admittedly, cane sugar from Florida is not a terrible compromise, but it just bugs me.
Finally, I have yet to find, anywhere, locally produced cooking oils. Olive oil is admittedly impossible (and the top on my list of crops I'd grow if I ever return to New Mexico), but surely there are plenty of other sources: corn oil, sunflower. Does rapeseed grow here for canola oil? And cycling back to the discussion on nuts, what about walnut or almond oil? Of late, I've been substituting locally produced butter, but there are a lot of cases where I'd much rather use a good oil instead. With any luck, I'll find a source of locally produced oils at the NOFA conference.
What are some other examples of things you ought to be able to find locally and can't? Please comment.
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