I went out of state! Did my radius move with me?

This weekend I was in Cincinnati...and I was pretty nervous about leaving my 100 mile radius for the weekend---do I pack all my food for three days and still eat only Williamsburg-local?  Or do I move my radius and become a Cincinnati Locavore for 3 days?

I decided to do a little of both.   I already know where to buy my food in Southeastern Kentucky. I wanted to see what it was like shopping in a town where I don't know my bean grower, or my milk producer, or my cattle farmer!  I packed my picnic basket full of potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes from Whitley County Farmers' Market, and Weisenberger muffin mix just in case I needed some emergency rations.  I must say, my mom and dad were good sports for the entire weekend.  Their favorite thing to do when I visit is to take me alllllll over Cincinnati, to every restaurant I've ever loved---my dad's favorite part is knowing he fed me a good meal that made me happy! :)  After half-jokingly asking if I could just put my challenge on hold for three days, they acknowledged that I've always been their "strong-willed" child and started coming up with places for us to buy local on a Saturday night.    After a few failed attempts, we wound up at Jungle Jim's--the end all, be all when it comes to international food...but do they really sell local, like their website suggested?

For the first half hour, I wasn't convinced.   Everywhere I looked, there were amazing displays of international cheeses, and seafood, and exotic fruit--but where was the local section?  I milled about aimlessly until I found an employee in the dairy section, who really and truly rescued my stomach for the weekend.   He informed me, "There's a little bit of local in each section, you just have to know where to look...here, lemme show ya!"   He escorted me about, and my cart started filling with local eggs, swiss cheese, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese (oh my gosh, I had forgotten how much I love cottage cheese!) and even some tomatoes from Dry Ridge, KY.   In the meat section, there was some ham from Cumberland Gap...and when I looked closer, it was produced right in Middlesboro--just a hop, skip and a jump from my Whitley Co home!  I decided that even though technically I was in Cincinnati and Middlesboro is more than 100 miles away...the ham totally counted in my local adventure. ;)

I will say, I was really disappointed in the produce section.  According to the Ohio Proud website, Jungle Jims was a huge seller of a variety of local products--but the only one I could find was a section of corn that merely said "Ohio Grown"....well, Ohio is mighty big, and I needed to know where in Ohio it was grown.   I spent a whole lot of time looking at labels and hoping to get lucky while in the grocery store--and it made me even more aware of where my food is coming from.  Our culture has gotten to where we pay more attention to the nutrition facts--I often see customers in the local grocery store turning the label around to see calories, or if the product has high fructose corn syrup--but we don't ever check to see where the product was made.

I was shocked at how many everyday products had traveled over 1,500 miles to get to the grocery store shelf-including apples, peaches, jelly and even the honey!  So I want to challenge you, my dear reader:  Next time you're grocery shopping, take a second to locate the state (or country) on the back of the label.  I think you might just be surprised at how far your food has traveled to reach your grocery cart!

~Mel