This weekend in Sheboygan has been a smorgasbord of local goodies. There seems to be an awareness, at least in this part of Wisconsin, that eating locally is good for the state's business, good for our bodies and good for the earth.
Of course, it's not perfect. Eating too much locally crafted cheese or drinking too much locally brewed beer might stimulate the state economy, while clogging up, uh, certain other necessary functions. Also, we've seen very few enterprises that have it all together (like a local food celebration that produces tons of disposable food service waste). That said, at least the local options exist with active state support, unlike many other areas of the country, which I anticipate leads to less dependence on food from far-away states and countries.
I've already written about Field to Fork; we also enjoyed visiting Hops Haven Brew Haus, where you can purchase micro brews from the tap in half-gallon, re-usable jugs called growlers.
Then, this morning, we headed out to the annual Sheboygan County Dairy Breakfast at the Gary Lee Farm, owned and operated by the Ledeboer family. Started in 1982, the breakfast was and is still a way of connecting people with the sources of their food. Since then, the breakfast has rotated to various farms, drawing thousands of people for a feast of Wisconsin specialties. They weren't kidding about it being a "dairy" breakfast: the menu included eggs with ham and cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese cubes, bagels with cream cheese, chocolate milk and even Culver's custard for dessert. In looking for information about the breakfast online, I stumbled on a listing at EatLocalEatDairy.com, which has a plethora of resources for eating closer to home.
And what's so great about eating local? What does it have to do with Christian faith? What we're hearing in interviews and informal conversations is a distinct regard for healthy, personal relationships as the foundation of a good food system. Cultivating those kinds of relationships with our food choices is congruous with other areas of our lives in which relationships matter: knowing if our neighbor is hungry and acting on a responsibility to help, wanting our selection of things like coffee and chocolate to help not hurt farmers around the world, hoping our children grow up with a healthy regard for our call to care for the earth's creatures. There's a recognition that caring for the health of one's own body is just a starting point; being healthy also involves right relationship, seeking others' welfare in conjunction with honoring ourselves as children of God.
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