Locavore at what cost?
I pride myself on being a locavore … most of the time.
Over the holiday, I experienced intense flu symptoms. My assistant Carlie set out to make me elderberry syrup which I had seen recommended by many parents in our community. Elderberries, which are also know as sambucus or sambucol, have long been used to prevent and treat the symptoms of the common cold and flu. These berries are rich in anti-oxidant flavinoids and anti-inflammatory anthocyanin.
Since I value supporting the local community, Carlie went to the New Seasons in my neighborhood to buy elderberries. She discovered that they don’t carry them. I called Clary Sage Herbarium, also in my neighborhood in Portland and they had organic elderberries for 2.40 an ounce, which would have been 19.20 for the cup called for in the recipe we planned to follow. The woman whom I inquired with at the Herbarium explained that the relatively high cost was due to the fact that the elderberries were locally grown.
Organic elderberries are sold via our Amazon affiliation for .71 an ounce. They are sold via our Mountain Rose Herbs affiliation for just over 1.00 an ounce. Significantly less.
These are the kind of conundrums I face sometimes. Do I spend more to honor my desire to support a locally grown item from a local business or do I spend less to honor my commitment to my own financial sustainability. Of course, one purchase of this kind will not tip the balance one way or another but, these are the kind moments when I am not sure that I want to spend the money required to fully live into my values.
What do to with a microwave?
Here is another one. My new home in Portland came equipped with what others have described to me as a high quality microwave. I don’t use a microwave, nor do we recommend that anyone else use one either. It is not built in so I am not stuck with it.
So, what do I do with it? Sell it, give it away, throw it away? I don’t necessarily want to earn money on an item we don’t recommend, but I question whether to give it away for others to use, when I don’t actually want them to use it? Do I throw it away and fill the landfill? Oy.
What guides your decisions?
I envision I am not alone as I face these moments of choice between different values. How have you decided what to do in moments like these?
Nourishing Our Children 
32 Responses to Decisions.
I would give away or sell the microwave as a way to save landfill space. Very few people know the dangers of microwaves and they would just go out and buy a new one if your used one wasn’t available to them. Use the money you get from it to buy the more expensive elderberries ;-)
Thanks, Rachel! I appreciate your advice!
Rachel, you are delightfully practical!!!
BTW, I just went through a similar dilemma. My dad passed away 2 years ago leaving behind an extensive “collection” of materials I found to be morally objectionable. I struggled with what to do with it as some of it is rather “valuable” to collectors. I finally decided to send the majority of it to recycling and only sell the “softer”, older and more valuable items and then use the money to donate to a women’s shelter in order to mitigate the negative effects from the fact that this stuff ever existed. I could not take a profit and have peace with that.
What a dilemma you faced! I empathize with your decision and your choices!
Rachel M … Awesome! I imagine we will have the same dilemma when my father in law passes … oy!
I agree with Rachel…give away to someone who would buy one anyway. The microwave cavity in my kitchen fits my ipod dock perfectly so I am in my ultimate happy place when I am cooking something delicious, freshly picked from the garden, with my favourite tunes keeping the beat :)
Thanks for your advice, Sam!
I loved the storage space I got after taking out wall microwave out! :) We just gave ours away to something similar to salvation army… I hated giving it to someone else to cause them harm but I figure they are just going to go get one anyway….
I LOVE elderberry syrup! It does seem to really boost my immune system!
I’m not sure what I would do about the microwave…
But I do face the locavore issue often, and as much as it stinks, lately I have no choice but to just go with what is cheapest. My non negotiable for local is animal products, our raw milk, meat, eggs, cheese, butter, etc. We sacrifice a lot in our budget to be able to afford that and it is important to me. But with a family of mouths to feed I have to stay in the lines with budget and sometimes local is just too expensive.
Sometimes the product isn’t grown locally but the company is local, and I still feel good about supporting local businesses (like Mountain Rose herbs ;)). Personally, I am happy when most of my purchases are locally grown/made. I don’t want to stress over not being perfect, and I also believe in living within one’s means. So sometimes my purchases aren’t going to be ideal, but I’m okay with that. At least I am supporting someone, somewhere :)
As for the microwave, I would totally sell it. I wouldn’t even give it away free. My logic is that if you give it away, it might go to someone who wasn’t going to buy a microwave but are happy to take a free one. But if you sell it, then you are possibly avoiding a brand new one from being bought. Then do something positive with the money :)
Eugene where Mountain Rose Herbs is located wouldn’t be considered local to my home in Portland as per the locavore definition being it is beyond 100 miles but, I certainly understand your point! It is relatively local. I like the notion that we are supporting someone, somewhere! And in the case of the elderberries – it is supporting the organic movement.
I would give away the microwave to a charitable organization if I did not want money for it. Its not something my family uses, but many others use one, so why not have it get use over heading directly to the landfill?
I find myself in the same situation- cringing over the costs of locally sourced ingredients. Its a hard decision sometimes! If I were trying to make a recipe for the first time, I would probably buy well grown/safely preserved/high quality cheaper ingredients at first and reserve my investment in local ingredients for a later date. Often when I have a time crunch, I’m not finding the local resources at the right price, so I add the ingredient to a mental list for investigating when I have time. Maybe I can grow elderberries? Maybe I can buy them fresh from a local source in season? At the same time, I try not to get too hung up on something like this- I do the best I can most of the time, but $20 of elderberry sales won’t make or break the local economy.
It is true that 20.00 of elderberry sales won’t make or break the local economy or my budget for that matter, but it all adds up in both cases.
In our community we have Freecycle so that’s where our microwave went 12 years ago. Turns out some guy whose oven went out took it; he couldn’t afford to fix the oven.
Next summer I hope to harvest my own elderberries a here in Mn. Is that an option for you Sandrine?
Susie, I will see if I can grow elderberries in my garden that I will establish here in Portland this year!
I feel your pain re: cost vs. support. No advice here on that one except do what your gut tells you. BUT re: the microwave, here’s what we did…. I use mine to house our ever-burgeoning kitchen compost bucket. I’ve never had a problem with smell, and it contains the inevitable fruit fly fairly well (I also set their trap in there). Just a thought.
I did repurpose the built in one in my loft in San Francisco http://on.fb.me/1gaJHHy however, I could use the space that the microwave takes up now in my kitchen in Portland for my new stainless steel dehydrator. I am really not sure what to do with this microwave!
My nine year old just made a very wise suggestion: give/sell the microwave back to the company that made it. Many would agree that companies should take more responsibility for the disposal of products they manufacture.
Please let your 9 year old know that I love that suggestion and will call the company to see if I can give it back to them! I’ll keep you posted!
Thanks! She is thrilled and honored that her idea is being taken seriously.
Very much so! I hope they’ll take it back! I envision it may be costly to ship because it is quite heavy but, perhaps they have a place I can drop it off at?!
Something I’ve struggled with for a long time is that here in the area where I live, our soils are very depleted. This is reflected in the quality of foods produced from our local farms. I can see evidence in the fact that our produce (even organic) seems to spoil very quickly – more quickly than it should – and our raw milk goes sour usually within a week. Some years ago we used to purchase organic, grassfed, raw milk from, and the milk from a different farm. This milk would keep sometimes for 2-3 weeks. But it has become cost prohibitive to keep purchasing this milk for us and a number of others. So we opted for a local, grass-fed, raw, “organic practices” milk instead from another farm. I know the differences in the soil management account for this.
I want to support local farmers who use traditional practices, but we don’t always have that choice due to expense or simply the fact that many in our area are not using cultivation methods to make sure the soil is attended to.
My Naturopath won’t consume any animal foods produced in our area because she believes our radiation levels are so high due to a nuclear plant that is located about 350 miles away, and also Fukishima. She ships everything from out-of-state. To me, this seems extreme and is cost prohibitive for our family, not to mention does not support our local farmers and isn’t sustainable in my mind for the environment. It requires the use of more fossil fuels and packaging. I don’t want to contribute to demand for more petroleum, nor the amount of other resources needed to produce packaging for those products.
Black elderberry is really easy to grow and a reliable producer as well as a showy beautiful plant. Just get one. Each bush can produce gallons of berries.
I unplugged ours (less tempting) and use it to store bread, fermenting things (yogurt) or a plate of food that I don’t want the cat delving into while I’m busy.
Hi Sandrine;
Love this discussion! I am wondering what brand of dehydrator you got. I’ve been wanting a stainless steel one myself. How do you like it?
Miss you here in the Bay Area!
Hugs,
Deborah
Deborah
Sausage Maker has VERY well built, long lasting all steel dehydrators which are very suitable for making yogurt also. http://www.sausagemaker.com They are pricey but Trojan workhorses – we’ve had ours over a decade and it looks brand new. The additional (beyond the racks) no-hole pans and 1/4 hole pans are excellent for drying nuts and grains and well worth the extra money.
Renee
Hi Deborah! I miss you. I purchased mine from Radiant Life, a company that we recommend highly! http://www.radiantlifecatalog.com/product/dehydrator-stainless-steel/kitchen-items – it is 100% stainless steel. No plastic of any kind inside. I purchased the 5 drawer one.
I have one use for a microwave that I love. To heat the rice filled neck warmers that I use for my massage clients. Put the microwave in the garage or somewhere out of the way and only use for this.They produce a wonderful long lasting warmth. Ahhh…
[…] however, they are both organically grown. This reminds me of the post I recently wrote about decisions. Do I pay more to purchase at the more local Mountain Rose Herbs or do I save via […]
I think it is impossible to live in our modern world and not face these types of dilemmas in different parts of our lives. A couple of years ago I turned down a $10,000 offer to promote bottled water because of my deep concerns about the environmental and health effects of this convenience! Each of us makes different decisions based upon the circumstances of that moment. Perfection is impossible, all we can hope for is conscious decision making.
[…] locally, because sometimes it is economically advantageous to do so. Read my article titled Decisions written about my own quandary. I also do buy some items that simply aren’t produced locally […]