Final Project (Share Unit)
The final assignment for this class was to make a dish out of ingredients that were found at most 50 miles away. Last Friday, I went to Maple Avenue Market located in Vienna where I found that they didn't sell many products grown 50 miles from George Mason University or even in the state of Virginia. The store owner told me that I should try the store "Local Market" which is located in Falls Church. She told me that they may have more products grown in the state of Virginia. I went over the "Local Market" and found that they also didn't have the ingredients I was looking for and not a very big selection of locally grown products in the state of Virginia. I told the shop owner that I have an assignment in a class in university where I need to find ingredients grown at most fifty miles from my university. She also told me that most of their ingredients are not grown in the state of Virginia or even fifty miles away from Fairfax except their scallions, spices, and meat. I looked around the store and found that they were selling sea salt that was from Falls Church so I purchased it from the store for $1.50. On Saturday, I woke up early in the morning to go to farmers' markets that I found to be happening that day online. The first farmer's market I went to was in Old Town Fairfax. I followed the signs that pointed towards where it would be but when I walked around to try to find it I wasn't able to find anything so I headed to the next farmer's market on my list located in Burke. The Burke Farmer's Market had many different vendors from all around Virginia and in neighboring states. I found spring onions and cilantro from a vendor who lives in Oak Grove, Virginia. After looking around for a little more and not finding anything else I went to the next farmer's market that was found to be happening at Springfield Town Center. I found this farmer's market to only have about ten vendors and not anything I was looking for so I left pretty disappointed because I spent a lot of time driving to this particular farmer's market. At this point it was 11:15am so I wanted to hit one more farmer's market in Falls Church. Due to my bad sense of direction, I got to the Falls Church farmer's market fifteen minutes before many of the vendors were closing up. I quickly looked around what each vendor was selling and decided to go for two vendors. I bought about two pounds of sweet potatoes for $2.50 from a person who wintered them from Gainesville, Virginia. A vendor from Berryville, Virginia was selling meat, pasta, and eggs (which were sold out when I got to her station). I asked her about the meats she was selling and the different types of pasta that were made from all natural ingredients off of the farm. I ended up getting almost a pound of sirloin steak and two packages of herb pasta. My total purchase ended up being $24.99.
Financial Information of Ingredients
Sea Salt: $1.50
Spring Onions and Cilantro: $6.50
Sweet Potatoes: $2.50
Sirloin Steak: $14.99
Two Packages of Herb Pasta: $10.00
Total Amount of All Ingredients: $35.49
Ingredients Used Baked Sweet Potatoes
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| Baked Sweet Potatoes |
Ingredients Used For Cut Sirloin Steak Chunks
Spring Onions
Sea Salt
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| Sirloin Steak Taken from the Package |
Ingredients Used For Herb Pasta With Pesto
Two Images of Herb Pasta Still in Packaging
Green Garlic Pesto Sauce
Project Summary
I learned a lot of things about negative and positive aspects of getting locally grown ingredients for this project. When I was looking for recipes or possible dishes to make from looking at cooking and food websites online, I found that many of the ingredients that I wanted to make for this project were automatically ruled out because I knew I wouldn't be able obtain them around this area. For example, I wanted to make a dish that required olive oil but I know for a fact that olive oil is not produced in Virginia but in Italy or other parts of Europe. Even when it came to finding salt or food that isn't grown during this season like potatoes or mushrooms, the possibility of finding these ingredients are slim as it is not grown at this time and the number of people who have these items may not have it anymore. Lastly, buying locally grown ingredients that I found at farmer's markets I went to were more expensive than the same things you could find at the super market. I can list many other cons of just eating locally grown ingredients but I want to acknowledge that there is value in buying locally grown ingredients. First of all, locally grown ingredients allow you to know where you are getting your ingredients instead of just relying on the information you see on the food container. Secondly, the people that buy locally grown ingredients are able to talk to the farmer and ask questions about how they grew them and if they used any pesticides. Thirdly, many products you buy in the grocery store are not locally grown so local vendors are losing business when they are having to compete with ingredients that are grown and shipped from outside the United States. After working on this project, it has got me interested in going to farmer's markets to buy locally grown ingredients even though they are expensive. I'm the kind of person who likes to know where there food is coming from. So when I was able to talk to vendors about their products it was great to hear it from an actual person rather than leaving me confused with the ingredients listed on the side of the food container. Most importantly, this project has helped me to realize how I take grocery stores for granted. When I need to get potatoes to make a potato salad or mushrooms for a pasta dish I'm making, I can just get these ingredients at the store at any time even if its not grown during the time I buy it. The convenience and the ease I have in obtaining any product I want at anytime compared to the difficulty in obtaining one or more products at farmer's markets and locally grown food markets has helped me to see food shopping in two very different ways.
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