Necessities

There area lot of everyday items gave me some trouble at first. I mean, where am I supposed to get normal grocery store stuff, blank CDs, razor blades or deodorant locally? I previously went to a CVS for stuff like that, and most of the local pharmacies aren’t around anymore. There’s Skendarian Apotehecary in Cambridge, you may have seen their TV commercials. They are family owned for decades now, and one of the last independent pharmacies around. That said, these items are recurring needs, so I wanted to find somewhere in Somerville that would work.

I tried convenience stores, but the prices are WAY too high (huge surprise, I know). CVS, Shaws, Market Basket (regional chain) are out. The solution I settled upon was local chain grocer Johnny’s Foodmaster. They’ve been around for a long time, and even though they are a chain, they’re a local chain to me, with stores only in Eastern Massachusetts. Doing a little research, I found this on their website:

In 1947, John DeJesus Sr. opened his first food market in East Cambridge. Since then, Johnnie’s Foodmaster has been a successful family tradition.

Today, with John’s son John A. DeJesus at the helm, Foodmaster operates stores in Somerville, Medford, Revere, Charlestown, Arlington, Melrose, Lynn, South Weymouth, Whitman, as well as Johnnie’s Fresh Market in Brookline.

Foodmaster’s foundation for success lies in its dedication to providing the freshest foods with first-rate customer service, and an unwavering dedication to the communities that we serve.

So, they’re a chain, but the company is private and family owned. The stores operate in a close proximity to each other. Also, notice the wording at the end, ‘the communities that we serve’. Once again, the personal relationship between a local business and its community is completely different than that of a non-local business.

McKinnons

One of the most famous local businesses in Somerville is McKinnons. I’ve known about it for many years, but until recently had never ventured into the store. Part of it is my utter lack of cooking skills and interest. However, my roommates & I picked up a grill recently (free on Craigslist!) and have been using it 3-4 times a week since. So I thought this would be a perfect time to try out McKinnons, and what a great experience it was!

I went on a meat run (insert clever line here), to pick up food for memorial day weekend. I got the following:

-4 lbs of ground beef

-3.5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast

-2 packages of sweet italian sausage

-2lbs of pork tenderloin

-1 package of fresh blueberries

So here are a few observations. McKinnons is pretty small, and when I was there it was really crowded. That said, I didn’t have the ‘on edge, anxious’ feeling I get sometimes when it’s really busy at a chain store. I tend to get antsy in that situation and really feel like I want to get out of there asap. At McKinnons, I just felt a different energy and, even though when I got in line there were 10 people in front of me, I felt a laid back and positive vibe. I know that’s subjective. But we’re not only doing this local thing for the good vibes, we’re also concerned about our checkbook. Most of us assume that items are MORE expensive locally. However, I did some research on these items using the Peapod website for Shaws to get comparative pricing. Check out this price comparison:

Mckinnons Peapod (Shaws)
Sausage $1.99 / lb $1.99 / lb

Ground Beef $1.99 / lb $3.69 / lb

Chicken $1.99 / lb $4.49 / lb

Pork Tenderloin $1.99 / lb $6.99 / lb

Blueberries $1.99 $3.49

So here’s the quick math. @ McKinnons I spent just over $25. If I had bought the same products @ Shaws I would have paid $51!!! So, while there is definitely the perception that going local is more expensive, the reality in this case is that it is exactly the opposite.

The Local Vodka Cocktail

If you didn’t know, Somerville is home to over 30 different brands of Vodka. MS Walker Inc. http://www.mswalker.com/index.htm is a family owned business incorporated in 1933. They make a lot of ‘economy’ vodkas, which you may remember from your high school or college days (Check out this entertaining Urban Dictionary link: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rubinoff). That said, this is the perfect libation for my local experiment…SO, we had some friends over the other night and I volunteered to go to the liquor store. I went to Ball Square Liquors (This is a great spot that I will feature in a future post) and bought, among other things, a 1 liter (plastic) bottle of Rubinoff Citron Vodka.

I created the following concoction, which was a complete hit with my friends. You can increase or decrease the portions to suit your taste. The best part? All the ingredients (with the exception of a citrus twist, lemon or lime depending on your preference) are LOCALLY MADE. This fulfils rule #1 (Buy from a locally owned business) and Rule #2 (Buy locally made products). Cheers!

-2 parts Rubinoff Citron Vodka

-3 parts Polar Diet Orange Dry Soda (Polar soda is made in Worcester)

-1 part Mercury Lime Bubbly Water (Mercury brewing is in Ipswich)

-I slice lime/lemon

***Ice, stir and enjoy!****

That’s it for this post. Stay tuned next time for stories about my friends going local, another round of price comparisons and more!

Think Local, Shop Local,

Joe G.

Redefining Locavore

After some research into the term Locavore, I found that it has been used primarily to describe eating local food. So really, we’re redefining the Oxford Dictionary word of the year. But we can do that right?

Therefore, for the purposes of this experiment, we’ll be referring to Locavore as someone who purchases only locally, following Rule #1.

It all starts with Coffee

I must admit, I’ve been preparing for this switch in purchasing habits for a while. I grew up in Boston, and like so many, had been indoctrinated into the Dunkin’ Donuts morning coffee cult. I stopped going to D&D about 6 months ago on a regular basis, and 3 months ago completely. I’m sure that if I had one now, I’d be loving it still, but have switched to a local coffee diet now. True Grounds is my closest and preferred local shop (I’m on my second free coffee card), it’s also on my way to work which makes it the most convenient. I also have been hitting up Diesel Café, Sherman Café and Bloc 11 pretty regularly (They also all happen to be on the SLF Steering Committee).

My takeaway has been this: the coffee is better – I really feel that way, it’s cheaper or at least equal to the price of D&Ds and definitely less expensive than Starbucks, and I love going in and seeing a familiar and friendly face in the morning. The one drawback so far has been parking: it’s not always easy to find a spot in the morning and since I cut it close and wake up as late as possible, there’s not always time for me to look for a spot.

Local Food

The fastest, and the most frequent way, to go local is by supporting local food sources. I’ve been looking at a few different ways to do this. First, the most effective way to start eating locally, for me, has been to stop going to any chain restaurants or food establishments, and support local restaurants, grocery stores and produce instead. Pretty much, wherever I am in my life, there’s a locally owned option (I don’t make it out to the Rt. 9 strip much, but I guess it could be a problem there).

Here are a few things I’ve tried recently with produce:

-Boston Organics

I live with 3 other people, we call our house The Salmon Palace in deference to its lovely exterior color, and I may refer to it as such from time to time. We’ve been working out some of our grocery options lately. We tried the organic produce delivery service. They’re not in Somerville, but are locally owned and deliver food from local farms. In the end though, the produce was good, but the quantity for what we paid was questionable. We decided to stop the subscription after 1 delivery.

-Farm Shares (Community Supported Agriculture)

We are also looking into purchasing a Farm Share, (Red Fire Farm is one option we looked at) which is good in a couple of ways. First, you really do become a Locavore in that you are eating only what can be grown locally. Also, CSA is a really cool concept that supports a thriving local economy of food and creates a partnership and relationship with local farmers. For my experiment, the drawback is that it’s not a Somerville farm (not that there could be one I guess). Also, there’s a significant up front cash requirement. $150 for each roommate if we all did it, and there was a chance that only 3 will do so, meaning it would be more like $225 apiece.

-Farmers Markets

I think this is really the ideal solution for our household. We can support local farms, pick and purchase exactly what we want and do so on a weekly basis. Being in Somerville, I’m pretty fortunate to have some great farmers markets in my neighborhood. We have:

Davis Sqaure Farmers Market on Wednesdays, May-October from 12-6 PM. This one works for me because I work weekends but have Wednesdays off.

Union Square Farmers Market on Saturdays, June 7th through October 25th from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

For more information on farmers markets, check out this site: http://www.massfarmersmarkets.org/

Dining Out

With my lifestyle, dining out is more of a norm than an exception. The great news, for me, is that dining out is a really easy way to go local. In Somerville, we are blessed with some terrific cuisine. And what a variety! We have everything from pub fare to Ethiopian Cuisine to Brazillian BBQs. I recently tried out a couple new restaurants:

Catalina la Mexicana

This business is such a great story in so many ways. For 13 years, Robert Rendon has been operating Taqueria la Mexicana in Union Square. He recently purchased the building they occupied and expanded his business. To do his expansion and remodeling, he hired Kimo Griggs Architecture and Other City Builders, both local businesses. Other City Builders is owned by one of the owners of Sherman Café, also in Union Square. As a result of the income from this project, Sherman Café will be expanding and launching The Sherman Market, an all natural foods store. This is yet another compelling example of local businesses supporting each other, and reinvesting in their community.

Now, here’s some more info about the restaurant. The food was great, and I hear they have just launched a new restaurant menu that promises to be even more delicious! They are still in the early stages of this type of business, so they are learning. We went on Cinco de Mayo and they were swamped with customers. But that said, I watched as, time after time, Robert and his staff greeted customers with a warm and accommodating manner. I predict great things for this new business!

Rodizio

Rodizio is a new Brazilian BBQ restaurant in East Somerville. I was lucky enough to be able to check this spot out with one of the editors from the Weekly Dig. If you’ve never been to this type of place, you HAVE to go, and believe me, bring you’re appetite! They have a buffet of sides from which you can choose. Then, they have roving table service for their many meat delicacies. When we were there, they had: Pork (my favorite), Beef, Chicken, Chicken Hearts (tried it, not my favorite), and two types of sausage. I also think they have fish and other specialties from time to time.

Slip Ups

Each week I will also, in the interest of full disclosure, talk about any rule breaking that I’ve done.

Rule #1 – Shop at locally owned businesses

I’m happy to report that at no time did I break Rule #1. I stayed local all the way.
Rule #2 – Purchase products made as close to home as possible

I did ok on this one, but this definitely takes more research and time. I’ll write more about this in a future post.

Rule #3 – Spend my money with Somerville businesses.

I did ok on this one as well. I had one meal outside of Somerville this week (peer pressure can be tough). I also had a couple of drinks at some spots in the South End and Downtown. I know there are a lot of places to do that in Somerville, but I have some bartender friends I wanted to visit, and we all know it’s cool, for multiple reasons, to know the bartender. Plus the lunch time issues I mentioned above. I’m going to try to be more disciplined this week. Other than that, I have been able to find my day to day items in Somerville regularly.

Challenges

One of the challenges I have faced in my first week is lunch. I work at my day job which is about 2 miles from Somerville, in Arlington. I have been great at keeping it local for lunch (mostly takeout from locally owned restaurants in Arlington), but have been having a hard time following Rule 3 and keeping my money in Somerville. This week, I’m going to try to pack a lunch and see how that works. I will say I’ve tried this in the past and haven’t had the discipline to stick with it, so wish me luck!

Next week

For the next edition, I’ll be writing more about my local food experiences. Also, I will be including a fabulous new drink recipe called the Local Vodka Cocktail, a mixture made up of all local components. As always, please add your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

Locally Yours,

Joe G.

Welcome to a bold new experiment. For the next 90 days, I will be borrowing a chapter from Morgan Spurlock and his 30 days concept (if you haven’t seen Super Size Me, you really should). In Spurlock’s experiment, he chose to eat only McDonalds for a month straight, every meal. Somerville Local First is all about spending our money locally. So, for the next three months, I will try to do 100% of my spending at locally owned, independent businesses.

Before we get started, let me say that I am not perfect. I am not 100% sustainable in my lifestyle, nor will I be at the conclusion of this experiment. I don’t expect to be able to spend all of my money in Somerville or at locally owned businesses for that matter. But this is all about being on a path: I may not be there today, but I’d like to be, I’m trying to be, and I’d like you to join me.

The intent behind this project is to learn about what a typical 20-Something (soon to be 30-Something, but that’s another story all together) can do to go local. I basically have two full time jobs and I work almost every day. I mention this, not to boast , but because one of the main reasons I hear people don’t shop locally is because they don’t have the time. Well, if I can find time to do it working 80 hours per week, you probably can as well.

Also, I’ve heard a lot about shopping locally being more expensive. Well, during this experiment I’ll attempt to track my spending and compare it (when possible) to alternative non-local businesses. At the end of the three months, I should have a good sense of any true financial difference.

Finally, I have established some rules for the experiment. These rules are meant to guide me, and to inform you, of how I’m going about my choices. Here they are:

Rule #1: If I spend money it must be at a locally-owned business, if at all possible.
Rule #2: I will favor products that are made locally. In other words, if I can get a beer brewed in Massachusetts, I should do so over a beer brewed outside the state. If I can find a beer brewed in Eastern Massachusetts, I should do so over a beer brewed in Western Massachusetts.
Rule #3: I will attempt to spend my money at Somerville businesses first, whenever possible.

I hope you will find this experiment interesting, engaging and thought provoking. Most importantly, I hope you’ll consider how you could make these same everyday choices and help us build a truly vibrant local economy and sustainable community.

Locally Yours,
Joe G.