I am downriver. Trader Joe’s in Royal Oak (25 miles)is my closest option for the biggest variety of eco-friendly products. There is also Zerbo’s in Livonia (20 miles) which has a lot of health/beauty products and fair amount of groceries. I also go to Eastern Market on occasion.
Ann Arbor is about 35 miles away and I have been to the Whole Foods there, it’s just a matter of scheduling and saving gas. I live very close to work and try to keep my errands within that radius to save gas, but I am definitely not adverse to traveling farther on occasion to stock up. Ann Arbor is a beautiful, eco-conscience city that I love to visit when i have the opportunity.

That is a good point about local growers not being certified organic, I will keep that in mind when the growing season starts back up.

Thanks!

As for the organic vs. locally grown: many of the farmers that own smaller farms cannot afford all of the red tape and paperwork that goes with official organic certification… make sure you talk to them because they could be using all of the organic practices but are just not certified for monetary reasons.

Jessica

i am also a gardener so the summer months are full of not only fresh goodies from my own garden but also from my friends’ gardens and local farm markets. I have only dabbled in preserving/freezing bumper crops, since most of it does get consumed or shared.
I have already been trying this winter to only buy in-season produce from the US. But I don’t think i could go with only my state as I live in Michigan and that would mean a big citrus, banana, etc. deficiency (especially if i try to cut out carton juices as previously suggested).

My gardening hope for this summer is the added use of cold frames to extend the growing season.
Right now I’m just looking at all the snow and counting down the days til spring. :)
Thanks again for the support!

At that point I decided to start eating seasonally. It was sort of a shock at first, though made easier by the fact that I’m an avid gardener and my decision coincided with a year of bumper crops and a purchase of a big freezer to store the surplus in.

I’m not totally there yet in terms of all local food, but I won’t buy anything grown outside of the US, and I’m aiming for nothing grown outside of my state. I thought it would be a huge sacrifice at first, but it hasn’t turned out that way. In fact, it’s actually given my life a sort of rhythm that it didn’t have before. Maybe this is totally crazy, but it makes me feel connected to the planet in a much more fundamental way. Plus, there’s always something exciting to look forward to as new foods come in season.

A lot of the decisions, like traveling farther, do seem like trade-offs and it’s often tough to make that call when time is limited or when standing in the store. (for example: what leaves a bigger carbon footprint organic peppers from Israel(!) or non-organic but locally grown?)
It would definitely be easier to stock up on cleaning & health/beauty products than fresh produce, and i have carpooled as well.
Like many others here, the biggest change I see is planning ahead & knowing what products are available & where.
I see this challenge as an ongoing learning process that I hope will be beneficial to all in the long run.

I have a thought about that orange juice. I just posted another challenge tally with orange juice on it today and mentioned that I only eat fresh fruit now, not juice, because I think it’s actually better for us. Other people chimed in on that post with their own comments. Here’s the link to the post, if you want to read the comments about juice:

http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2011/01/yaga-and-trev-week-1/

There is a balance when it comes to traveling further to find plastic-free alternatives. We don’t want the extra fuel used to cancel out the reduction of plastic. Are there local products you can focus on first before considering traveling further? And when you do have to travel further, maybe you can stock up and get a lot at one time.