Happy Thanksgiving! I thought that food would be an appropriate subject for this week's photo, so I took a picture of our LOFT box. For those that don't know, most of the vegetables that we eat are locally grown and are grown without the use of pesticides and herbicides, or even fertilizers. Not only is it sustainable, but it cuts down on carbon emissions as well since the food doesn't have to be trucked over long distances.

LOFT stands for "Local Organic Food Team", and we heard about the program last summer from a friend, so we tried it out for a few months last year to see what it was like. This year we signed up and prepaid for the full season (from the beginning of June to the end of December). They have three different sizes this year: The Loft Bag, the Family Box, and the Heavy Box. We signed up to get a Family Box each week, which is quite a lot of food for two people, but since we are mostly vegetarian at home we usually manage to get through it all.

The veggies are delicious! It is such a big difference between fresh local produce and the stuff they sell in the grocery store that has been shipped from Mexico and has ripened on the truck. Obviously there are some downsides: For one, we don't get to choose what is in the box. In fact, it is usually a complete surprise when we get home and open it up. It's like Christmas every week, which is nice, but occasionally we get veggies that neither of us like and we have to figure out what to do with them, or try to give them away to friends. Also, we are limited to whatever veggies can be grown locally and are in season, so sometimes we have so much corn or squash that we don't know what to do with it all. The third downside is that since there are no preservatives or chemicals added, the food spoils faster than grocery store produce, but we have learned which items we have to eat quickly and which ones will last a week until we get the next box.

All in all, I consider the downsides to be quite minor, compared with the benefits of getting tasty fresh local veggies every week! This is a photo of the Family Box that we picked up on October 6th. You can get a good sense of the variety of veggies, fruits, and herbs that come in the box. The picture was taken in our kitchen, but on the map I marked the location that we pick up the box from, which is conveniently on my way home from work.

I should also mention some other things we did this Thanksgiving weekend: Tanya, Jason and Chloe came over for a visit Friday evening and Saturday morning. Then we all went to Kim and Joe's wedding, where Angela and I were in charge of looking after Chloe and Kim & Joe's son Darren during the ceremony and while the photos were being taken. Then on Sunday we went to Angela's mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner where we all ate too much. Today (Monday) we are relaxing. Well, I am relaxing while Angela is at work. Hopefully she will be done soon and then she can relax as well. :)

Technical details: This photo was taken with my Rebel XT + kit lens at 18mm, ISO 1600, f/4.5 for 1/30th of a second.

Comments

Looks delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving :-)