Eating Local is Easy (And Cheap!) With Windowsill Farming
Every environmentalist knows that being green means eating local foods. Buying an organic apple is great, but if it’s shipping from New Zealand to NY, then the organic part doesn’t mean a thing. Location is everything.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from farm to plate. That’s insane. I do my best to buy local foods. Like the red bell pepper grown in New Jersey that I bought this morning. But even better than getting my food from a nearby farm would be growing it myself. Sadly, I don’t have a garden. I live in an apartment and don’t have a patch of earth to call my own.
What I do have is a windowsill. And on that windowsill, I grow the easiest thing in the entire world. Basil. It goes with everything. Just yesterday I made the Chipotle Basil Corn Chowder from Vegan Yum Yum for lunch and then a pizza bagel using tomatoes, red onion, daiya cheese and basil for dinner. (Both pictured below.) I use my basil in wraps. I use it in pasta. And it doesn’t get any fresher than being plucked 2 minutes before consumption.
I used to buy my basil at the store. It would wilt in what seemed like minutes and I’d be left having spent a few dollars on sad droopy basil. Plus, it had been shipped in from who knows where. A total waste of money and fuel.
We apartment dwellers, or people too busy to tend a garden, can’t make our own fully fledged gardens. But there are things we can do to cut down on our “foodprint.” Basil grows so fast you’ll have more than you know what to do with. I used about 20 leaves yesterday and you can see how much I still have left by looking at the photo. Other herbs like mint are also very windowsill friendly. Give it a try and season your food with greens that only traveled three feet from farm to plate. You’ll love it. I promise.
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