This sounds pretty much like what I do, except for the caraway seeds, which I plan to try. My butcher has “ham ends” for sale quite inexpensively; for two of us, one provides a ham dinner, some sandwiches, and a bone for pea or bean soup.

Very interesting! Here in Maine, we use Bakewell Cream, which is aluminum-free and is used in a 2 to 1 ratio with baking soda (for instance 2/3 tsp. Bakewell Cream to 1/3 tsp. baking soda). But next time I buy double-acting baking powder, I’ll look for Rumford.

Being a locavore does not necessarily mean eating no canned or frozen foods. Even with my small freezer I have local rhubarb in there right now. Some of the CSAs here have ‘winter shares’ so they store carrots, etc. under proper conditions and you get them as you need them. I can also buy Morse’s sauerkraut made about 40 miles away, and canned or dried beans, squash, pumpkin from a local cannery. I don’t think that trying to eat locally means giving up spices, citrus fruit, coffee or tea...but responsible eating DOES mean making sure that those foods are sustainably grown and harvested and that the growers, the actual farmers, are fairly compensated. The rising prices for fossil fuels and their impending disappearance are having and will have much greater effect on truckdrivers, etc. than the local food movement.

I stand convicted! A week or so ago I needed apples for a favorite dessert recipe to take to a potluck. The only local apples still available were not a good cooking variety and I bought apples from - Chile? New Zealand? Now I’m thinking about adapting that recipe to use, for example, rhubarb, should I want to make it in the spring. It’s not easy being mindful, but in the end it may help our creativity as well as the planet.