Holistic nutritionist (and, if I overheard correctly, midwife-in-training) Jae Steele recently followed up her first book Get It Ripe: A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking and Living with Ripe From Around Here: A Vegan Guide to Local and Sustainable Eating (No Matter Where You Live). The book is intended to help readers deepen their understanding of organic and local foods, and their positive impact on our health and our planet. It contains 180 recipes which encourage the use of fresh, organic ingredients wherever possible.

On May 26, in a “small bites” post I wrote,

This evening I spontaneously went the book launch for Jae Steele’s new book Ripe From Around Here: A Vegan Guide to Local and Sustainable Eating (No Matter Where You Live) (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010). I will give this event its own blog post because my original “small bite” about it was  long-ish. I will say this though: Jae is charming and I’d enjoy hearing/reading what else she has to say. I look forward to getting my hands on copies of both of her books, making some of the recipes and blogging about them. I’m passionate about the subject matter and supporting local writers.

And, she recognized me from Twitter which was extra awesome because I wasn’t already following her on Twitter.

An earlier version of that paragraph, the one that got scrapped and made me decide to give the event its own post was this:

This evening, with many book launches in the city and the Chocolate 101 workshop in Kensington Market, I ended up at the book launch for Jae Steele’s new book Ripe From Around Here: A Vegan Guide to Local and Sustainable Eating (No Matter Where You Live) (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010). When I say “ended up”, I mean it was spontaneous. I’d decided not to go down to Kensington Market for the second day in a row (though the workshop sounded awesome and I will go to subsequent ones), peered into another book launch on the way home, opened my computer when I got home and saw a tweet about the Ripe launch. Someone had recently mentioned it to me but I didn’t know where it was and didn’t really process it because I thought I had other plans. So, got dressed again, threw some stuff – albeit not a camera and I had no cash – in my purse, and was at FoodShare in a half hour. My friend Suzanne, who’d tweeted the event, was there, as was Meghan, tired after her 5:30am call at CBC radio‘s Metro Morning where she spoke about dandelions. There was a table spread out with food made from recipes in the book, accompanied by labels with recipe names and page numbers. What stood out for me was the maple cake, the stuffed mushroom caps and the pate.

Without money. I couldn’t buy Jae’s books, but look forward to doing so.

…I subsequently had a busy week and left town for four days during which I blogged only a little (this is one of three blog posts I’ve got in progress). My memory is hazy now but I’ll do my best.

After nibbles that included sugar-free, wheat free pastries (cookies, cakes) that were anything but free of taste and beverages that included a beet lemonade, Jae – funny, quirky, endearing and adorable – gave an engaging PowerPoint presentation that addressed when it’s best to eat local and when you can compromise. It’s not an all or nothing approach. The 100 Mile Diet might be sustainable for some people but – I’d argue – most people want something more appropriate to their lifestyle and people are less likely to take the journey if it doesn’t seem sustainable. As she says, she likes bananas. Bananas aren’t local. However, by reducing her consumption of one banana per day to one every second day, that’s 182 fewer bananas per year. That’s 182 fewer pieces of imported fruit. Jae gave a list of pantry staples. She listed items that people might not know are produced locally. (She also mentioned that Heinz ketchup is local, if you don’t mind that it’s not organic and it’s full of sugar.)

Here’s a quote about the book from 100 Mile Diet co-author J.B. MacKinnon that addresses this. I think it’s a better description of the book than the publisher’s, which is what I adapted in the first paragraph above:

Anyone who thinks that vegetarians and locavores are two solitudes has yet to dig in to Ripe from Around Here, jae steele’s radical compromise on ethical eating. With her ‘near’ and ‘far’ pantries, she brings the best of both worlds together in a way that’s simple, sensible—and let’s not forget, delicious. More than just a recipe book, this is a compendium of real-world philosophy to chew on while your onions saute, your dough rests, or your beans bake (don’t miss the baked beans). You might just find you’re feeling ripe to change the world.

See what others say about the book.

At the launch event Jae emphatically promoted Karma Co-op, a non-profit member-owned and operated co-operative food store that emphasizes organic and local foods and environmentally friendly household products. It was a good reminder for me because over the years I’ve periodically considered becoming a member. I also picked up brochures from the West End Food Co-op and the FoodCycles CSA and chatted with the lovely women at the information table.

The West End Food Co-op operates the Sorauren Farmer’s Market (one of these days I’ll remember how to spell “Sorauren”) as well as the Parkdale Processing Project, a community cannery. Next year they will be opening a store

I think I’ve since read mention of FoodCycles in the book Locavore but because I went to Jae’s book launch while reading Locavore I have been getting the two mixed up in my mind. While I like the convenience of a local CSA, I like the way that the FoodCycles CSA works: Participants visit the farm once a week to pick up a pre-packaged bag of fresh vegetables. The CSA farmer is on hand to answer questions about the farm. The share includes 16 weeks of fresh vegetables, 1 large cloth bags and 2 small drawstring bags for transporting the share, “u-pick” herbs and vegetables and access to workshops and events.

In general I appreciate that the CSA model connects people to their food and their farmers and I’m glad to be part of the planning of one this year. I really like what’s happening with the locavore movement in Toronto and look forward to learning more from Jae and others. Eating local with Jae Steele is all ripe with me. (Hey, I avoided calling her a “woman of steele”.)

See what others say about Jae Steele, Ripe From Around Here and the book launch:

• Vegan Cookbook Critic Lisa posted a report about the book launch
• Tasting T.O. with Jae Steele
• Meghan interviewed her for the National Post
• She also did a podcast with Jae
• Podcast at the Toronto Vegetarian Association

Eat well, be well.