Shortening the Supply Chain

One of the fun activities that is part of eating locally is shortening the supply chain. The typical supply chain shows a product traveling from a supplier, to a purchaser, to production, then distribution, and finally to the customer (which always makes me laugh since I'm pretty sure that I purchased the good). I sat down to a pasta dinner a few days ago and realized that in most cases we skipped the internal supply chain all together. The zucchini came from my neighbor's garden, the onions from another volunteer for the Eat Local Challenge, and the tomatoes and herbs came from my garden. (You may also note a huge monetary savings thus far.) I purchased the chicken directly from the farmers on the same day they were harvested. The eggs used in my pasta came from a farm in Provo and the only stop they made was at the Green Building Center which acted as distributor. The flour I purchased directly from a small mill in Logan. I suppose there was no distributor there. Finally, the chevre which topped my delicious meal did go through a distributor, but I'm guessing that the farmer did not sell his goat's milk off to a purchaser as the production is still his operation.

This all amounted to a gourmet-tasting dinner that cost very little and was made of fresher ingredients since not too many folks were involved in handling my food.

While this post is going up a number of days after the fact, here's what I ate that day:
Breakfast - two Eggs Over Medium on Wheat Toast, Black Currant Juice
Lunch - Grilled Cheese with Tomatoes
Dinner - Homemade Pasta with Vegetable Sauce
Snacks - Yogurt with Blackberries, Carrots, Peaches