cultivating local retailers source: Anthropologie Catalog, 2009,

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver prevailed upon my pocketbook.  I used to leave anything labeled organic or local on the shelf; I wasn’t about to be swindled. I’m nearly a decade-dedicated vegetarian, and I try to eat whole foods at every meal, but I’m also pridefully parsimonious.  You don’t grow a shopping budget by throwing all your quarters away on pampered parsnips.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

But this book detailed the costs of cross-country food transportation and pesticide-polluted mass production.  And while guilt stung my scruples as I considered my babies consuming vitamin-deficient, carcinogen carrying cucumbers, what really veered my volition was loss of flavor.  While I feel compelled to care about genetic mutation and heirloom extinction, I bow to the instant gratification of taste.  And food that has to travel long distances isn’t bred to taste, it’s bred to survive.  Hence perfectly round, red tomatoes tasting of water-logged rice cakes.

My newborn commitment to local produce also inspired a re-evaluation of local retail.  I’m a veteran online shopper, and it takes irresistible bait to compel me to tow 2.3 babies, 2 and under into any establishment that does not provide its own double seater trolley cart. But quality and variety are beckoning bait, and that’s precisely what local shopping delivers.

The next several posts are the results of my pilgrimage through Phoenix retail.
I hope you’ll share your local gems with me as well.

redesign, restyle, resrouce

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