About the Blog: I share my experiences as I cook through all the recipes in Simply in Season. Through this process I hope to discover simple ways of preparing local, healthy foods and learn more about nutrition, sustainability, and how our eating choices impact the world.

I’m not professionally trained, although I have taken a few classes here and there. I didn’t grow up cooking. I also don’t know all there is to know about ethical/sustainable/organic food, but I’m interested in learning. So while I don’t have all the answers, I hope you’ll join me in this learning adventure. The good news is that if I can do this, anyone can!

My husband (DH) loves that I’m cooking more, although he is a great cook himself, and often gives me lots of great ideas for improving the recipe once I’ve made it once or twice.  It DOES take effort to cook this much. But the blog has made it fun, and I’m learning tricks to make things go faster (like planning and shopping ahead, for example, or doing the prepwork for a few recipes at once).

About Me: I work full time at a job I love, doing public relations for an international relief and development organization. I have a great husband whose hobbies include homebrewing and triathlons. Our “kids” include two Italian Greyhounds and two cats.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do you have a deadline?

Yes, I want to finish all the recipes by the end of August 2010. After that I will continue this as a regular blog that focuses on the same issues, and local ingredients. I think I’m a convert now.

Does it cost a lot to eat this way?

No, in fact our grocery bill has gone down substantially. Most of the ingredients are very simple and feature things you wouldn’t normally think of featuring – like cabbage, carrots, and other produce that is inexpensive when it’s in season.

Where do you get your groceries?

From June-October I get my vegetables from Trillium Haven CSA, supplemented by the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market.

In the winter, I get produce from a winter CSA (Eater’s Guild), Artisan Food Express, and when it works into my schedule the West Michigan Co-op.

I get my milk, eggs, chicken, and occasionally cheese and other meats from Grassfield’s.

I occasionally get beef from Byron Center Meats, or venison when my husband is able to shoot a deer.

I get whole grains and other staples in bulk from Harvest Health Foods.

Everything else I get as needed from Meijer’s, a locally owned grocery store, or Costco.

Disclosure Policy

As required by the Federal Trade Commission, here is my disclosure policy. While I  know that such fine print is about as exciting as watching water boil, here it is anyway.

• Items in my resource section are things for which I am paid a (very, very) small commission if you buy them after you click through my site’s link. Trust me, I am not in this to make money. If something is in there that means I use it myself and would recommend it to my friends and family.
• I do not accept money for posts, so anything I write is of my own free will and not influenced by monetary gain or lack thereof.
• Some of my giveaways are generously sponsored; others I pay for out of my own pocket. In each post I’ll tell you if someone gave it to me for free. Speaking of which, I don’t give away crap. So if a company does offer something to me for free and it sucks I am not going to give it to you. I’ll save it for regifting to relatives.
• Same thing applies to book reviews. If a publisher sends me a book, and I like it, I will give it a good review along with a link to Amazon (and if you buy it I get a few cents, as stated in item #1.) If I don’t like it, I will donate it to the library and not post about it because as momma says, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
• I am a member of the FoodBuzz network so I do get paid (again, a very, very small amount) each time you visit my site. So come back now, ya hear?

Comment Policy

Anything vulgar, spammy, or downright rude will not be tolerated. It’s my blog, so there. I can delete you if I want. I’m also not responsible if I don’t catch it before it’s posted. But I’ll do my best, ’cause I hate mean people.

Privacy Policy

I will not sell any information that you include in your comments. Unless I get a book deal, that would be cool. Then I guess technically it would be selling the comments, eh? But I won’t sell your email addresses, but again, who knows nowadays if people want to take the time to cut and paste the emails from the comment section I guess I can’t stop them.  I have no idea where companies get our email addresses, but I really don’t need anything enlarged so if you get any email like that I didn’t give them your address!

Policy Policy

I’m still kind of new at this blogging thing, so if I need more policies I’ll add them here. I think I have all the bases covered, but if you have any questions feel free to email me at wendy at thelocalcook dot com.