Eating Locally & Seasonally - by Elizabeth Simpson & Henning K Sehmsdorf (Paperback)

About the Book

As the world faces simultaneous hunger and food waste, we see that individuals can make an difference by the way they live, eat, and treat the world around them. Eating locally and seasonally is the most important step that all of us can take.

Book Synopsis

As the world faces the conundrum of simultaneous hunger and food waste, pandemics, climate change, depletion of natural resources, species extinction, water, soil, and air pollution, and chronic illnesses, we see that individuals can make an enormous difference by the way they live, eat, and treat the world around them. Eating local and seasonally-produced food is probably the most important step because it is a step all of us can take.

Launched at Transition Lopez Island's recent virtual conference, "Continuing the Journey," the book is available in print at the Lopez Bookshop, Sunnyfield Farmstand, the Lopez Library, and Blossom Grocery. In Eastsound, it can be found at Darvill's Bookstore and the Orcas Food Co-op, in Friday Harbor at Griffin Bay Books, and in Bellingham at Village Books in Fairhaven. It can also be ordered online at transi8onlopezisland.org. Out of their commitment to a sustainable future, the authors are offering free downloadable copies (also found on the website).

Accompanying instructional videos based on recipes from the book are available on YouTube. Visit transitionlopezisland.org for a list of local retailers or to order the book directly online. Out of their commitment to a sustainable future, the authors are also offering free downloadable copies on the same website. Accompanying instructional videos based on recipes from the book are available on YouTube.

Review Quotes

"Given everything we've learned this year about the fragility of our food system this is a timely hands-on guide to growing, harvesting, and eating healthy, local, and seasonal foods. In it, you will find seasonal growing charts and instructions on everything from canning and fermenting to bread baking and cheese making. Each of the 385 recipes has been handcrafted by Henning and Elizabeth over 50 years of raising and eating their own food: vegetables, herbs, meat, dairy, fruits and berries, grains, or wild plants, all grown on or near their biodynamic farm, S&S Homestead Farm. The vast knowledge shared across these pages can guide anyone in building a renewed relationship to nourishment, no matter where one lives. I hope that [this book] will be read widely in the community (and beyond) and that consumers will demand the kind of food described in the book for their own health, the health of the environment, and, not least, the health of their children and future generations. As Wendell Berry famously said, "Eating is an agricultural act." It is also a celebration of one of the greatest delights in human life."

-- Arlen Coily, Chef at Storia Cucina, Bellingham, WA.

"Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson's Eating Locally and Seasonally: A Community Food Book for Lopez Island (2021) . . . is a must-read for San Juan County islanders, but also for all curious about a local, sustainable, and healthful food system. The hundreds of recipes of fresh, local, organic, seasonal, and sustainable food attest to the utility and success of the experiment in biodynamics begun decades ago on Lopez Island. The beneficiaries of the fruits of Sehmsdorf and Simpson's labor have always been Lopez islanders, and now, with the publication of this book, the world.

-- Gigi Berardi, cheesemaker for Three Sheep Creamery on Shaw Island, Huxley College professor, and award-winning author of FoodWISE: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices (North Atlantic Books, 2020).

"As the title of Elizabeth Simpson and Henning Sehmsdorf's book Eating Locally & Seasonally promises, it is a seminal volume chock full of information for gardeners, cooks, local activists, or anyone keenly interested in food and regenerative agriculture. If we still need justification for re-establishing vibrant local food systems, their text gives ample reasons from improved health, far better tasting food, sustainable use of the environment, ability to feed ourselves year-round, supporting the local farming economy and securing a more resilient future for our communities.

Hundreds of straightforward recipes, garnered from fifty years of growing their own food at S&S Homestead and organized by easy-to-navigate chapters, are provided to give a framework to learning to eat, not only a local, but a seasonal diet. This adds a new dimension to the fun of supporting farmers markets in summer and fall; in winter we must depend on what we've preserved from the harvest. Therefore, this book is also a primer for the whole range of preservation techniques - canning, drying, fermenting, freezing, pickling, juicing, salting, and dry-storage. [These] are some of the highlights in store for anyone who is hungering to know more about how to live the way many of our forebears did, . . .in every season cherishing the planet and all its gifts. All proceeds go to Transition Lopez Island in support of their work."

- Andy Finley, Transition Lopez Island (2021)