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Initial Impressions
Two days ago I spent three hours milling around Polk’s Market, the Fresh Market and Publix, looking for local and regional foods, talking to store clerks, and getting hungry. At Polk’s I met the owners Jerry and Diane and had some nice conversations.
Polk’s gets all their produce and jarred goods from farmers around the region and take a lot of pride in their offerings. Jerry explained a lot to me and I’m going to write it down for you.
Jerry drew a complex map on a napkin to explain where all their produce comes from during the winter months. Basically I got really educated on the subject really fast. Savannah’s ( and Georgia’s) growing season is from June to October, so most local produce isn’t really available during the winter and spring months, except for a few hardy greens like collards, turnips and mustards, as well as cabbage and young vidalia onions that resemble leeks. As the temperatures get colder, more produce comes from Florida where small scale farms still produce. A section of Florida north of Miami is noted for growing a variety of popular veg on non-commercial, non chemical farms, and the Tampa region also grows some nice things in the winter, so each operation sends a truckload up to a giant Jacksonville market (I don’t know how often) and someone from Polk’s drives down to Jacksonville and picks it up, then sells it in Savannah. Most of the produce hasn’t even been washed yet, and none of it is coated in waxes or stickered with upc’s. In the winter, this is the widest variety of regional and local food you can find in Savannah. I stocked up on a few things and told Jerry I’d contact him for a formal interview soon, and he said he’d do anything to help, so…the project is really under way!
Fresh Market: The dairy manager told me they don’t carry any regional cheese, but if I find the name of some I want he can try to get it in the store for me. No Georgia wines, but the wine specialist says that they’re working on getting something through corporate. They carry fresh Georgia shrimp! The guys I talked to said it was absolutely delicious and there are no health concerns to worry about ( I was curious about mercury and all the dirty water I keep hearing of). One interesting thing I also noted: Fresh Market is based in Greensboro, North Carolina but their eggs are packaged in Georgia. These are the only local-ish eggs I’d seen so far, so I got some.
Publix was frustrating and amusing simultaneously. I began to pay more attention to how people were shopping than to every label of every package of food. People really don’t care. They want in and out. They want the cheapest and best looking piece of whatever, irregardless of if it’s from Indonesia or not. The produce man couldn’t tell me where their 10+ varieties of potatoes come from, and I noticed that with the larger and store brands, packages don’t say where the food originated, only who it was made exclusively for or where it’s distribution chain began. This made things more problematic for me, so I didn’t buy anything. Savannah Publix has a huge selection of wine, but none of it from the Georgia region so instead I was tipped off by an employee to another liquor store that supposedly has lots of it.
I decided that as of the 18th, I’ll be on a regional food plan, where the only things I’ll eat will be grown in the neighborhood. Eating completely locally, as in Chatham County or even Georgia proper isn’t really viable in the winter. The closest farm is 61 miles away and there are no dairies around (anywhere) for butter or cheese. By eating regionally I’ll be able to find necessities like flour, sugar, veg, fruit, beer and chicken, and I’ll still be supporting small-scale farms and community operations. If it were summer there might be completely different doors open, so we’ll see what happens come spring. I’ll be documenting the progress here.
