A DULAIS Valley housewife is hoping to convert more people to the “buy local” cause, by living on nothing but locally-sourced food for 12 weeks.
Linda Ware, of Main Road, Cilfrew, started her campaign on October 1, and plans to live for three months without entering a supermarket or using a plastic bag.
Aa well as boosting the trade of local traders, Linda’s campaign is part of a bid to reduce the “air miles” of food and reduce her own carbon footprint in the process.
“I’m using only local shops,” she said.
“The local shop in Cilfrew has got a lot of things in for me, and other local shops can get me anything I want.
“I’m going to be doing 90 per cent of my shopping in the market.”
She has made arrangements to buy all her staple foods – milk, flour, butter, sugar, eggs, fruit, vegetables, meat and herbs – from local sellers and plans to compost all her food waste.
She said anything with plastic packaging is a definite “no-no” – any paper packaging will be burnt in her incinerator.
She will have to do without anything that cannot be sourced locally, or that cannot be bought in environmentally-friendly packaging.
For example, she has been unable to source cream in a glass container – so will be forsaking it for the next 12 weeks.
And criticism of the project has even come from her own son.
Ms Ware said: “My son has just left for university – thankfully, he states – and so I am able to do this.
“He said his mother can do this mad thing without him.
“But he does support it, because he likes his good food.”
And there are other downsides to the project.
“Because I’m going without certain foods, I find I’m craving,” she said.
Ms Ware said she has had so much support for her project that she is now investigating the possibility of running a farmers market in Cilfrew.
“The interest has been fantastic,” she said.
“We’re going to try and hold the market in the old vestry.
“We just need to find out from the council if we can use the building to sell fruit and veg.”
You can follow Linda’s efforts in her weekly Guardian, or online at auntieplastic.blogspot.com
