Well-Travelled Potatoes
The recent stormy weather did not keep me from the Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago, where I was proud to support the few hardy vendors that turned out.
One vendor that didn't make it was a couple from Redding that sells potatoes (70 miles away).
I thought I would go without potatoes, but at Trader Joes I spotted a rarity: Organic produce, relatively locally grown--"Frieda's Organic Klamath Pearl Potatoes" (from the Klamath basin, about 200 miles north of Chico)
I bought them immediately (an impulse buy--pitiful, I know, it used to be my impulse purchase was a packet of M&M's), but when I got home I learned that my potatoes had apparently taken a detour to Frieda's 85,000 foot warehouse in Los Alamitos (20 miles south of Los Angeles) prior to showing up in Chico.
Distance from the Klamath Basin (Klamath Falls) to Chico: 211 miles
Distance from the Klamath Basin to Los Alamitos to Chico: 1198 miles
I would have been better off supporting an organic potato grower in Idaho (Boise to Chico: 587 miles).
Or perhaps I should just flag down the Frieda's potato truck when it passes through Orland.
Or wait until the local potatoes return the market.
Or grow my own spuds.