What is ‘local’ for you?

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 7 December 2011 in meta | 8 comments

Yesterday on Not Dabbling In Normal, Xan wrote a post about ‘what is local?’. It’s actually something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while so I thought I’d ask you guys the same thing.

We know that it’s better to buy local food/resources and use local providers, because it means that our food, yarn or whatnot isn’t travelling halfway around the world to get to us and more money stays in our local economy rather than floating away to tax exiles overseas. But what is local to you?

Without thinking about it much, I guess I’d say local for me is things made, grown or raised in Yorkshire. It seems obvious: I live in Yorkshire and so stuff from Yorkshire is ‘local’ to me. But that’s a bit silly as there are lots of places in Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire that are nearer to me that the top reaches of North Yorkshire. I don’t think I’m the only one with that idea though – when we go to a farmers market, it’s mostly sellers from Yorkshire too. Presumably producers in Lincolnshire and Derbyshire have big cities to supply closer to home.

Perhaps a radius is a better option – according to Xan:

Joel Salation of Polyface Farm has a useful, practical definition of “local”– you can drive there and back in a day. This gives you about a 4-hour radius, or just under 300 miles.

I’m not denying that doesn’t make perfect sense for Joel and many other people but a 300 mile radius from me covers all of the UK, and the top of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and a whole lot of sea (the yellow circle on the map below). I’d put something from that 300 miles over something flown in from New Zealand or Kenya but it doesn’t feel terribly local really.

I’ve heard other people say, and particularly in British context, ‘local’ is about a 100mile radius (the green circle on the map for me). That seems closer to my idea of local and seems practical too. But if I lived on the coast in Norfolk, or up in the highlands of Scotland, a 100miles radius would include too much sea/mountainous moorland to result in a lot of produce.

I think what I’m surmising is that local means different to different people, depending on where they are – what does it mean to you?

What do you consider ‘local’? Assuming you’re unable to buy everything locally, what do you prioritise to buy locally or from local suppliers? Do you think you could survive (and enjoy it!) on just local supplies?

(Radii produced on the “Free Map Tools” website in case anyone wants to try making their own.)

(Photo by e pants)

Yorkshire Day – five reasons why I love living in West Yorkshire

Posted by louisa on Monday 1 August 2011 in meta | 4 comments

Today is Yorkshire Day, the totally made-up day of celebration in my adopted shire. Like most people, we don’t celebrate it in the slightest but I thought it was a fitting day to post some Yorkshire-centric thoughts I’ve been musing for the last few weeks.

I moved to West Yorkshire in 2000 – my then-boyfriend had a place on a teacher-training course in Leeds and since I had nothing keeping me in Liverpool (or driving me anywhere else), we moved to Leeds about a nanosecond after handing in our last essays at uni. We rented a house in Armley — the house that I went onto buy and finally sold last Friday — but I wasn’t particularly expecting to stay there or around here in general. Now though, I reckon I’ll probably stay – we might cross the border into North Yorkshire but unless we emigrate, I can’t see us leaving the land of the white rose. (I’m deeply sorry my 300+ years of Lancasterian ancestors but that’s the way it is ;) )

1. There’s lots of green space

For a metropolitan county with a population of over 2 million, West Yorkshire is bloomin’ green. And I’m not just talking about the rolling hills of farmland and moorland in the more rural bits: there are parks galore (including Roundhay Park, one of the biggest city parks in Europe) and acres of woodland mingled throughout the cities. We’ve always got fun places to walk the dog, forage or just enjoy the hills & dales.

(The photo below is John in Roundhay Park. For some reason, it is the only photo I have of Roundhay Park and doesn’t really show anything of the park but I think it’s funny so thought I’d use it anyway ;) )

2. Everywhere is close enough together than it can be treated like one big city

I know some people in Bradford, Huddersfield and Wakefield consider it an expedition to go to Leeds, and people in Leeds NEVER visit Bradford, Wakey or Hudd but to me, it’s just all one big blur of a conurbation. Bradford city centre is better for some things than Leeds; Otley, Hebden Bridge or Halifax better for other things than the cities. It’s easy to mix and match.

3. It’s well connected

One of the reasons I can treat it as one big city is because it’s so well connected. The public transport is much better than most people credit – sure, the trains and buses are as busy and expensive as anywhere, but the chaos in Leeds after the train station’s electrical failure last week shows how well it usually works! From the two main roads near our old house, we could get direct buses to just about every town & city in the west of the county, and we nearly always fly from Leeds-Bradford airport – so great to be just 10 minutes in a taxi from home at the end of a holiday.

Away from public transport, there are plenty of easily accessible motorways nearby to get us across or up and down the country – or if we aren’t in a hurry, A-roads for prettier, winding drives through the countryside.

4. There are loads of lovely buildings & places to visit

We used to live about a mile and a half away from Kirkstall Abbey – the ruins of a 12th century abbey, in the middle of Leeds (picture above is our shadows in the old nave); now we live a few miles from Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Harewood House and Temple Newsam are just on the other side of Leeds, and further south in the county, Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a lovely place to visit on a sunny day (the picture at the very top is YSP on a lovely sunny day!).

On a less grand/showy scale, all around there are lots of pretty Yorkshire stone cottages and Victorian homes from the days of the textile boom. A lot of people complain about the lack of good architecture around here, and all I can say to those people is look up. For example, we were sat in the Wastefield urban “garden” in Bradford city centre last weekend and (admittedly because that whole city-killing misadventure knocked down some awful 1960s concrete monstrosities) we were awed by the buildings of Little Germany and thereabouts.

5. It’s deliciously diverse

Some people make a big deal about the ethnic make-up of the area, and while I do very much like the various different cultural influences on the area, that’s only half the delight of the area’s diversity.

The city centres and small market towns. The brand-spanking-new towerblocks and the lovely old cottages & mills. The remaining heavy industry and the moorlands. The ever-fluctuating super cool areas and the ones that haven’t changed for years. The progressive hippy enclaves and the old school uber-conservative villages.

I’m not saying West Yorkshire is unique in any of these ways or that it’s objectively the best place in the world ™ – just why I like it around here. And I had to limit this list to just West Yorkshire, and not South, East and especially not North Yorkshire because if I included all the things I like about those places too, I’d never finish. Basically, the long and the short of it, I heart Yorkshire ;)

Fellow Yorkshire dwellers, what are your favourite bits?