So I've been thinking a lot lately about shopping locally.
I'm thinking of all the things I can source that are made locally. But I wondered, does it matter if it's made locally, but the raw ingredients aren't all local? For example the flour mill in Launceston sells bulk 10kg or 25kg bags of flour, but I highly doubt the wheat would be grown in Tassie. Obviously raw ingredients and then made locally are the best options but you can't really have the best of both worlds here in Tassie LOL.

Next up is meat. I know we eat way to much meat, but my vegetarian cooking skills are dodgy. I need to learn to cook more meals without meat. My problem is I cook with a lot of veggies and I worry that it just won't be as nice if I just left the veggies out. For example if I cook a chicken curry I might use 600g of chicken breast, red/green/orange capsicum,mushrooms, onions, carrots and zucchini. Most of my meals I bulk up like this, and I usually have enough leftoever to feed a small army! So I can source beef and lamb and pork that is local. Like the beef in our local butchers, is the same ones you drive past to go to work, that's how local they are! The butcher has his own slaughterhouse (I hate that word!) The pork comes from the butchers brothers, although I'm not really that fond of pork. And the lamb comes from this area too.
Chicken on the other hand isn't something I can source locally. I can source Tasmanian chicken at best but I don't know how that rates on the local scale, which is a shame. The other downside to buying the local meat is that it is a lot more expensive than buying meat from the supermarket, which if you cut back your meat consumption is okay, but if you don't it's no good because it skyrockets your food bill. *sigh* So many changes to make, so overwhelming!

Other things I can source locally. Honey,raspberry/apricot and strawberry jam. Potatos, pumpkins, apples, pears, eggs, I could probably source raw milk from the local dairy farmers if I approached them. I have access to parsnips, carrots, cabbages.

However one thing I am really surprised about is the stuff that our local woolworths sells that is bought locally. A lot of it is Tasmanian produce, and some of the produce is even bought from the town it is in!

So now that I've had a good think about it, there is quite a lot of stuff that I have access too locally! You should try and find out too, I bet you would be surprised!
The only thing that worries me is buying local can cost more, and a lot of people are already on a small limited budget.