Last Saturday, we met our friends Chuck and Erma at Barnes & Noble for tea, coffee, dessert, and a chat. A quick note: Chuck and Erma live some distance away from us, and Barnes & Noble is a central place to meet. It is comfortable, the tea is good, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money. However, when I buy books, I do so from my local bookstore, Apple Valley Books.

My husband, Clif, and I always enjoy our get togethers with Chuck and Erma. They like to talk about politics, food, books, and movies, and so do we. The time just whizzes by when we are with them. One topic of discussion was Wall Street and the financial crisis, one of my favorite topics. We were all duly indignant, and we wished that President Obama had taken these firms to task when he had the chance. A missed opportunity, one that the taxpayers are paying for while the firms that caused the current world-wide misery continue with no repercussions and plenty of profits.

From there we moved on to food, a happier topic. Chuck brought me two canned quarts of beautiful, amber maple syrup that he had made from sap collected from trees on his property. Maple syrup, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways. On pancakes, waffles, and on French toast. On vanilla ice cream with roasted walnuts. And, as Erma suggested, in plain yogurt mixed with fruit and a little sprinkle of granola to give it crunch.

What a good idea! Although I’ve often mixed jam with plain yogurt, I’ve never used maple syrup. But I’ll be doing so soon. I have plain yogurt and plenty of fruit. I have granola. And I have Chuck’s maple syrup.

When we got home, after admiring the maple syrup, I put the jars in my cupboard, and it is my guess that with the syrup we bought from Mike’s Sugar House, just around the corner from where we live, combined with Chuck’s syrup, we will have enough until next spring. Just thinking about this made me feel good, as though I had money in the bank, so to speak—maple syrup to last for a year.

I reflected on the blessings of a full pantry, on what a fine, secure feeling it is to have food on hand. This summer, I intend to stock up on local food so that we have some put by for the winter. I might even do a little canning, and, if Farmer Kev has a surplus at the end of the summer, then we will certainly buy squash, potatoes, carrots, beets, and garlic from him, just as we did last year.

By doing this, in our own little Hobbit way, we are also giving a tiny raspberry, so to speak, to Wall Street. They might be able to wreck the world’s economy, but in the meantime, Mike and Chuck will tap their trees and make maple syrup. Farmer Kev will grow delicious, organic vegetables, and his hens will lay eggs. Wholesome Holmstead will make yogurt and cheese.

This local food isn’t everything, but it’s lot.