KALE. POTATOES. LEMON balm tea.

Rice is nice, and coffee is dandy, but for Jeff Horwath, both are luxuries.

“What we have around dictates the menu,” Jeff said. “It’s better to have potatoes again. Because we already grew it, we already paid for it.”

Jeff is a farmer who lives and works on Finnriver Farm in the Chimacum Valley.

He’s also the voice of grounded reality of the Chimacum area “Menu for the Future” discussion course, which is sponsored by the Northwest Earth Institute.

“One feature of the project is that there will be at least one farmer to be in each group so that the real voice and experience of local agriculture informs the discussion,” said Judith Alexander, the local NEI coordinator.

Robin Mills, who lives on Marrowstone Island, is serving as the coordinator for the course, which meets once a week for six weeks in members’ homes.

She has taken the course before, and is so sold on the book, she sends copies to friends around the country.

“We’re clarifying personal values around food,” Robin said.

Last week, the group met at Nancy Edgerton’s house off West Valley Road.

For refreshments, Nancy served bread made from grain grown and milled by a 4-H group in Jefferson County with homemade preserves made with homegrown fruit.

Edgerton and her husband, Anders Edgerton, now grow or raise much of their own food, but they didn’t grow up eating organic.

“We ate the packaged food,” she said. “It was the ’50s. Then we went through the hippie era.”

Nancy’s food priorities: to eat out of the garden first, and to grow or raise as much as possible.

That’s what Robin would like to do, but as the mother of two small children, time is a constraint.

Robin said she had an “aha moment” when she was wondering how she would have the time to put in a vegetable garden this spring.

Then she realized that the decision to feed her family fresh food does not necessarily mean she has to hoe it herself.

“It’s a lifestyle choice, not a career choice,” she said. “Is it better to have a vegetable garden or go to the farmers market and support the local farmers?”

The discussion on the chapter on the table tonight is sustainable farming practices, and covers a lot of ground.

Topics include GMOs SEmD genetically modified organisms SEmD and the pros and cons of big business jumping on the organic food bandwagon.

Diane Maynard, who raised vegetables and fruits when she lived in California, said she is at a time in her life where she doesn’t want to spend a lot of time growing and preparing food.

But she did come to realize the value of buying organic food, and thinks that big-box stores offering organic food may be a good thing.

“I didn’t have an ‘aha moment’ until I was 60,” Diane said. “Maybe they will have their ‘aha moment’ at Walmart.”

For Sue LeMay, organic and local is important, but not exclusively.

Melanie Dickson, who has brought baby Abby with her, said nutrition is her priority.

She used to buy everything organic, she said, but with a family, cost is consideration.

“When you’re buying organic, you’re paying the full cost,” Nancy said. “With other food, there are subsidies.”

Robin, who grew up on a farm, said she has gone from knowing nothing about organic to buying exclusively organic.

She used to buy strawberries in January, she said, but no longer.

“I’m now thinking about where it’s from,” she said. “Am I going to buy the avocados from Mexico? Am I going to buy the bananas?”

Nicole Fox, one of the younger members of the group, admits to having a “bad moment with blueberries” when she succumbed to the temptation to buy them out of season SEmD and discovered they had no taste.

She now sticks to stores that feature seasonal produce, she said.

Linda Gately, who buys wheat in bulk and has a grinder, grew up on a farm back East.

Her weakness is asparagus, which her parents used to grow.

“I will support the farmers in Mexico, and buy a box from Yakima when it’s available,” Linda said.

Jeff said that he and his partner do have their vices SEmD namely, coffee and bread SEmD but mostly eat plain, homegrown food without a lot of spices.

Nancy said she and her husband have struggled all along with the coffee and spice dilemma, but said tea from local herbs doesn’t cut it.

Her priorities:

• To eat out of the garden first and to grow as much as possible.

• When she does buy food, she looks for local, organic and as unprocessed as possible.

The challenge, she said, of living in an affluent country with too many choices: “How to keep staying simple when we have the capacity to have so much.”

Alexander said 15 “Menu for the Future” groups have launched in Clallam and Jefferson counties in January, and the next series will start soon.

For information about the course in Jefferson County, e-mail Alexander at lightenup@olympus.net.

For information about Clallam County groups, contact Don Wilkins of Sequim, 360-582-1790.

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Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County every Wednesday. To contact her with items for this column, phone 360-379-5688 or e-mail jjackson@olypen.com.