Ashni (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ashnistrike) wrote,@ 2007-09-12 23:50:00 |
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Localvore Challenge
The Green City Market has challenged people to try and eat only locally grown and produced food for a week. "Local," in this case, is Illinois and the bordering states including Michigan. Since the average item on the average American plate comes from 1500 miles away, this is quite an improvement. I had about four acceptable items in my pantry before Saturday's Farmers' Market.
The challenge officially started on Monday. We started a day late, due to a cream shortage and the need to use up leftovers from weekend guests. We'll go an extra day to make up for it. We started Tuesday evening, because obviously evening is when you start strange week-long diets.
Impressions so far? I feel really good--high energy, well-fed, and grounded. We have set exceptions (as per challenge rules): chocolate, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, yeast. So far we haven't used any of them, and probably won't until Friday when we can get flour. Except for a couple of twinges, I don't miss them--I went very quickly from chocolate cravings to fruit cravings. Nameseeker misses salt, and I miss the convenience of cooking with olive oil.
Most of all, though... I like how these meals feel good. Everything is free-range, organic, well-cared-for. Real people are getting real benefit from my eating the food that they produced. I can picture the map of my dinner while I'm falling asleep at night, and feel a little more connection to the land around me. And it's all real food, not "stuff."
Ideally, I would eat this way every week, with the addition of fair trade chocolate, olive oil, Penzey's salt/spices, and other good foods that are simply not grown in the midwest. Unfortunately, that's not possible with either my current money budget or my current time budget. Our food bill has doubled this week, and we spent an inordinate amount of time tracking down staples. The latter would change with practice, but the former remains a barrier until I get tenure or otherwise increase my income significantly. Definitely a goal to work toward, though.
The Green City Market has challenged people to try and eat only locally grown and produced food for a week. "Local," in this case, is Illinois and the bordering states including Michigan. Since the average item on the average American plate comes from 1500 miles away, this is quite an improvement. I had about four acceptable items in my pantry before Saturday's Farmers' Market.
The challenge officially started on Monday. We started a day late, due to a cream shortage and the need to use up leftovers from weekend guests. We'll go an extra day to make up for it. We started Tuesday evening, because obviously evening is when you start strange week-long diets.
Tuesday:
Dinner
Breakfast
Dinner
Chicken with Honey-Mint GlazeWednesday:
Chicken (Green City Market--don't recall the exact farm, unfortunately)Potatoes with Not-Parmesan
Honey (Madison Farmers' Market, purchased at Wiscon)
Butter (made from Country Dairy Cream, Wisconsin, purchased at Whole Foods)
Mint (Garden. Expect to see a lot of this stuff; it took over the world this year.)
Garlic (Green City Market. Supposed to be an Italian variety, very rich.)
Heirloom purple fingerling potatoes (Green City Market. Very sweet, almost "dessert potatoes.")
Butter (see above)
Cheese (Green City Market. A local variety that is like Parmesan in texture, but more woodsy in taste. This is good.)
Garlic (see above)
Breakfast
I had an omelet--farmers' market eggs, butter, cream, chives from the garden and dried savory from last year's, a bit of not-parmesan. Nameseeker had granola (one of two decent things we found at Sunflower Market) and milk (Fox & Obel).Lunch
Left-overs from Tuesday dinner, farmers' market plumsDinner
MeatloafGround venison (Bartered for with non-local brownies. Yay Craigslist.)Honeycrisp apples dipped in honey for dessert, because it's Rosh Hashonah. A very sweet new year.
chicken drippings and organs
chestnut flour (previously purchased at Maple Sugar Festival, North Park Village Nature Center)
Assorted herbs (Basil and sage from farmers' market, Illinois-grown rosemary from Whole Foods)
Onion (Green City Market)
Red wine (the other Sunflower find)
Honey
Impressions so far? I feel really good--high energy, well-fed, and grounded. We have set exceptions (as per challenge rules): chocolate, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, yeast. So far we haven't used any of them, and probably won't until Friday when we can get flour. Except for a couple of twinges, I don't miss them--I went very quickly from chocolate cravings to fruit cravings. Nameseeker misses salt, and I miss the convenience of cooking with olive oil.
Most of all, though... I like how these meals feel good. Everything is free-range, organic, well-cared-for. Real people are getting real benefit from my eating the food that they produced. I can picture the map of my dinner while I'm falling asleep at night, and feel a little more connection to the land around me. And it's all real food, not "stuff."
Ideally, I would eat this way every week, with the addition of fair trade chocolate, olive oil, Penzey's salt/spices, and other good foods that are simply not grown in the midwest. Unfortunately, that's not possible with either my current money budget or my current time budget. Our food bill has doubled this week, and we spent an inordinate amount of time tracking down staples. The latter would change with practice, but the former remains a barrier until I get tenure or otherwise increase my income significantly. Definitely a goal to work toward, though.
