By Sarah Irani
I was reluctant to participate in the 2006 Eat Local Challenge because I knew that I would be out-of-town for a week during May. But, instead of dropping the Challenge, I took it on the road!
My husband and I took the train from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia fourteen hours to Waterloo, Indiana where my father was waiting for us. We drove an hour or so north to the place I used to call home. I told my rather agrarian family about the Eat Local Challenge and they did not completely understand because they live in a farming community where they raise their own chickens and turkeys, hunt for other meats, grow herbs and my favorite of all: they hunt for morels during the spring. Challenge? What Challenge? This is a way of life!
So, on Mother's Day we all piled into the van equipped with rubber boots and canvas sacks. We traveled to one of our favorite forests and began to scan the forest floor for morels. My father goes out nearly every year and had a pound or two in his sack, while the rest of us were lucky enough to find three or four mushrooms. I did, however, find an eastern box turtle. They are on protected in Michigan, but in this particular forest we ended up seeing three of them!
When we returned home, my uncle and his family surprised us with some venison from a deer that he hunted last winter. We had a feast of mushrooms and venison and toasted with a bottle of St. Julian Pinot Grigio. A truly local meal, indeed.
Sarah is a sculptor living in Maryland. She is a member of the Summer Creek Farm CSA and the Common Market Co-op.
