Are you ready for the Eat Local Challenge?

By Jennifer Maiser, Editor

There are five days to go before the beginning of the October 2008 Eat Local Challenge.  Are you ready?

Over two hundred people have signed up for the challenge from all parts of the country.  I've been receiving emails and tweets from excited participants who are trying to find their local sources for a successful month.

If you're taking the challenge, how will you participate?  Please let us know by answering these three questions either in the comments or on your blog (you can trackback or tag with 'eat local challenge' and we'll try to find your post).

1.  What is your definition of local?
2.  What exemptions will you claim?
3.  What is your goal for the month?

As an example, please click over and see my statement of participation.

If you haven't already signed up for the Eat Local Challenge, it's not too late to do so!

Comments

[Hanna]

1. My local food is Finnish food I try to eat food from Southern Finland but anything Finnish is local to me. That means that I can't have any wine, cider or most of the fruits on October. (We only have apples and berries available locally).

2. I can have fair trade / organic tea every day. I'm going to choose vegetarian food for lunch as many times as possible (it isn't possible to choose local lunch in the restaurant I eat my lunch). I might allow few glasses of European red wine on October.

3. My goal is to find new local foods and try eat more vegetarian food.

[Rhonda]

I'm very excited about attempting this challenge and also a bit nervous. Nonetheless, I'm ready to give it my all. As requested though, here are some details for my challenge:

1. What is your definition of local?
Local will be a 150 mile radius of where I live.
2. What exemptions will you claim?
My exemptions will be like most others, I will exempt spices, coffee (as qualified by others), Rice from Missouri (closest grower to me so far, will continue to look for something closer), will support locally grown restaurants and try to stick to local items only, where/when reasonable
3. What is your goal for the month?
This is birthday month for me with lots of parties and festivities (whoo-hoo!) Nonetheless, my goal is to stick to this challenge as Closely as possible and will eventually get an on-line journal/blog online to track my progress.

Thanks, and best of luck to everyone!
-Rhonda

[Annika]

My family is gearing up for the October Eat Local Challenge. Our goals are not as lofty as those of some, but it will be challenge enough! My kids, ages 11 and 13, will not be fully on board; I bought Cheerios for them the other day, and life without peanut butter would be grim indeed from their viewpoint. Suppers for all of us will be local, however.

1. What is your definition of local?

Our specific goals: strive to eat food grown within a 150-mile radius of home. When that is too difficult, choose foods at least made locally when not grown locally (for example, we buy fantastic salsa made just a few miles from our house, but I assume the ingredients are not local).

2. What exemptions will you claim?

Coffee will be the most important exception for sure, followed by spices, yeast, olive oil and canola oil. Grains will be tricky; we can get local whole wheat flour and cornmeal, so we will be eating lots of bread. I think we will let some condiments slide, such as mustard and salad dressing. I doubt I can make the whole month without nuts or ice cream! I will also be eating lunch from the cafeteria at the hospital where I work, a major cop-out but one which will make life much easier.

3. What is your goal for the month?

I already buy lots of food from the farmer’s market and buy eggs, milk, and meat directly from farmers, but there is much more I could be doing. I hope that by undertaking this challenge, I will become more organized and thoughtful about cooking. Too often we look at the clock and think “Uh-oh, it’s 5:00….. what are we going to have for dinner?” By then it’s too late to produce a quality meal. If our options are limited and we know we can’t just order a pizza, we will be forced to do some pre-planning.

[sam]

Here are my own answers to the questions to kick off my challenge efforts: http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2008/09/eat-local-challenge-october-2008.html

[Jennifer]

My definition of local for this challenge will be the state of Missouri.

What exemptions will I claim:

Organic fair trade coffee/tea
Chocolate (will be fair trade or organic and used sparingly)
Flour (as I haven't found local flour yet)
Tortillas (again, haven't found local flour or homemade tortillas yet)
Beans and Rice (already purchased from a local organic buying club, all beans came from US)
Sugar (will only use organic from Florida)
Spices
Oils and vinegars

Our goal for this challenge will be to, well, challenge ourselves to go further in our local eating.

[laurie/ nelson grove]

I will use ingreidients found in new england and bought on vacation.

I will try for at least 2 local meals a day and post as many on flickr as I can.

Exceptions,
Coffee, oil, spices, yeast,sugar

[Geof]

As a college student who prides himself on eatting locally already and has a love for making food this month will be hopefully a reasonably enjoyable experience.

1. What is your definition of local?
Anything within a 100 mile radius of Lancaster, PA.
2. What exemptions will you claim?
Coffee, and whatever ingredients or food are currently in my refrigerator/pantry which as it may not seem true, is not very much. Also I'm spending a week in NYC this month for a conference so I will be feasting on the local delicacies of Chinatown in which my hotel is located. That and beer because I love it. I can sort of not count spices as non-local as their is a local spice maker that sells his products at market even if some of the product is not as local.
3. What is your goal for the month?
To increase my awareness of what I have available to me already in this community. Being from this area definitely makes the process of eating local a lot easier as we already provide the majority of food to our area (at least seasonal food). Also the majority of local restaurants all use locally grown products for their food where available.

[Colleen]

1. The Chesapeake Bay foodshed, or roughly 125 miles from our house.
2. non-meat proteins (beans/nuts/tofu), spices and some baking supplies, coffee/tea - but will seek out fair-trade/organic/locally-roasted whenever possible.
3. Eat something local at every meal; explore local options for seafood, snacks and sweets (less sugar, more honey); shop local for non-food items as well.
I'll be tracking my family's progress on my blog, FoodieTots.com. Looking forward to seeing how others fare as well!

[Sophie]

Mine's here: Late Bloomers Farm.

[Meghan G.]

My answers to the three questions can be found at this post.

http://libertyontenth.blogspot.com/2008/09/october-eat-local-challange.html

[donna]

I'll do a blog post in the next couple days, but my answers are:
1. the state of Oregon
2. spices, oils, flour, rice, baking ingredients like baking powder
3. My goal is to prepare one entirely local (minus exceptions) dinner each week and use as many local ingredients as possible in the rest.

[Elizabeth Yalkut]

I'm over here: http://www.elizabethyalkut.com/averyuncommoncook/?p=28.

@Geof, when you're in NYC, drop me an email! Chinatown is one of my favorite neighborhoods.

[Cathy Curtis]

My Eating Local Manifesto:
1. Eat only vegetables, fruits, meat, cheese,dairy, poultry, bread and fish produced in Northern California.
2. To learn more about the sources of the
grains and pasta that I eat (like Farro).
3. Drink coffee only from local roasters who
care about their sources -ie Blue Bottle,
Ritual.
4. Drink Tap Water.
5. Buy as much food as possible from
farmer's markets to supplement my
weekly CSA pickup.
6. When I eat out, pick restaurants known
to source most of their food locally.
7. Eat out less, cook home more.

[Sarah Beam]

As the cook in my family, I have technically signed us all up for this. The cast of characters includes me (the pescetarian, food procurer, cook), my husband (omnivore who is tolerating this eat local challenge more than supporting it), a four-year-old who wants what he wants when he wants it, and a one-year-old who still nurses and couldn't care less as long as I don't take away her organic toasted 'o' cereal.

Our local definition, exemptions and goals are posted at: http://postmodernfeeding.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-eat-local-challenge.html

[Mike Simmons]

Greetings. My wife Lisa and I are participaing in this, our first eat local challenge.

Our definition, exemptions and goal are listed here:
http://www.southdepotroad.com/2008/09/eat-local-challenge.html

We plan on do a daily food log during the challenge on our blog as well.

[Victoria]

1. What is your definition of local?
local means as close as possible to where i live. full circle farm sunnyvale is somewhat near to me and i plan to purchase vegetables from their stand 3x per week traveling on my bicycle. on saturdays i will purchase as much food as i can carry and still skate home safely. everything else i will get from whole foods or the safeway or organic section. i will only but food from california.
2. What exemptions will you claim?
coffee purchased from barefoot coffee. i ride my bicycle there as well. also, i know i will go out to eat at a restaurant, but i will try to limit this activity to once per week.
3. What is your goal for the month?
to do as well as i possibly can to eat local foods without going hungry!

[Judy S]

1. I am trying to stick with the state of PA but since we live in the NE, parts of NJ and NY are closer than Western PA.

2. Exceptions are coffee, tea, sugar(all three I do buy free trade), spices, olive oil, chocolate(I buy organic and free trade), beans(trying to find a local source), rice( I buy organic), tortillas, cereal ( still looking for local source, I do buy organic), Peanut butter(I buy organic). I have found local flour and pasta sources. All produce(exception bananas)is local or from my garden. Dairy, eggs, chicken and meat is local and free range.

3. My goal is to be more aware of where our food comes from. It has also made me seek out more local sources which has worked for finding local cheese and flour. I also found a local company that makes tofu. The ingredients may not be local but I am supporting a local company. When I cannot find what I want locally, I will try to buy from a local store like the small locally owned health food stores and make sure the food is organic. I am also eating more vegetarian meals and cooking more from scratch like tomato sauce made from tomatoes from my garden or the farmers' market. I will also have a winter garden for carrots, spinach, romaine and swiss chard which I will start this weekend and I bought a cold frame cover for my garden for the winter. I plan on growing my own herbs this winter.

[Jessica]

http://bakingforbabies.blogspot.com/

[Andi Houston]

1. My foodshed is the 150 mile radius around Gainesville, FL as much as I can, then all of Florida and southern Georgia.

2. My exceptions are tea (I buy fair trade and organic when possible), baking supplies and grains (I have not found any wheat or flint corn grown here at all), rice, spices, and so far meat, dairy and eggs.

3. My goals for this month regard meat, dairy and eggs. Our family of five already eats 90% of our produce local. We cook and bake almost everything from scratch. Our budget just does not expand far enough to buy our meat, eggs and dairy from local sources. The prices are double to triple the regular grocery store prices and even though I know we eat far less meat than the average American family, it still is painfully expensive.

To offset this, we do buy our meat from a locally-owned, non-chain grocer & butcher, and buy our sausage from a local producer. We also buy as much local Florida fish and seafood as possible (farmed alligator- yum!).

We are exploring options for buying organic, sustainable meat like pork and venison in whole or half animals and doing the processing ourselves which would significantly reduce the costs.

3. So, my goals for this month are:

Exploring affordable options for eggs, dairy and meat for our family.

Eating/buying a higher ratio of Florida fish/seafood to non-local/sustainable meat.

We will continue with our goal of 90% local produce and continue to buy local-owned and small-business-produced over "grocery store organic", which I do not trust.

[Juliana]

Will be posting my goals on my new blog!

Looking forward to this challenge.

[Stephanie Houston]

1. What is your definition of local?
Our definition of local is anything grown or produced in Texas. We will try our best to support local producers even if all product ingredients are not necessarily local. (Our 100 mile radius includes a lot of salt water which is good, but not great for produce :))
2. What exemptions will you claim?
Until our CSA comes back on line we will need to sort out our exemptions.
Spices (if not available locally)
Orbits Gum (don't think I can live without it)
Pantry Staples (Wheat, Oatmeal, etc) that are not grown in Texas
Tea
3. What is your goal for the month?
Our goal is to try and find local Texas producers and to support our local farmers. We also want to truly understand seasonality. We have been trying to eat local for the past year or so, joining a CSA, purchasing meats, poultry, and cheeses locally. When looking at our typical weekly groceries purchased at our local grocery store we were shocked to see how truly international our dinners were....Tomatoes from Holland, Olive Oil from Spain, Capers from Turkey...I'd love to travel as much as my food had.
That being said, we will try our best while out of town to eat local, and will not refuse dinner invitations with friends based on our local quest. We will do our best and hopefully learn something in the end!
I'll be tracking our progress and local finds at:
www.greengrazing.blogspot.com/

[El]

Hi Jennifer et.al.

I did list my exemptions on my site, but...I did want to mention why I took on this challenge this time around.

We do produce most of what we eat, so the whole "eat local" dealio is mostly a done deal for us. I do get lots of people looking at my site for reasons known only to themselves, but over the years I have come to realize people like to learn things from those who D.I.Y. As such, I thought I would address in my ELC posts the one big roadblock most folks have: the want of fresh, local grains. I will therefore cover recipes for millet, buckwheat, oats and corn, which are commodities grown in most of the country and can be found if you know where to look.

Likewise, it's autumn, so lots of things can be scrounged, gleaned, and hunted from our roadsides and alleyways, low-hanging-fruit fashion. It's also the time when most of us are cleaning out the last of our veg gardens, so I will do a few posts on fall harvest fare.

I do look forward to learning lots about the challenges you all are having with ELC!

El at http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/

[High Desert Locavore]

How will I eat locally? My definition of local is flexible. Since I am in Oregon I try to source most of my edibles from my state but there are some things that are Pacific Northwest sourced. Wheat is the main thing (the closest hard wheat is in Western Montana). Also I drink tea every morning that was processed here in Bend but obviously was not grown here. I abide by the Marco Polo rule for spices, olive oil (comes from Northern California) and soy/Braggs (California again). I give myself a once a week exemption because of my work - I am a food writer and must eat at everything from greasy spoons to haute cuisine for my weekly column. I always ask about locally sourced product and give big kudos if the purveyors are at least trying. My goal for this month is to can, can, can. It is the tale end of the Farmers Market (most are farmers from the Valley, some 200 miles away) and the Bend grown fruit and produce. To continue eating as locally as possible it is imperative to put up as much of the seasonal abundance as I am able. Combined with eating seasonally (which is pretty slim pickin's in the High Desert in the winter) and what I have canned I am hoping to make this my most locavore winter yet.

[Annika]

I posted a comment above, but forgot to include my blog: http://neklocalvores.wordpress.com

I will hopefully be updating every few days.

[Julie Cummins]

1. Within 100 miles, but I will go up to 250 miles for important items that I can't find within that radius, like rice.

2. Exceptions:
-coffee, tea
-salt
-spices
-eating out socially, though I'll try to steer us to restaurants that buy local ingredients
-things already in my house that will go bad if I don't eat them
-anything offered or shared in the spirit of generosity
-If I encounter times anger and frustration with the local diet, I will take a deep breath and try to get some perspective. If I still feel angry or frustrated, I'll eat whatever makes me happy.

3. Goals: To eat almost entirely local food without dedicating a lot more time, energy, and money to food than I do any other month. To be happy doing it, and not feel burdened or deprived. To experiment with new ways of preparing food and satisfying my cravings. To talk to a few food businesses about sourcing ingredients from local farms. To challenge myself and to have fun.