2008 Eat Local Challenge Blog Participants

by Jennifer Maiser, Editor

In addition to about 250 non-blogging participants, we have a longer list than ever of blogging participants this year. I would like to say that the late publication of this post is by design, but it wasn't.  However, in going through the list of blogs, I am happy that you will be checking them out this late in the month.  Many blogs give you a great sense of the Eat Local Challenge as a whole -- and you will be able to see the triumphs and difficulties with the challenge.  The list is broken down by region (and country) and interspersed with some of my favorite quotes from this month.

Belgium
Kate McNally

Canada
c’est pas moi je l’jure! • Hit Pay Dirt • Jen and Joey Go Green •

This is something I’ve noticed about local eating. I often have to do battle with my whims. I can’t just open a bag of potato chips when I get hungry, or most other prepared foods for that matter. Food preparation takes awhile and, unless a carrot or apple will do, I often go hungry while I prepare something more substantial. It makes me realize what a culture of convenience I live in. The idea of having to wait more than 15 minutes for food is foreign to most of us. -- Hit Pay Dirt, "Hunger Pangs"

Finland
Puikottelua

Sweden
Corpus Bon Vivant

Here in California, I’d say that everyone who lives here could easily eat at least 70% of their diet locally. In fact it would be a darn shame if Californian’s didn’t. I mean this is a huge agriculture state, in most spots it’s actually hard to keep things from growing. And the beauty of it is that we can grow things nearly year round. So we should be eating locally. It just makes sense. -- A Sonoma Garden, "11 Ways to Eat Locally in Sonoma"

California
Food She Thought • A Sonoma Garden • Becks & Posh • Butter is Love • Green LA Girl • Green Simple Frugal • Knitting Dahlias • Buy Local CA • Married With Dinner • The Inadvertent Gardener • Ward Road Garden • Jolly Ewe • Kale for Sale • What's Cooking Blog • A New Leaf Nutrition • Chez Us • Daaliciuos • Fight Like a Girl • Green & Chic • Kate Adelle • Kitchen Gadget Girl • Localette • Local Los Aneles • Real Farmstead Cheese • Simply Pies • Six by Ten • Spinach & Honey • Tiny Tummies • Tragic Sandwich • Windsor Green Grocer •

Mid-Atlantic
Bringing Down the Cool • Dagny Finds Faith • Foodie Tots • Cookin in the Cuse • Midge Pingleton's Pantry • Phlippin Sweet • Rural Recluse • The Salted Cod • Thoughts Like Pebbles • Walk Eastwood • Richmond Food Collective • Megan Seiter • All My Pretty Hates • Backyard Chili Bloggin • Eating Ithaca • Elizabeth Yalkut • Liberty on Tenth • Market Love • Richmond Food Collective • You are What I Eat •

What I'm figuring out about eating food from Michigan is:  while it's eminently possible to eat locally on a budget, it's not possible to eat locally when your life is on auto-pilot.  And I only call it auto-pilot because that's what the daily routine of glossing over life's small and meaningful moments (in an effort to get where?) seems like to me. -- The Farmers Marketer, "Food is love to the local eater"

Midwest
Accidental Wisconsinite • Food Happens • Big Adventures with Little Buddies • Cara, The 100-mile Diet • Fast Grow the Weeds • Green Leanings • Kaleidescope Living • The Farmers Marketer • Tofu is tasty • Vegan Cooking and Other Random Musings • Columbus Foodie • Lynnann's Path On Nature • Southampton Meat Market • Vegan Cupcake • South Depot Road • St. Charles County Wolds • Tigers & Strawberries •

The goal is not to “win” the Eat Local Challenge.  The goal is not to “prove” anything.  The goal is merely to learn.  Okay, Tammy?  Got that?  Everybody’s a winner when we do it that way, so calm down. -- Food on the Food, "Perspective"

New England
How to Grow • Living Local NH • Mango Triathlete • Northeast Kingdom Localvores • Octoberland • Seasons Eatings Farm • Veg Year • Brave Potato • Food on the Food • Camberville Cuisine • Dirt 2 Dish • Late Bloomers Farm •  Retro Domestic • Yankee Food •

Southeast
Dusty Skin and All • Felicitea • Greene Onion • Gulf Coast Local Food • Sticks n' Spin • The Peaceful Palate • Tiger Mel • Val Webb • Postmodern Feeding • Smart Coast •

The Eat Local Challenge changed the look of the grocery isles. Rather than rows of rows of "food," I now see rows and rows of containers on cargo ships, chugging into the Philadelphia Port to unload from somewhere far away. And I see oil consumption - huge amounts of it in airlines as they hurry to ship the California Carrots to the East coast to maintain what little freshness is left in them. -- Backyard Chili Bloggin', "What I See at the Grocery Store Now"

Southwest
Earth Reign • Green Grazing •

West
Eat Local Hawaii • One Green Generation • Accidental Scientist •  • Ellen's Grind • Forever House • Hendrick Homestead • Music & Cats • Not So Urban Hennery • Rocky Mountain Musins • Shiba Guyz • Baking for Babies • Bare Medicine • Café Mama • Chez Artz • Kona Yoga • Weekly Way • Chocolate Crayon Family • Ecoyear • One Healthy Year • Seattle Local Food •

Jennifer Maiser is the editor of the Eat Local Challenge website.  She is often found behind a camera, on twitter, or writing for her site, Life Begins at 30.

Comments

[Katrina]

Thanks for putting all these resources and inspirations in one place. It must have taken forever!

[Peter Lawrence]

Amen to eating local! That's one of the things I strongly recommend in my book - The Happy Minimalist (www.TheHappyMinimalist.net)

[Colleen/FoodieTots]

Thanks so much for putting this together! I haven't been as successful at the challenge as I had hoped, but I am looking forward to checking out how others are faring.

[lynnann]

I could never thank you enough for having this site and doing what you are doin out there...I truly believe it is the one step we can easily take towards saving the world...!!! love and peace...lynnann

[Linda]

Is there no "eat local challenge" for 2009?

[Walter Hill]

If you're in the area, or on the way to the beach, downtown Kinston NC has a gem of a restuarant for you. Chef & the Farmer, named for the relationship b/w the chef and local sustainable farmers, serves up a new American cuisine in a warm, friendly atmosphere. Not only does the restuarant get about 60% of its ingredients from local farmers, the owners also have a composte heap at their home, where a lot of the restuarant's waste is returned to the earth. Definetely worth a try if you're out this way!

[Carol Waterfill]

The problem with trying to use Farmer's Markets in my area is that there is no regulation of whether or not the food is truly local. I am a grower who does not choose to sell my produce through Farmer's Markets because many of the participants simply drive down to the Atlanta Farmers' Market and buy the stuff from Mexico, then sell it at the local "Farmer's Market" as if it was grown locally. Buyer beware.