www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Cracking the Eat Local Code

by Holly

Patrick posted some of his end o' ELC thoughts a while back, but I've been stewing on mine for a while.

I had surprisingly mixed feelings at the outset of the challenge, after my initial burst of "right on!" when Patrick mentioned the idea. I tend to be a bit compulsive, and until I relaxed and let myself have spices from who knows where, and olive oil from California, I was feeling a bit caged. I think this is in no small part because we are still finding our place in our new city.

Let the Eat Global Challenge begin...

Or, at least, let us return to eating from California.

by Patrick

Yesterday, noticing a severe bareness of cupboards, we went to our local supernatural-market, New Seasons, to stock up on some basics. As it was the last day of May, we decided that the Eat Local Challenge was officially over.

Our Eat Local Challenge has been a heavily nuanced affair; we've made exceptions, we've lived without certain things and either found replacements or found that we didn't miss them so much . . . and then there are the things that we have lived without, and that I am really glad to see again.

Living Large, and Local, for Lunch

by Holly

The days are already getting pretty darn long, here in Portland. I guess we're only about a month from Solstice, difficult though that is to believe. We've been talking about how nice the long evenings are because you can really do something with them. Often that's cooking, but it's nice to be able to take a ride, or work on bike maintenance, or make some pottery. So we've been trying out having lunch as our big meal, and having a simpler dinner. Fortunately, we work at home, so we can make lunch a bit of a production. This was a recent effort that stands out for its local flavors.

New Discoveries

by Patrick

As the month progresses, I am learning more about our local foodshed every day. Living in this way, always asking about where food comes from, and challenging ourselves to see how locally we can eat, brings a certain energy to nearly every meal. Our interactions with farmers, vendors, restaurateurs, and buyers at the grocery store are all imbued with a kind of vital force. Once I explain our mission, the person on the other end of the phone line, or the other side of the table, becomes excited and animated in their efforts to help us find information about the food we're buying, or a good source for something we need.

In the past week, we have made some decisions, and discovered some foods, that make me understand even more deeply the gray areas between "in the foodshed" and "out of the foodshed." I've begun to realize that this month's challenge is the refinement of a practice that will inform our food choices for the rest of our lives.

Stocktaking, stock making

by Patrick & Holly

As we prepare for the Eat Local Challenge, I find myself continually re-defining what it is we will do during this month.

At first my response was simple, and I guess it still is. It's a challenge: how locally can you eat? And we will work our hardest to eat as locally as we can.

Holly and I defined our foodshed as 150 miles. It was tempting to go with 100 but it seemed too limiting, to the extent that a lot of our choices would be "exceptions."

(You can read more about our ELC parameters on our blog, Letter from Hen Waller. Also, check out the nifty foodshed map that Holly created.)

However, I am discovering that what we are doing is much different than drawing a line on a map. We are learning, in sharp detail, exactly where nearly all of our food comes from. It's getting more interesting every day.