Another week of good looking food, from good-hearted people. And some interesting thoughts from our friend Georgene in California. What reactions has eating local brought up for you? Negative, positive – leave a comment and tell us all of it!
There is one more week of the challenge – don’t forget! eat well, be well…now on to the good eats…
MIDWEST
Sara, Ari, Charlie and Lucy - Illinois
This week's local dessert was an exercise in chemistry: I tried to make meringues, but it was just too humid and I couldn't get the egg whites to form stiff peaks. Do the challenge again in the winter and I'll try again in an arid kitchen.
I had intended to layer meringues with berries and whipped cream in an "Eton Mess" kind of recipe. Instead, we had to get by with fresh strawberries and raspberries from J.W. Morlock in Watervliet, MI and Kilgus Farmstead cream in Fairbury, IL. Poor, poor us. ;)
Wyatt & Maura, Michigan
Today's meal consisted of baked chicken breast, roasted carrots, onion, red and sweet potato. Michigan peaches, always delicious. A sliced tomato to brighten up the plate. Wasn't sure what to do with all of the hot peppers from my garden, so I stuffed them with cheese and wrapped them with bacon. Wonderful.
Chicken from Otto's Chicken
Bacon from the farmers market
Cheese from Battle Creek Michigan, 20 min
onion, carrots, and potato from CSA
peaches from farmers market
tomato and peppers from backyard
Erin Loughlin (your hostess!) – Illinois
It was dessert week – wahoo! I’d been thinking about making this dessert all summer, just waiting for the peaches to be ready. The main ingredients are all local (flour, peaches, blueberries and butter) the sugar, tapioca and lemon juice are from far off lands I’m sure. But this cake. THIS CAKE. it’s good. Even though my nephew doesn’t think so.
- flour – Ted’s organic grains
- Peaches – Fat Blossom Farm
- Blueberries – from all over Illinois/Michigan I’ve been storing away blueberries every week all summer.
- butter – Alcam Creamery
WEST COAST
Beth – California
Super Summer Stacker.
Grilled bread and veggies with a white bean herb puree. I cheated a little this week with the beans because I really needed protein for dinner.
Bread from Palo Alto. Onions, eggplant, and herbs from my garden. Pattypan squash and zucchini from my CSA. The beans, olive oil, and red wine vinegar are not local.
I planned to do a side salad with cucumbers and tomatoes from my garden, but I was too hungry. :)
Georgene - California
Well, not quite a meal exactly.
I've been sick and food has been a challenge of the non-local sort, so I'm copying Erin's idea of "cocktail" as meal. Here we go:
Z Cuvee wine from Zaca Mesa Winery in Santa Ynez 137 miles
Goat Cheese Souffle made with:
Goat Cheese from Soledad Goats 93 miles
Eggs from Lily's Farm 55 miles
After that, it gets a little dicey. The souffle has a few drops of milk in it that the container says comes from a Southern California dairy. No idea of the miles there. And no idea how far the black pepper of cream of tartar traveled.
Each week of the challenge, I find myself questioning why am I doing this and what is local? I try to eat local outside of the challenge, mostly for environmental reasons. But if environmental is really my goal, than this "meal" is a total fail because it's pretty well-established that going vegan is the best thing we can do for the environment. (so my meal the second week of the challenge, which was vegan and straight from my garden) was the very best I could do.
I have a tendency to think of myself as doing pretty well on the local front, but when the challenge forces me to confront the reality of my diet, I see a lot of short falls. I wanted my lunch to be my local meal for this week -- tomato, basil and buratta sandwiches with tomato and basil from my garden, buratta from about 25 miles away and bread the grocery store labeled "local." But while the bread may be baked locally, where does the flour come from? And where did the place that made the burrata get the milk? These are things I don't normally think about when the challenge isn't going on.
These kind of thoughts really get me down, but that being said, this is the first year in our house, and the first year we could truly garden. I'm really proud that this summer I grew every single herb I needed, every ear of corn, every bean, every leaf of lettuce, every tomato, every pepper, every squash and every slice of watermelon. Sometimes I think that's not a lot, but when I look at our grocery bills, they're down about 30%. Part of that is because we are growing our own food and part of that is because growing our own vegetables encourages us to have a more plant-based diet. Next year, since we will have been in the house in time to actually plan a garden and not throw in whatever plant we can find at the farmer's market, I am hoping to get about 70% of our summer food from our own back yard. We shall see.
And on that note, signing off from Los Angeles.
Kathy - Washington
This week we ate:
King Salmon—troll caught on the Washington Coast
Corn from Magana Farms, Sunnyside, WA
Grilled zucchini, onions and peppers from Jubilee Farm, Carnation, WA
Grilled eggplant from Magana Farms
Basil for pesto from Jubilee farm
Beer—made by Matt, Kathy’s husband in our backyard (grains were not necessarily local, but the hops are grown in Washington)
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