1) Locavore rules vary but mainly the point is eating locally produced food. Your average meal travels thousands of miles to reach your plate, so eating local food has a lot of benefits; you save gas, emissions, and are helping out the local economy. Plus, local and fresh produce is better for your body (less chemicals) and tastes better too! Basically, this challenge is to eat only food produced or grown within 250 miles of your home.
2) There are some exceptions. Obviously if you 100% committed to this, here in Upstate NY that means no coffee, no citrus, no chocolate. So I believe the rule for this challenge is 5 ingredients can be outside the 250 miles if they are not available, but they must be fair trade and/or organic.
3) The challenge includes "mini-challenges" such as this blog, reading locavore literature and even hosting a "Locavore Potluck" on Sept. 25.
4) September in Upstate NY basically equals squash, so I have to research what is going to be available, and what I have to stock up on. I need to acquire meats, cheeses, dairy, and non-seasonal vegetables to freeze and/or can.
Ok so, that's what I know now, here's the plan:
1) I have already read Michael Pollan's full line of novels, so that's a good start to learn about food production (I highly recommend "The Omnivore's Dilemma" for beginners.
2) I ordered the follow books to get me started:
The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food |
Eat Where You Live: How to Find and Enjoy Fantastic Local and Sustainable Food No Matter Where You Live |
Any tips/recipes/ideas, please please let me know!!
I'm a second-time participant in the NOFA-NY Locavore Challenge, and stumbled across a link to your blog on NOFA-NY's website. Based on what you've written, here's some tips tips.
ReplyDelete1. From another post, it sounds like you may not have gotten your wild card items in order. Last year, at least, the Locavore Challenge allowed participants five exceptions, or "wild card items." I was pretty much already a locavore before I did the challenge, and I found the existence of wild card items necessary. Take several days to make your wild card item list, as it's unlikely that not all the non-local essentials in your diet will come to mind immediately. Once you're confident you've thought of everything, winnow the items down to five.
2. I get the impression that you're not all that familiar with squash. September in Upstate is about much more than squash, as it's the height of the harvest. There is definitely a lot of squash, as overlap where there's both summer squash and winter squash available. I like summer squash best as part of ratatouille, a dish that can easily made exclusively locally at this time of year. There's a lot more variety in the flavors of winter squash. Butternut squash, perhaps "gutted" and baked in a glaze of maple syrup and cinnamon, is a nice, mild-flavored intro to winter squash for the beginner.
3. If you haven't already, read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It probably won't offer you too much practical advice, but you'll find plenty of inspiration in Kingsolver's alternately funny, insightful, and beautiful writing. I'm still quoting the book all the time more than three years after reading it.
Good luck!