The beginning

Well, our month of local eating began on Tuesday, September 4, 2007. At this point, it doesn't really seem like a huge deal, or even a challenge. I'm on the last chapter of Plenty, a book written by a couple in Vancouver, B.C. who ate local (100-miles) food for a whole year. Our month-long challenge seems like small beans compared to that. I mean, this is September, the peak of the harvest; the farmers market is overflowing with produce--and yet there are challenges, which I'll be writing about in the coming weeks.

We have been planning and preparing for this month since June, transitioning away from our comfortable tofu, Earth Balance buttery spread, and nutritional yeast to eggs, real butter, and real cheese. I had been preparing for a month without flour--without bread, pasta, pancakes, pizza crust, muffins, cake, but most importantly, TOAST. When I found out that our food co-op has been selling flour milled from wheat grown in Illinois all along, I thought that the month would be a piece of cake.

So far, it hasn't been too tough--just a bit of time involved. Meals have been:

Day 1
Breakfast: Toast with butter, tomato goat cheese spread, muskmelon
Lunch: Spicy Sage Butternut Squash Soup, Michigan Spicy Stew, Peaches
Dinner: Eggs with or without Jalapeno and Roasted Poblano Pepper with "Prairie Burn" Goat Cheese
Snacks: Roasted salted butternut squash seeds

Day 2
Breakfast: Toast with butter, muskmelon, eggs
Lunch: Spicy Sage Butternut Squash Soup, Baked Potato with cheese, butter, and chives, peaches
Dinner: Pizza with spinach, peppers, garlic, caramelized onion, and a tomato sauce
Dessert: Raspberry Muskmelon Honey Popsicle

Day 3
Breakfast: Fried Potato-Onion Balls, Scrambled eggs, Toast with butter and almond butter
Lunch: Michigan Spicy Stew, Baked Potato with cheese, butter, and chives
Dinner: Rosemary-scented Polenta with spinach, eggplant, orange tomatoes, and shallots; with a tomato sauce
Snacks: Honey sticks, roasted salted butternut squash seeds

Coming up next: recipes; making sauerkraut, pickles, and wine; and spices!

Month of local eating begins!

The purpose of this site is to document our experiment with eating local--within 100 miles--of Urbana, Illinois. The "official" experimentation period will be one month, September 2007, but learning and research starts right away and will carry on after the experiment is over. The goal is to become more informed about where our food comes from and how we can establish connections with local food growers, processors, and sellers.

We'll document here our experiences searching out flour, butter, and oil; preparing pizza, pasta, and polenta; making sauerkraut, pickles, and wine; and the day-to-day challenges and rewards of eating local food for one month.