This is the last post for the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge! Back in October, Matt and I joined Laura’s challenge to eat local meals all winter long. We were so excited by the idea, that we took it and ran with it: for six months, we ate locally for every single meal. And it feels good to have accomplished that.
Our Rules.
Laura’s rules required one meal a week to be composed of 90% local ingredients. Our rules were namely this: eat 90% local for every meal, an average of 50% from the garden. If we couldn’t get something local, we purchased bulk and organic from a local supplier. Coffee, tea, spices and sugar were be organic, sustainably harvested and fair trade whenever possible.
A Sampling of Meals.
Our meals in March and early April were not as exotic and fun as those of the past, and there were days where we just couldn’t get to 50% from the garden. But we gave it our best, and we always made our meals out of at least 90% local ingredients!
1. Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and Homemade Bread. Our tomatoes in storage actually lasted until late March. Can you believe it?! They certainly weren’t as rich as they were in August, but they were still tasty.
2. Anasazi Beans and Carrots From the Garden, over Brown Rice. I’ve had a couple of requests for a recipe, so I’ll try to duplicated it and write down what I did!
3. Homemade Drop Biscuits with Homemade Meyer Lemon Marmalade. Served with locally roasted, fair trade, organically grown, sustainably harvested coffee.
4. Homemade Cannellini Bean Dip Drizzled with Local Olive Oil, with Crostini Made from Local Bread. Essentially I put some leftover beans in a blender with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, 2-3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Very simple, very tasty. (A lot like hummus.)
5. Roasted Seasonal Vegetables over Couscous. Carrots, meyer lemons, fennel, and rosemary from the garden, with local, organic potatoes and yams.
Conclusion.
While it wasn’t always easy, it was easier than we thought. The most difficult time to eat from the garden was not in the dead of winter, when we had many crops in the garden and tomatoes and squash in the cellar. The most difficult month was March. Why? Because most winter crops were going to seed, but the frosts kept us from planting new crops.
Eating locally and seasonally meant that we had more flavorful meals. At the same time, it didn’t mean we had to eat complex meals. Drop biscuits, soups, beans and rice, sauteed greens, roasted veggies... many of the things we ate required very little effort to prepare.
We aren’t going to stop our quest to eat locally. After six months, it has become routine. Sure, we may have a bite here and there of non-local food when we are tired and cranky (and most likely we’ll regret it later). But for the most part, we’ve seen our overall health increase, our waistlines decrease, and our pocketbook less impacted by rising food costs. Lastly, eating locally considerably decreases our impact on our environment.
It’s worth it on many levels to keep eating locally.
