Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Eating Local

For the next few months I'll be a blogger for Eat Local America sponsored by the National Co-operative Grocer's Association and for my own co-op's Eat Local Challenge blog (not up yet, but will be launched when the challenge starts in August and will be used in our newsletter). I might cross post some of these on this blog, but that seems kind of like cheating.

I started my local challenge on June 1 and I'm trying to eat 80% of my diet from locally grown foods or at least locally owned businesses. {Really I'm aiming for more than 80%, but I'll claim 80% in case I'm being too optimistic for a vegan in Minnesota in early June.} And our co-op defines "local" as from MN, WI, IA, ND, or SD.

One thing that became very clear today was that I will need to plan ahead. Today I didn't have dinner planned and I came home at 5:30pm when we were going to a Twins game at 7:00. And we were out of toilet paper and I had to get to the bank before it closed, too, just to complicate things. I ended up eating cold beans with last year's garden pesto and a roll from the New French bakery in Minneapolis and cookies from Country Choice in Eden Prairie, MN. Not the best dinner! The boys enjoyed the aforementioned beans on a hotdog buns with cream cheeze and romaine lettuce. They loved it, but it did look a little odd.

Yesterday's menu was great:
  • Steel cut oats (Welcome, MN) with SunButter sunflower seed butter (Fargo, ND) and maple syrup (Cumberland, WI)
  • Leftover potato salad (WI, MN, IA, backyard)
  • Leftover barley salad (MN)
  • Leftover cannellini beans with pesto (far away beans, with backyard pesto)
  • Corn chips (MN)
  • Roasted parsnips, beets, and ramps (WI & MN)
  • Sauteed beet greens with cremini mushrooms (MN & WI)
Today's menu was clearly not as well designed after lunchtime:
  • Toast from 3rd St. Bakery (Duluth, MN) with leftover potato salad (WI, MN, IA, backyard)
  • Leftover roasted parsnips, beets, and ramps (WI & MN)
  • Leftover beet greens and cremini mushrooms (MN & WI)
  • Leftover barley salad (MN)
    • See my lunch box below
  • Country Choice cookies (MN owned)
  • New French Bakery roll (MN owned) and leftover beans with pesto (backyard pesto)
  • Tofu tacos (IA grown soybeans, far away lettuce, taco shells, salsa, onions)
  • Spud puppies (WA)

2 comments:

jessy said...

the barley salad looks great! and your local challenge sounds awesome! supporting local farmers and reducing food miles is stellar! makes me want to buy more local goodies, too - thanks for the inspiration, Liz! i look forward to reading about all the goodies you create from all the local foods you can get your hands on! rock on!

Pamela & Sarah said...

This is a great idea and very inspiring! How many miles/km is generally considered local? I've been thinking about this a lot since I live in Japan, a pretty small island...