Eat Local Challenge: Starting off slow

The Eat Local Challenge started on Sunday and I'm still trying to clear out the very tempting non-local stuff from my fridge.  It's hard to eat super local when your fridge is still full of grapes from warmer regions and Szechwan dumplings shipped from New York.

I started off my day with harvesting a couple pounds of tomatoes from the garden and diced those up with some fresh corn kernels and basil.  On top I drizzled some basil infused balsamic vinegar from The Golden Fig.  Yum! This was a super easy lunch salad that I could make any day.

I also stopped to pick some blackberries this morning.  Our berry patch is out by the garage, so I usually eat berries when I'm getting home from work or leaving for work in the morning.  Yep- that's my rear end you see poking out of the thorns while the car is idling in the alley.  The berries looked perfectly ripe and bigger than my thumb...but wow are they sour still!  These are destined to be pie.

Dinner tonight is simple: Miscellaneous shredded vegetables from the crisper with some Salad Girl dressing.  I think there's cabbage, spinach, carrots and cucumbers in there.  It looks kind of like coleslaw, but with a light lemony dressing.  I know the cabbage and cukes are local, so I figure I'm at about 60% local for the salad.

Now?  Time to plan out some meals.  That's the real ticket to being able to survive an Eat Local Challenge!  Speaking of surviving...I'm teaching a Surviving the Eat Local Challenge class Tuesday night from 6-7pm at Mississippi Market's West 7th store.  And it's FREE!!!

Anyone else out there taking the challenge? Wherever you live (in the US), there's probably a co-op near you hosting a month of Eat Local events...it just might not be during August if your growing season is different!