Eat Local Challenge: Day 1

June 1, 2012

I'm participating in the NOLA Locavores Eat Local Challenge, which is a commitment to eating local foods during the month of June.  I signed up to go with the Strict Level, which permits up to 3 non-local food items each week and up to 3 "off-the-wagon" meals each week.  To keep myself somewhat accountable and to keep track of my exception allowances, I'll be documenting meals for the week.

Breakfast:
None.  I know, I know.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  I don't eat it that often, oh well.

Lunch:
Off-the-wagon meal.  Great start to the ELC!  =)
Leftover lasagna, mac and cheese, green beans, cornbread

Dinner:
Local blueberries and plums
I had an evening work-related event today and none of the food was local except for frozen blueberries, which a guest had brought.  I ate a few plums as a dinner-snack when I got home.


Non-local Foods for the Week:TBA
Off the Wagon Meals Remaining: 2

I've started to do a little menu planning, and I'll probably make stuffed patty pan squash and roasted potatoes tomorrow and a ratatouille over pasta on Sunday for dinner.

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Rule Questions:

I've been debating whether or not to allow myself to consume non-local items that I've already purchased., such as butter, olive oil, and spices.  Although I'd like to adhere to the rules as much as possible, I don't want to buy additional local food items when I have perfectly good non-local items in my pantry/freezer.  To avoid being wasteful, I've been considering allowing myself to use non-local herbs, spices, and other items until I run out of them.  I know that some people are bending the rules a little bit on things like coffee (limiting to locally roasted and such), and I feel like this would be a somewhat reasonable bend as well.

I guess I'll be spending the first week or so pantry/fridge purging, which I probably should have done during the weeks leading up to the challenge.

Another rules question I've been debating is how to determine what is a "non-local food item" in the rules.  For example, yesterday (May 31st - the day before the challenge), I made a blueberry cornbread with local blueberries, everything else was NOT local (buttermilk, corn meal, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter).  If I ate that cornbread today, would it count as one non-local food item?  Or would it count as eight?

I'm thinking the latter considering our starter kit came with a cup of local salt, and they were selling local wheat flour at the kick-off party last night.  But the weak sauce in me wants to just count it as one.