The average American meal has traveled 1500 miles by the time it reaches your table. Where are you from? Where do you buy food? How did you hear about our project? Please, leave a comment!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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Adventures in eating well and staying home!
What
Chapter 1: One month (August 2007) of eating completely local. Everything we eat will come from within a 100 mile radius of Madison, WI.
Chapter 2: We want to hear your stories! Surprise us, inspire us! We will continue to blog a few times a week, talking about the change of seasons, highlighting local eating in the news and profiling producers in our area. Please keep reading!
Chapter 3: Another growing season is here! Happy spring 2008! Local food news is everywhere, check back to see what is happening here in WI and around the world.
Chapter 2: We want to hear your stories! Surprise us, inspire us! We will continue to blog a few times a week, talking about the change of seasons, highlighting local eating in the news and profiling producers in our area. Please keep reading!
Chapter 3: Another growing season is here! Happy spring 2008! Local food news is everywhere, check back to see what is happening here in WI and around the world.
Where Can You Find Us Now?
Fine Print (from August 2007)
1) After a great deal of deliberation we decided to make an exception for salt.
2) If we procure food directly from the grower (for example while we are traveling somewhere) it can be from outside our radius.
2) If we procure food directly from the grower (for example while we are traveling somewhere) it can be from outside our radius.
Who
We are a mama (Jen), a daddy (Scott) and an eight-year old (Evie). We are homeschoolers, bread-bakers, kayakers, ice skaters, circus lovers, cat people and travelers.
We are not foodies or chefs or rich.
We are not foodies or chefs or rich.
Why
We live in a state that grows a lot of food. We are within walking distance from the largest producers Farmers Market in North America. We know that locally grown food is better for our environment, better economics, better tasting, better for our health and better for our relationships. We want to inspire others to take a leap to local eating. We are an ordinary family who cares deeply for the planet we live on. Eating locally is the most concrete and radical thing we can do to make the world a better place.
What we look like
Cha-ching! How much does it cost to eat local?
These were our expenditures for the month of August 2007, eating nothing from further than 100 miles from Madison, WI. People still ask us about money so this will stay in the sidebar for now!
Week 1 : August 1-3: $10.50 (dairy), $11.25 (produce)
TOTAL: $21.75
Time: It takes a long time to mill your own grain and make peanut butter!
Week 2: August 4-10: $130 (Farmer's Market), $15.50 (farmstand, winery)
TOTAL: $145.50
Time: 2.5 hours for peanut butter, hours and hours for processing grain and baking
Week 3: August 11- 17: $100 (Farmer's Market), $51.69 (pick your own)
TOTAL: $151.69
Time: Anything involving cereal crops continues to take hours and hours of our time.
Week 4: August 18-24: $80 (Farmers Market), $16 (grocery store--still all local, don't worry!) $???? (meal out -see 8/24--my parents treated us)
TOTAL: $96+
Time: Minimal this week, we had bread products in place and Scott was out of town so meals were simpler
Week 5: August 25-31: $96 (Farmers Markets), $30 berry picking
TOTAL: $126
Time: Tortillas and peanut butter took some time but we weren't stockpiling for the coming week as much
TOTAL MONEY SPENT IN AUGUST ON FOOD: $540.94
Week 1 : August 1-3: $10.50 (dairy), $11.25 (produce)
TOTAL: $21.75
Time: It takes a long time to mill your own grain and make peanut butter!
Week 2: August 4-10: $130 (Farmer's Market), $15.50 (farmstand, winery)
TOTAL: $145.50
Time: 2.5 hours for peanut butter, hours and hours for processing grain and baking
Week 3: August 11- 17: $100 (Farmer's Market), $51.69 (pick your own)
TOTAL: $151.69
Time: Anything involving cereal crops continues to take hours and hours of our time.
Week 4: August 18-24: $80 (Farmers Market), $16 (grocery store--still all local, don't worry!) $???? (meal out -see 8/24--my parents treated us)
TOTAL: $96+
Time: Minimal this week, we had bread products in place and Scott was out of town so meals were simpler
Week 5: August 25-31: $96 (Farmers Markets), $30 berry picking
TOTAL: $126
Time: Tortillas and peanut butter took some time but we weren't stockpiling for the coming week as much
TOTAL MONEY SPENT IN AUGUST ON FOOD: $540.94
WI Food Resources
- Westside Community Market
- REAP Food Group
- Savorwisconsin
- Dane County Farmers Market
- UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
- Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service
- Growing Power
- Community Action Coalition
- Dane County Buy Local
- Friends of Troy Gardens
- Home grown Wisconsin
- Madison Area CSA Coalition
- Willy St. Co-op
- Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
- Slow Food Wisconsin
Local Food Resources Worldwide
- Food Routes - Find Your Local Food
- Eat Wild
- Eat Well Guide
- Sustainable Table
- Locavores-100 miles from San Francisco
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- 100 Mile Diet
- USDA Farmers Markets
- Local Harvest - National Directory of CSA, small farms and food co-ops
- Community Food Security Coalition
- American Farmland Trust
Other Local Food Blogs
- Maybe Local Vegan (MI)
- 24 Boxes (IL)
- Simply Local Idaho (ID)
- Livin' La Vida Local (CA)
- Cincinnati Locavore (OH)
- Urban Hennery (WA)
- I'm Mad and I Eat (CA)
- What Geeks Eat (WI)
- Path to Freedom (CA)
- Slowly She Turned (CA)
- Cookin' In the 'Cuse (NY)
- Low Mileage Food (NC)
- Eat Local Challenge
- One Local Summer
Books: Food for Thought
Who is reading this?
5 comments:
I am in Duluth MN where the growing season is SHORT and I am gone too much to tend a garden! We have a great CSA but I am finding it hard to keep up with the bounty of food that has arrived lately. It is too much for a single person. I should pair up with a neighbor! I love the idea of eating local but it is hard to break old habits out of simple convenience. I guess that is just laziness. My biggest challenge is that I travel often which requires eating out. Though I often seek out the co-op in the city I end up in, I often have to eat out and find it hard to make socially responsible choices. Any suggestions on encouraging restaurants on buying local and then finding out who and where they are?
Willow, Alaska where I would have to say that most of our food comes from places further than 1500 miles...how sad. The closest grocery store is 60 miles away...along with the local farms.
WE are living vicariously through you guys...and strategizing how we could be better at eating locally. WE for sure could do it in the summer with a little tweaking & substiting...but we fear the winter months.
The daily menu is fantastic...and unique...love the foods that have become your main dish.
And well you know how we heard about your website! :)
Hi, Jen and family. It's so fun to read your blog and see what you are chosing today.
I grew up in MO and have lived in WI for 15+ years. My family and I enjoy working and eating from our large garden. We also raise chickens (layers and meat), sheep, etc. The only problem I have is less expensive, local dairy (like my own cow, is really what I want).
I think the biggest challenge that people have is realizing that you can't have everything whenever you want it. For example, strawberries in Feb. You have to know that they are shipped, packaged the season before, treated and expensive! We are trying to eat our stuff (that's easy) and locally and stop eating out of season. I guess Alaska would be really tough but there is a reason people in the past ate what they did. It's what they had at that time. I think April is probably the biggest month in WI where you could starve esp. if you don't eat meat.
Good luck with your project!
Jodi Bubenzer and family
We think your one month eat locally program is a wonderful idea. Many more folks should get involved. However, I think the people who could benefit the most are the very ones who would never dream of eating this way. They are too hooked on fast foods and HFCS and you know how many foods that's in! Keep up the good eating and your blog is wonderfully written and very interesting to read.
A reader in Stow, MA.
August 8-suppertime here
mk, I'm single, too, but I have a half-share CSA box -- I get a box every two weeks. It has worked perfectly for me, as I'm out of town a few times a month (and unable to use my produce) and am still able to share some with friends (often for potlucks -- or, as you might say in your neck of the woods, covered dish supper? :).
And greetings, Lynches, from just up the road -- the Schenk-Atwood neighborhood, to be exact. I'm awfully glad the WSJ wrote about your efforts; like you, I hope that it challenges folks to give more thought to their food sources.
This year was the first time I've done a CSA. JenEhr Farms has been a great experience! It's helped me to eat even more vegetables and to learn about the countryside around Madison, since I pick up my veg box at the farm northeast of Sun Prairie.
I look forward to checking back in later to see how the WSJ article affects your readership and such. A pleasure to "meet" you all!
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