Day Five of Our 125-Mile Local Food Challenge
[Editor's Note: This is the latest update on our 125-mile Local Food EcoChallenge through the Northwest Earth Institute. You can read the kick-off post here. To get future updates on our Challenge, feel free to subscribe to The New Pursuit. Thanks.]
As I type this, Day 5 of our EcoChallenge is coming to an end. In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s ONLY Day 5, but in other ways, what we’re doing seems so right and so natural. The weeks prior to the Challenge were all about prepping — figuring out where we would be getting all our food, exploring new recipes, and teaching ourselves new DIY skills (more on that below). Now that we’re in the thick of it, we’ve found a bit of a groove and are going with the flow of things.
Even after just five days I keep coming back to a couple central themes that have emerged for me:
- Eating local forces you to slow down. Nothing we’ve consumed has come from a box; nothing has been processed with a hundred different ingredients that you can barely pronounce. Everything has been prepared from scratch. This takes time — something that seems almost contrary to modern life these days — not only to create a meal but to sit and savor it. You can’t be watching three hours of T.V. at night and do this.
- Eating local connects people. We love chatting it up with the farmers and producers we are getting our food from; the friends and family we’ve connected with to share the ups and downs of what we’re doing. It even extends to our immediate family — Sara and I have spent most nights making one thing or another, chatting away and laughing.
- Eating local is really good for you. We’re using the freshest ingredients possible and eating in moderation, avoiding not-so-healthy snacks in-between meals. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit I’m jonesing for some ice cream after the kids go to bed, but the juicy yellow Baby Doll melon we picked up from Old Orchard Farm is doing me just fine.
What’s Been On the Menu
We’ve been logging our daily menus at our EcoChallenge team site. So far, about 95% of what we’ve consumed has been grown/produced within 125 miles of our home in Rhode Island. A few things (flour, beans) have come from just outside that radius in Vermont and Maine. Not too bad. Still, even this early in the Challenge, some clear gaps in our local/regional food system are apparent, namely grains. While a few great stories out there from The Atlantic and The New York Times have chronicled the growth of the local grains movement in New England, locally-made flour has been pretty difficult to come by for us. I’ve joked with Sara that next summer I want to find an acre and try my hand at growing wheat (kind of like the documentary King Corn, only with grains). Heck, we have a grist mill in the next town over, so why not?
Learning Some New DIY Skills
One of our favorite (but time consuming parts) of the Challenge so far has been trying out new recipes to create some of our favorite staples. Sara’s been making things like breads, jams, sauces (and even pasta on occasion) for awhile, but we’ve pushed the envelope a bit in trying to stay inside our 125-mile radius. We’re fortunate to have a wonderful dairy farm in town (Arruda’s Dairy), so we’ve been finding new uses for their goods. With milk we’ve made a couple of batches of plain yogurt (amazing) and with heavy cream we’ve made butter and then ghee (an oil substitute made from clarified butter). Sara tried her hand at homemade bagels for the first time — what a treat!
We have also found that a lot of work we did during the growing season to can, freeze and cure things like jams, relishes, pesto, tomato sauce and onions has been paying off. What a feeling it is to just reach into your pantry or freezer and enjoy the (literal and figurative) fruits of our labor.
Stay Tuned
We’ll post a few more updates over the next week and a half, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some photos we’ve taken to chronicle things. Enjoy!
A few things picked up at the Hope Street Farmers Market in Providence. (That's popping corn on the ear!)
Our first batch of homemade plain yogurt. So easy to make and cheaper than Stoneyfield! Those are homemade bagels off to the side.
Our first batch of homemade butter, made from heavy cream from Arruda's Dairy Farm here in town. They also provided the milk for the yogurt.
Homemade vegetarian chili made with beans from Freedom Bean Farm in Maine and veggies from local farmers markets
Another amazing loaf of bread. We were able to use some rye flour from Exeter, RI in the recipe. The rest is King Arthur out of Vermont.
Our youngest, helping mama make another batch of dough
Homemade calzone using Exeter, RI flour, Narragansett Creamery cheese and local veggies. What awesome leftovers!
One of the best finds yet: Popping corn on the cob. Just place the dried cob in a paper bag, throw it in the microwave and enjoy. We'll definitely be planting this next season.
Inspiring Bill!
It will be interesting to see how much of eating local stays with you beyond the challenge. Thats what i like about challenges, they push you beyond your comfort zone and afterwards you settle somewhere more comfortable, yet better than where you started from.
I started making my own yoghurt during a no-spend challenge. It was something i didn’t do before because I thought it was too time consuming. But durng the challenge it became a habit and something i’ve stuck with.
And the popping corn on the cob looks amazing!
Dear Bill (and family)
I am soooooooooooooooooooo PROUD of you all. I am just so proud of you. I lived years making everything from scratch. So I really know how challenging this can be and YET how rewarding it is. I LOVED it. And you have a family so it might be even more challenging: more food to prepare, more “demands”, varied tastes, getting used to REAL food (meeting the kids tastes), etc. Yet I suspect you have all been eating pretty healthy for a lon time, so that probably hasn’t been an issue.
Uunless someone has done what you are doing it is almost impossible to imagine making everything from scratch, let alone, buying or growing as much “local” as you can. I stand up and applaud you, your wife and your kids. YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband and I are also returning to home grown, local bought, co-op, etc as much as we can. We had a fantastic garden this year. I brought in all my tomatoes yesterday and had far more than I though. On just 6 plants we had OVER 300 tomatoes. Unbelievable. We are eating them fresh/raw, freezing them, making raw fermented salsa, raw fermented green tomato pickles, etc. We are doing this also with cukes, zukes, squash, green beans, beets, herbs, onions, chives, pumpkins, corn (grew mostly Indian corn), and more. It is SUCH a rewarding feeling. I LOVE it.
I LOVE these two parts of your post SO MUCH:
“Eating local forces you to slow down. Nothing we’ve consumed has come from a box; nothing has been processed with a hundred different ingredients that you can barely pronounce. Everything has been prepared from scratch. This takes time — something that seems almost contrary to modern life these days — not only to create a meal but to sit and savor it. You can’t be watching three hours of T.V. at night and do this.”
“Eating local connects people. We love chatting it up with the farmers and producers we are getting our food from; the friends and family we’ve connected with to share the ups and downs of what we’re doing. It even extends to our immediate family — Sara and I have spent most nights making one thing or another, chatting away and laughing”.
There is something SO grounding, ALIVE, and right about living this way. I am so excited to read this, Bill. You and Sara are amazing. I am so proud of you both. And you need to hear that, and know that there are people who see and truly appreciate what you are doing. You are encouraging me and Stephen. We are so grateful.
The way our society is set up, it robs us of all soul, all connection, all reality….IF we let it. We do not have to let it. And doing what you are doing and we are doing, is one truly solid step to staying awake, aware, and fully alive, soul intact.
You ought to google raw pickles. You can make them out of ANYTHING, As I said, I’ve made them with beets, cukes, zukes, carrots, green beans, onions, garlic, summer squash, etc, etc. Here is one recipe I used but I have done it with watermelon rind yet, and I added onions, garlic, mustard seed, etc. http://www.tealightfullyours.com/raw-brine-pickled-watermelon-rinds-or-half-sours-raw-cultured-vegetables/TeaSmittenMomma You may want to adjust jalapeno or chili peppers to taste. I make mine mostly mild. They are SO fast to make. Just sterilize your jars like you would in yogurt. And I use the juice from them as salad dressing. Drink, etc. It is REALLY good for the gut. They are so fast to make.
Anyway, you can tell I am so excited for you and what you are doing. Wish Stephen and I lived closer to you and Sara. LOL!
So much in common. 
Hugs to you all,
Robin
PS Your kids are just so beautiful, filled with innocence and life.
Okay, I know my comment above is already waaaaay too long, but I feel so excited for you guys. Been thinking of you all as I make my pickles this AM. Also, re the link to the recipe. I meant to say that I have NOT tried it with watermelon rind, but used the same recipe for all my other veggies that pickled (minus the chili peppers, or with very minimal chili peppers). Stephen likes hot, I like mild. So I will make him some that are VERY hot. LOL!
The pickles are much crisper if you throw in a grape leaf or two. I have them growing here, but the health food store might have them, or a neighbor, etc. You might have wild grapes where you live. We had them in Maine where I grew up.
Robin // Your comments are always so full of enthusiasm and genuineness — don’t ever worry about their length! Sara made pickles for the second time this summer — this time around we went with a sweet variety. We planted extra cukes this summer so had them coming out our ears and had to find ways to use them. Perhaps watermelon rinds are the next frontier in pickling.
I completely agree with these words of yours: “The way our society is set up, it robs us of all soul, all connection, all reality”. I really think of it as people being “zombiefied” by things like mainstream media and programming, the false hope of indulgent consumption as an engine of so-called “growth”, and the polarizing and sensational views of all the dogma (religious, political, cultural) around us. The answers are not found there. They are found when we dig deep and know true selves and connect that with the immense pool of life that surrounds and penetrates us.
I hope your pickles came out great! Be well!
Bill, We’re very excited about your local challenge. We also have faced the challenges of trying to eat local. With gardening (this winter trying low tunnels to extend the season), making yogurt, growing sprouts in the winter, canning, freezing and pickling. Our favorite was “trout tacos”, with everthing from within 1/4 mile (except the flour for homemade tortillas). Very enlightening. The garden can only go so far. And you’re right where are our grains? And how many ways can one prepare/eat pumpkin, zuchinni, and eggplant. What’s missing here locally is a really fine food co-op. Each member buys a share of say $50-$100 and that’s used to buy the 50# of local beans to share and re-invest. Boise, ID has an extremely great Co-Op that does it all. With local food, (free samples on produce!) plus standard health food fare and bulk bins and a member driven local demand they have a thriving business that just keeps growing. Since our arrival to RI in 2007, we find ourselves driving too much and paying too much and not finding basic staples of fresh, local, in-season, organic, sustainable food. We love our local and regional farms: Young Family Farm, Harmony Farm, Four Town Farm, Oakdale Farm, Shartner’s etc. but, as your challenge points out, we’re lacking year round sustainable sustenance! While you solve that challenge, I’m working on fresh, local, in-season, sustainable (herbal) medicine. And who’s saving seeds? Let me know when you’re ready to start the co-op, count me in for the first share!