If you have ever thought the words "eating local" and "affordable" couldn't occupy the same sentence, then this challeng is for you! During the week of April 23-29, Eat Local folks across the country are going to see if it is indeed possible to eat locally and sustainablly on the budget of the average American and YOU are invited to join in.
Check out all the details here. The Eat Local Challenge blog will also be the place to read about other's progress and for you to let us know how it is going.
Now, it may seem that the hardest part of the challenge for those of us in Central New York may not be eating within the budget but eating at all. But never fear, as we get closer to the Challenge date I will be posting information about where to get local foods this early in the growing season without subsisting totally on microgreens.
With that said, I'm hoping a good number of us will participate. The dollar amounts given for the budget are national ones so everyone will have the same amount of money to spend whether they are in San Francisco or DeRuyter. I'm hoping that bodes well for us--but we'll see. If you think you'd like to participate post a comment here and let us know. And remember, you don't have to have a blog!
Sign me up! I think that this is a great challenge for Central New York. The assumed high cost of eating local and organic is such an often-quoted excuse, so I'm curious to see how this plays out. Also, as a member of CSA-CNY, I will make sure that information about this event gets posted on our website (csacny.com) and gets out to our members.
Posted by: Heather | March 22, 2007 at 09:39 AM
Thanks for this information- I'm going to participate and partake in all the local CNY food glory! Er... at least I hope so =)
Posted by: bazu | March 22, 2007 at 04:37 PM
BTW you might be interested in this blog post I just wrote about trying to find a local product (Juanita's Soul Classics Home-Style Barbecue Sauce) in our stores.
http://tinyurl.com/2l8pvd
Frustrating...although we finally succeeded.
Posted by: Jill Hurst-Wahl | March 24, 2007 at 04:30 PM
Heather--thanks for spreading the word, those in the CNY-CSA, and any other early season CSAs, will be at a great advantage.
Bazu, I'm glad you're going to join in.
Jill, this is the sauce you emailed me about, right? I'll have to check out your post. Any success in getting more local food in our stores is a success for everybody--good job.
Posted by: Jennifer | March 26, 2007 at 09:39 AM
Yup, this is the sauce I e-mailed you about. I just e-mailed Juanita to tell her where the sauce was at the Taft Rd. Wegmans (which is the store I went to). Hopefully, she can spread the word about WHERE it's located in the grocery. Too bad that they don't just put all of the BBQ sauces together in one spot. Must be too logical.
Posted by: Jill Hurst-Wahl | March 26, 2007 at 08:21 PM
Jennifer, thanks for this! I have referred one of my students to this post and related info. (I'm teaching a course called "Health, Spirituality, and Justice" where we had a big chunk of the course on food.) She's doing a project on eating local and healthy (organic if possible) food on our college campus, something she as a working-class kid is finding very difficult; she noticed all the adamantly vegan kids here and many of the students who are members of the organic produce buying co-op (which a few of us faculty have joined as well) come from privileged background and have little awareness of the economic and class issues tied up in their and her food situations. (She has a food budget f 10 dollars a week and can't even afford the cafeteria.) I had her and the rest of the class look at GRUB, which I discovered as we were reading Hope's Edge. [Hmmm, this blog program won't read code -- I just tried to italicize the book title -- and to make a hotlink to the following URL.] http://www.eatgrub.org/ Do you know it? Reminds me of the project back in Oakland to bring fresh food to East Oakland. (For all I know, Bryant Terry is involved with it in some way. His bio and Anna Lappé's are on that site, have a look.) Love your blog. Looks like you are thriving up in the snow belt! I am well in the Southland, chairing the diocesan anti-racism committee, and cooking, of course. I knew I'd be okay when I was interviewing for the job and poked around the Web and found that there was a goat farm in the area with fresh goat cheese sold at the local farmers' market.
And I broke down and started blogging about six weeks ago, on Ash Wednesday.
I hope to visit your blog often. Blessings!
Posted by: Jane R | March 30, 2007 at 09:49 PM
Jane, how great it is to reconnect! I love the book, Grub--it is a good read. You know that if you were local, I'd be in the front row of your class-it sounds great!
Posted by: Jennifer | April 02, 2007 at 08:53 AM
Yes!!! This sounds like a great and worthy challenge. Think I'll get started the day before on Sunday, as I have to cook something for a potluck!!!
Posted by: TofuQueen | April 02, 2007 at 10:57 PM