Could you eat local food only for one month? If you think so, then now is the time to try it. With the wide variety of farmers markets and produce becoming ripe, there is more than ever on the vendors table’s.
Rebecca Mowbray, a writer for The Times-Picayune, took the Eat Local Challenge in which she had to pledge to eat only food that is grown, raised or harvested within 200 miles of New Orleans for the month of June. She writes:
“Although I fretted about going without avocados or olives for a month, I surprised myself and discovered that the restrictions were the source of culinary creativity. I stopped worrying about what I couldn't have, and dove into a month-long scavenger hunt to see just what I could find.”
As she writes about her challenge, her tone changes from writing about having to do without, and becomes more about finding interesting new things to eat. This is a mindset that we all should heed. Food is such a luxury in our country that we think about it it like an old rerun on tv. You might watch it again, but your mind is elsewhere.
If you would like to try to eat local, now is the time to get out there and be amazed! There is so much produce and meat and cheese available no matter what region of the country you are in, that with a little bit of creativity, you too can be mindful of your mouthful.
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Comments
June 30, 2011
At the end it was you, the liar
July 1, 2011
While living in Cali, I could eat local every day of the year. Now that I'm in NY, it's trickier, but the summer bounty is here. Even in winter there were local apples, root veggies, eggs, and meat. So ya, I can pretty much always eat local.