Life Begins at 30

Eat Local Challenge: Q & A

In a post below, Lynne had the following comment and question:

This sounds like a really interesting challenge, but I'm in the Boston area, where the local farmers' markets won't start until Memorial Day at the very earliest, and mid-June more often. (Currently, I get organic fruits and veggies delivered through Boston Organics, but since that's a year-round service, they can't really keep it local during our long winter.) How do you go about finding out who makes what locally when the ultimate source of local produce isn't open for the season yet?

I think this question is worthy of its' own post because it affects so many people.

First of all, there is nothing saying that your Eat Local Challenge month has to be in May.  You could decide that, especially for your first time taking the challenge, May is going to be too difficult in your area.  You could set up an individual or group challenge in a different month.  I already know of some people from Canada who are going to be taking the challenge in August and writing about it on EatLocalChallenge.com.

If you decide that you want to take the challenge in May, where do you start?

1) Check out LocalHarvest.org.  They will show farms and food producers in your area that you may not know about.  Call those farms up and see where you can get their products.

2) Start asking at your stores.  Check with Whole Foods.  Ask them to show you what in their store is produced within a 100-mile radius.  Even if their answer is "nothing", you have learned something and made your voice heard with them. 

3) Look for local co-ops.  Co-ops will have a great idea of what's available, and will be more malleable than a big corporation like Whole Foods.  The idea of eating local is a fairly hot topic right now, so they may already have some ideas for you.

I'll keep thinking of other options for you, and hope that others will chime in as well.

Eat Local Challenge Announcement: May 2006

I have mentioned the May Eat Local Challenge in several posts, but thought I would post something official which summarizes the challenge and what you should do if you'd like to join.  I am working in association with the Locavores to host the May Eat Local Challenge.  Participants agree to focus on eating food grown and produced in their area during the month of May.  How stringent or loose you decide to make your personal challenge is up to you. 

In designing your personal challenge, you should answer the following questions:

1.  What's your definition of local for this challenge?

The Locavores are using a 100-mile radius around their home to define local foods.  I will be doing the same.  You could define local as anything from within your county to within the state or the United States.

2.  What exemptions will you claim?

There are some things that are a part of your everyday life that will be impossible to source locally.  Will you be drinking coffee during this month?  What will you do about spices?  In many areas, local grains are hard to find.  What will you do if you can't find them?

3.  What is your personal goal for the month?

You don't have to set your goal at eating every meal locally -- while that is the ideal, we want to be realistic here.  You could set a goal of having each dinner with local products, having one family meal a week, or even hosting one weekend picnic with local foods during the month.

So you're ready to take the challenge ... now what?

* Go sign up on the Locavores site.  This is a good way to be counted in the challenge, and to receive updates during the month.

* If you are a blogger, post about the above questions and send me a link to the post by Sunday, April 30.  During the first week of the challenge, I will be posting a summary of blogs to watch on the new website dedicated to eating locally year-round (launching this week). 

* If you are not a blogger and would like to write about your experiences for the world, please contact me via email.

Would you like more information?  If you would like a better sense of the Eat Local Challenge, you can view the links above, on the right, which are associated with the August 2005 challenge in which over 600 people and 60 bloggers participated.  Also, read the Locavores' site, and keep an eye on this site in the coming weeks for further information.

On the Eat Local Challenge, Rain and Chickens

I want to start this post by talking for a moment about the Eat Local Challenge.  You will be getting more information in the next few days, but just a reminder that it's in May.  As in 12 days from now.  We have had a ton of interest, both here and on the Locavores site, and I am very excited to be trying this out in the springtime.  To brush up on the Eat Local Challenge, see the announcement post from last August.  The challenge will basically be the same this year.  You set your rules, and do what you can during the month to consume as many locally-grown products as possible.  For a great summary of the challenge, please see Jamie's post on 10 Signs Like This.

May in San Francisco is usually the time of spring peas, strawberries, fava beans, and cherries.  Due to this years incredible rains, however, none of us are too sure what we are going to be eating in May.  I am still getting Red Russian kale and butternut squash from my CSA, so it's anyone's guess.  I wrote a post today for Bay Area Bites that I'd ask you to read if you care about farmers and what this season is doing to their crops.  Short end of the story: It doesn't look great, and no one is sure how bad things are yet.  We should all do what we can to support our local farmers during this time.

Switching gears a little, you may have visited the site of Patrick and Holly called Letter from Hen Waller.  I have it linked on my blogroll there on the left.  I first started reading their blog a while back when they were living in Berkeley.  They are dedicated to reducing their ecological footprint, and do this by growing their own food, biking as many places as possible, and raising chickens for eggs and meat.  Add to this the fact that they are both compelling writers, and you can understand why they have one of my favorite sites out there.

Patrick and Holly moved to Portland in the past six months, and I've been enjoying reading about their new adventures there.  Holly wrote a great post this weekend describing their trials and tribulations with trying to get a permit to raise chickens (in Portland you can have three without a permit, but more than that and you have to apply for a permit and notify your neighbors).  They were met with some stiff opposition from their neighbors and really had to consider whether this was worth the fight.  They decided to do anything they could:

We choose to raise chickens in the city as a part of our convictions. We raise them to deepen our connection with the natural world, by practicing animal husbandry. We raise them to enjoy nutritious wonderful eggs from chickens raised in a good, healthy environment, in the sun, hormone- and antibiotic-free. We raise chickens to help maintain breeds of birds that are not raised in factories, so that when, inevitably, disease devastates the factory breeds, some hardier breeds will survive, to provide stock for meat and eggs for all people. We raise chickens to create a more integrated environment on the land we occupy, using animal fertilizer, not petroleum-based inputs, to grow food that we eat, and the plants that make a space beautiful and healthy to live in.

We believe that we can no longer afford to live in a strictly ornamental world, and cannot continue to be an increasingly flaccid and parasitical people. We live in a world of increasing social and economic crises that promise only to become worse with the accumulating impacts of global warming and peak oil. Patrick and I have chosen to live in a way that reduces our ecological footprint, wherein we seek to live as locally as we can. We support local food producers. We live our lives within a radius that we can cover by bicycle. And through raising chickens and gardening the small amount of food we do, we seek to learn and develop once-common skills, and to reconnect with the plants and animals that nourish us.

To read the rest of the very interesting and inspiring and also quite sad story, visit Letter from Hen Waller.

Michael Pollan Speaks ... All over the Bay Area

If you live in the Bay Area and are interested in seeing Michael Pollan speak in the next couple months, you will have ample opportunity.  Mr. Pollan, whose book was released this past Tuesday, seems to have scheduled the Bay Area tour several times over.  I am excited that we will have so many opportunities to see him speak!

Below is a listing of his most recent schedule in the Bay Area.  For the most up-to-date information, or to confirm these dates, please visit his site and official schedule.  If you live outside of the Bay Area, visit his schedule as well to find events in Los Angeles, Washington state, Portland, New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Washington DC, and Austin.

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Monday, April 17
Searching for the Perfect Meal in a Fast Food World
Location: Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business, Berkeley campus
More information here

Wednesday, April 26
City Arts & Lectures
Cost: $18.50
Location: Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
More information here

Friday, April 28
Cody's on 4th Street
More information here

Tuesday, May 2
Barnes & Noble, Walnut Creek
More information here

Thursday, May 4
Reception with Michael Pollan benefitting the Center for Land-Based Learning. 
A wine and cheese reception.
Cost: $25
Location: Farm on Putah Creek, Winters, CA
More information here

Sunday, May 7
Book Passage, San Francisco Ferry Building
More information here

Wednesday, May 31
A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books, San Francisco
More information here

Thursday, June 1
Rakestraw Books, Danville
More information here

Thursday, June 8
Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts
Berkeley
More information here

Don't think you will be able to see him speak?  Listen to his interview on Fresh Air with Terri Gross or read this interview by Carol Ness in the SF Chronicle.  Also, fellow Bay Area Bites writer Shuna Lydon wrote a great post about Mr. Pollan's presentation at the Food Politics lecture.  You can find more links in Marc's comments below (thanks Marc!).