August's Green Challenge: Eat like a locavore
Join the Green Challenge every month and make one small change to help the environment. Keep us posted on your progress throughout the month and keep an eye out for spectacular giveaways.
The term "locavore" is so new that my spell check keeps fussing at me every time I type it. First uttered in public by Jessica Prentice in 2005, the term has come to mean people who eat food from local sources whether they be within a 50 or 2500 mile radius from their homes. There are many benefits to this practice and rising gas prices are just the beginning.
For this month's challenge I will be cooking two days a week with exclusively local ingredients. Why two? Because it's more than one which seemed whimpy but certainly less than five. I don't have much faith in my cooking ability so I don't want to set the bar too high. I will be selecting ingredients from within 100 of my home. I already subscribe to a CSA that is located 68 miles away. I also frequent a local farmer's market where I can pepper the vendors with questions about their products.
The difficulty for me this challenge won't be finding ingredients. It will be menu planning -- something that I loathe to do. If I get really desperate, I can always select a few items that look good to me and Google a recipe. I'm still on the fence about not using spices which is often an exception in locavore cooking. I figure for two meals a week, I can forgo salt and pepper.
Why go local?
The term "locavore" is so new that my spell check keeps fussing at me every time I type it. First uttered in public by Jessica Prentice in 2005, the term has come to mean people who eat food from local sources whether they be within a 50 or 2500 mile radius from their homes. There are many benefits to this practice and rising gas prices are just the beginning.
For this month's challenge I will be cooking two days a week with exclusively local ingredients. Why two? Because it's more than one which seemed whimpy but certainly less than five. I don't have much faith in my cooking ability so I don't want to set the bar too high. I will be selecting ingredients from within 100 of my home. I already subscribe to a CSA that is located 68 miles away. I also frequent a local farmer's market where I can pepper the vendors with questions about their products.
The difficulty for me this challenge won't be finding ingredients. It will be menu planning -- something that I loathe to do. If I get really desperate, I can always select a few items that look good to me and Google a recipe. I'm still on the fence about not using spices which is often an exception in locavore cooking. I figure for two meals a week, I can forgo salt and pepper.
Why go local?
- The food is fresher. It travels few miles so the cucumber in your hands could have been picked that very morning.
- Better flavor. It is allowed to ripen on the vine a little longer as transport time is shorter.
- Less environmental impact. Quite often crops are rotated from year to year on smaller farms to fertilize the soil naturally rather than the use of chemicals.
- It's good for the local economy.
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