Whew! Thought I missed it there for a minute. I stopped by the Common Market after work because I am addicted to their carrot cake needed to buy a few assorted items. Bless them, they had clearly labeled Buy Local Challenge signs all over the store AND some local items were on sale, including two of my favorites: Dublin Roasters coffee and Michelle's Granola. (Since I still have approximately 6 gallons of granola from the last batch I made, had to resist, but if you go, try the pumpkin spice flavor.)
The Common Market labels local items year-round too. I swear some of the signs said it started yesterday. And well, let's just say yesterday was not a vegetable-eating kind of day for me. It was more a pulled pork sandwich sweet potato fries homemade pizza bring me a beer kind of day. So, thankfully, it looks like the correct dates are July 17 - 25, 2010.
So what is the Buy Local Challenge? Simple. "I pledge to eat at least one thing from a local farm every day during Buy Local Week." That's it. Just one thing a day, for seven days. Stock up at the farmer's market, use your CSA produce, head over to the Common Market or MOM's, or eat at a restaurant that features local produce (in Frederick Isabellas, Acacia, Cafe Nola and Volt come to mind, but there are plenty more).
Fair warning: you'll have to think more than usual about where your food comes from to do this. And it's not as easy as it sounds, but if you keep it simple, you'll manage just fine. And keep a couple local fruits on hand for snacking, in case you run short on cooking time, motivation, etc. If you run out of cooking ideas, go with pasta. It goes with most vegetables. Dinner tonight was CSA squash, garlic, basil and cherry tomatoes tossed with whole wheat linguine, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and a little olive oil, white wine and lemon juice. I'm a little early for the challenge, but it was a great simple dinner!
So are you in? Who's up for the challenge? Take the official challenge, or just try to eat one local thing each day for a week. I'd love to hear how it goes!
Woot! I am so in!
Posted by: Shannon | July 16, 2010 at 01:52 PM