The Locavore Challenge

I have written before about the brilliance of Barbara Kingsolver. Humor me one more time, if you will. Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? In the book, Kingsolver chronicles her family's year long food journey in which they move across the country from the desert to a farm and commit to eating only locally grown food.

Sounds boring, I know, but it really really is not at all. It changed the way I think about food.

About a month ago I was challenged by a friend to Eat Local this summer.

[This is the same friend who invited me on a 4 day girls weekend in Canada last November where we became unexpected fans of Cat Stevens cover bands, bar hopped like we were 20, and submerged ourselves in a RIVER in NOVEMBER in QUEBEC which turned out to be one of the most amazing times EVAH and I meant to blog about it then but I was on a blogging break and so I didn't but I think I will now]

So, surprising even myself, I have accepted her Locavore Challenge (I figure it might be like the Canadian River thing where I thought it was going to be awful, but it really wasn't).

I will admit to having second thoughts when I realized I would have to give up bananas and avocados. And coffee. And citrus. And my daily morning bowl of Kashi. And pretty much all store bought snack items. Oh God, is there local chocolate?

Alcohol won't be a problem since we mostly buy local beer anyway, and I can suffer through two months without a martini (unless someone knows of a local vodka distillery?).

Meat shouldn't be an issue either since I have been off land animal meat since last July. Which is lucky for me as I won't have to go out and shoot any suburban deer or squirrel in my back yard for daily protein requirements.

The thought was to start the Locavore Challenge in June, but since my veggie garden currently looks like this

(have I mentioned that I've never before grown vegetables?)

and our farmer's market doesn't begin until the end of the month, I've pushed back my start date to July 1.

Which happens to coincide with my annual two week retreat to Maine where I can now eat as much lobster as I want. You can't find a much more local food source than lobstah in Maine.

My culinary skills will be challenged, which will no doubt thrill The Husband who probably can't stomach another meal of Trader Joe's veggie meatballs and whole wheat pasta. But I have a feeling he'll be hunkering for a thick, hearty garden burger after a few sparse meals of home grown cucumbers, a lettuce leaf and a few deformed carrots.

I will spare the children this experiment since I'm pretty sure the First Grader would literally starve.

But I figure if Barbara Kingsolver can move her family of four to a remote farm and eat only what they grow (or slaughter) themselves for an entire year (she even made her own cheese, for God's sake) then I can manage two months (60 days!) of locavorism (I just made that word up).

I will write more about this as I enter full fledged Project Local Starving Eating. But if you haven't heard from me for awhile then you'll know I died of starvation while trying to chew off my own arm.