Day 1 Eat Local Challenge

October 1st snuck up on me…..but now the challenge has begun! I have to admit that I didn’t do as well as I thought I would. One of the issues was an overcrowded day and poor time management. However, my main problem is that my pantry and fridge have several things in them that are clearly not local (red grapes, avocado, whole grain pasta, etc) but I am not going to waste food in order to adhere to the challenge, so part of the beginning of the month is going to be using up some of that “waste.” I also didn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market today where I *really* needed an onion, but I will go on Saturday. I did withstand the pressure to pick up the onion at the grocery store today where I had to store for some pharmaceutical items. And I placed my order for a local chicken and 2 dozen eggs from Abundant Life Farms which I will pick up on Monday when they deliver to town.

On an up note, I am going to do my very best to not buy anything new this month that is not local. I even explained this to my 5 year old today when she saw Doritos in an ad and proclaimed her desire to have them. (Which is really strange because I am fairly certain that it has been YEARS since I have bought Doritos or any such thing….) Anyway, I told her that we’ll do a treasure hunt of sorts in the store and find local items. She seemed intrigued by this concept. We’ll see how fun it is when she discovers that her mac-n-cheese and crackers are not local products!

Here’s a recap of today’s eats:

BREAKFAST
Whole Wheat English Muffin (locally made, mass produced item)
Fried Egg (local farm)
Slice of cheese (local, Tillamook, yum, yum!)
Morningstar Sausage patty (not local at all!.....from the freezer stash. I think there’s only one left and, unfortunately, my daughter does not like the homemade sausage patties I made from our local pork…..so she may be having the meatless version for the remainder of the month!)
Milk (local Mallorie’s brand)

LUNCH (picnic in the park)
Sourdough bread (local sustainable bakery, www.cascadebaking.com)
Cheese (local Tillamook again)
Local cucumbers and carrots from our CSA share
Grapes (nonlocal, although I am now thinking that I could probably find a more local version if I tried!)

DINNER
Leftovers from the fridge!