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Hello, Australia & New Zealand

DAY 31 — Yesterday, The 100-Mile Diet officially hit bookstores in Australia and New Zealand, published by the good people of Text Publishing, so we’re taking a break from the Mission Challenge blog to welcome visitors who just might be arriving from the other side of the world.

We’re delighted to see the book come out in AU/NZ, not least because when we first started writing on the web about the 100-mile diet some of the first people we heard from were Australians. We often find ourselves looking across that incredible breadth of Pacific Ocean into the eyes of amazingly like-minded people, such as the crew who started the groundbreaking 100 Mile Cafe in Melbourne (maybe you could open a Vancouver branch?). Please note, all you Aussies and Kiwis can find your 100-mile circle using our map tool — ignore the request for a postal code and just type in the name of your town, then hit ‘Go.’

As we’ve researched local foods in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve found ourselves a little envious. Many of you enjoy climates that allow temperate, subtropical, and even in some cases tropical foods—and both Australia and New Zealand are well ahead of North America in celebrating indigenous foods as well. Much to my delight, on the day our book came out, we received a letter of congratulations from a locavore in Australia (an old friend, via email anyway). Sue tells us she’s amazed at how mainstream local eating has become in Australia just in the space of single year, and shared the story of a Melbourne-based food writer and television producer, Richard Cornish, who tried a 100-mile diet. One highlight, she said, was a cake he made “which turned into a geography and history lesson,” with spelt flour from Daylesford, apples from the Mornington Peninsula, a neighbour’s eggs, honey from Deans Marsh, and goat curd from Sutton Grange. “Cornish’s verdict on the cake? ‘Think pre-industrial, medieval — moist and dense and texturally hard-going. But the flavour was amazing.””

There’s something essentially true to the experience in that — I often use the slogan “Eat Your History” — though I’d add that not all local deserts have to be quite so, er, earthy. Alisa made a silken, golden, honey-sweet custard flan for my birthday not long ago. Nothing medieval about it…in fact it tasted positively futuristic. —JBM

Mission Challenge: Weekend Adventure

We challenged people in Mission, B.C., to try local eating for 100 days starting June 1. Nearly 100 people signed up—and we couldn’t resist signing up, too. Can a community change the way it eats? It’s never to late to get involved: Join in for a month, a week, even a single meal.

DAY 30 — I can hardly believe the Mission 100-Mile Challenge is almost one-third over. Alisa and I spent the weekend out in Mission, starting with the Friday night 100-mile show at Bad Dog Grill, where the food portions were local, tasty, and huge, and the music by the Lolligagers featured some of my favourites, from sea shanties and Gordon Lightfoot to the Pogues and R.E.M. We heard some good news and some sad news. The good news: There is local club soda! (But I can’t remember which brand it is—someone, please, let me know.) The sad news was a story we heard from a family that was recently at a local First Nations’ community dinner and heard that, given the way the Fraser River salmon runs are these days, future salmon dinners might only be held to mark funerals. If that isn’t symbolic of the fact that we need to get back to caring for our local food systems, I don’t know what is.

The next day Alisa and I rode our bikes from Mission to Agassiz and back (104 km), fueled only by local foods–salted new potatoes, green peas, hard-boiled eggs, roadside farmstand strawberries (we ate about five pounds between us…), and Farm House cheeses. I had my doubts about fueling such a long ride without commercial sports drinks or at least granola bars, but I have to say, I’ve never felt better on a long ride as I did on that one. (And sunwarmed, picked-that-morning strawberries dipped in chilled Farm House fromage frais is about as amazing a summer-day snack as I’ve ever had.)

That night we hit Stella’s (note: the website wasn’t working when I set up this link) for another 100-mile meal, bumped into several other 100-milers out for a night on the town, and finally ended with some local wine overlooking the town and the Fraser River. As a couple of tourists in our own region, we couldn’t have had a much better day. I’d encourage other people in the region who are heading out to the Fraser Valley, maybe to do one of the Circle Farm Tours, to stop in for an affordable 100-mile restaurant meal in Mission (Bad Dog Grill, Stella’s, or Embers BBQ House). Do call ahead to let them know you’re coming so they can make sure to have extra food on hand. Let’s support restaurants that are supporting local food producers!

On Sunday, we hit the Farmers’ Market for more strawberries, then hit Steve Peters’ Fruits & Greens Market (more gooseberries…and more strawberries), and finally headed into Vancouver with stops at local wineries. Most do not have truly local wines, unfortunately, and instead mix Fraser Valley grapes with Okanagan grapes to deliver “typical” wines like Chardonnay, Merlot, Reisling, etc to the consumer. This is one reason we admire Domaine de Chaberton, which has had the guts to grow more “unusual” grapes like Bacchus and Madelaine Sylvaner (which do well in our difficult climate), then educate the local palate to accept them and embrace them. The Bacchus, in particular, now has a strong local following. That’s what real local food culture is about: What works right here, not what everyone is drinking from here to France to California.

So: Thank you, Mission, for a great weekend of eating and adventure and adventurous eating.

Looking for past Mission Challenge blogs? Click here.

—JBM

Mission Challenge: A Potato Recipe

DAY 25 — Before we get to the recipe, two pieces of business. One, don’t forget the 100-Mile Party at Bad Dog Grill. Two, we’ve had some email problems (as usual), so we’ve missed some of your emails. If you’re doing the Mission Challenge, whether for a month or a single meal, we want to hear from you, even if you’ve sent us mail before. Share a story or a recipe or a piece of local colour.

Now, a recipe. Many people are finding they’re eating more potatoes than usual, to say the least. Luckily, people all around the world have been doing interesting things with potatoes for centuries. Here’s one of my favourites, the most popular tapas in Spain, done local and seasonal:

Tortilla de Patatas

1/2 c green onion, chopped
5 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
4 or 5 eggs
1/4 c fresh parsley, minced
1/2 tsp salt (or more if you prefer)
1/4 tsp hot chilies (optional)

Heat a medium frypan until butter is very hot but not browning. Add potatoes and cover. Fry until potatoes are softening and beginning to turn gold. Add onions and cook 1 minute more. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs, parsley, salt, and chilies. Add potato mixture and stir together. Return pan to heat, adding more butter to grease if necessary. Pour in egg mixture and spread evenly over hot pan. Lower heat and cover until mixture begin to set in the middle. Place a plate over the pan and, turning the pan away from you, flip the egg mixture upside-down onto the plate. Slide the tortilla back into the pan and cook until fully set. Remove from heat, let cool 10 minutes, and serve warm or chill for later.

It’s a good base for almost any meal. Incidentally, you can throw almost anything in there: I often add lots of fresh dill or spring garlic, or cover the tortilla with cheese, or serve it up with yoghurt.

Got a potato recipe? Share it!

Looking for past Mission Challenge blogs? Click here.

—JBM

Mission Challenge: 100-Mile Party on Friday

We challenged people in the fast-growing town of Mission, B.C., to try local eating for 100 days starting on June 1. Nearly 100 people signed up on the spot—and we couldn’t resist signing up, too. We’re back on a fully local diet, this time with plenty of company and a camera crew taking it all in for the Food Network. Can a community change the way it eats? Let’s find out. If you’re in Mission and taking the challenge, we want to hear from you. And it’s never to late to get involved: Join in for a month, a week, even a single meal.

DAY 23 — 100-mile party in Mission this upcoming Friday night, everyone welcome, locavore or not. See you there . . . here’s the details:

Bad Dog Grill Musical Performance: The Lolligagers
Support the 100-Mile Diet Challenge

By now you have heard the buzz about the 100-Mile Diet Challenge in Mission. The challenge entails the eating within 100 miles for 100 days starting in June. The Food TV Network has engaged Paperny Films to show how citizens of Mission find this challenge. Local merchants and local restaurants have signed on to the challenge and are working to provide a local diet to participants. Bad Dog Grill is one of the restaurants involved in the 100-Mile Diet Challenge and has created a special menu in support of those taking on the challenge. Scott & Annette Williams and Lori Abercrombie, owners of the Bad Dog Grill undertook the challenge of the 100-Mile Diet as a way to differentiate themselves from the corporate chain restaurants in the community and have enthusiastically embraced the idea of fresh, local, and seasonal foods on their menu. Williams and Abercrombie have even gone as far as ordering in local flour, spelt and hazelnut flour as well as accessing local wines to add to their menu.

On June 27, the Bad Dog Grill welcomes musical performers, The Lolligagers, who will be performing a set of cover tunes, including Celtic and Folk favorites. Laura Cameron of the Lolligagers, one of the many participants in the 100-Mile Diet, along with band members, James Minchau and Trevor Saunders will come out for an evening of music in celebration of Mission’s participation in the 100-Mile Diet. This musical evening will provide a social space for all 100-Mile Diet participants as well as residents of Mission who are interested in the 100-Mile Challenge to come out and share information on and stories about local foods. Come out and enjoy Bad Dog Grill’s new 100-Mile Diet Menu while enjoying an evening of music starting at 7:30 pm. Those interested in attending this event are asked to reserve their seating with Bad Dog Grill at (604) 820-2669. Seating is limited. To learn more about Bad Dog Grill and their involvement in the 100-Mile Diet visit them online.

Mission Challenge: Gooseberry Salsa Recipe

DAY 22 — First day of summer, eh? Still cool and wet. Tough year to be doing a 100-mile challenge; in fact, Alisa and I have to admit 2008 is tougher than 2005 so far. That said, I ate the season’s first strawberries the other day right by the roadside in Mission — I didn’t even make it ten paces before I was huddled over devouring the fruit. My only regret was waiting so long.

At the same fruit stand I picked up something entirely new to me: gooseberries. I thought I’d been eating local gooseberries quite a bit over the last couple years. Now I learn that those were cape gooseberries, which are something like tomatillos, rather than real gooseberries. It might be early season, but those gooseberries puckered me pretty good — they’re tart! Wasn’t sure what to do with them, but that’s what local eating is all about. I went home and, with a 100-mile meal to make for ourselves and three friends, I tried mixing up a basic gooseberry salsa to go with a side of glazed chum salmon. I should have made more of it, since it disappeared in a matter of minutes. Here, very roughly, is the recipe:

Mission Gooseberry Salsa

2 c chopped gooseberries
2 tbsp minced fresh tarragon
1/4 c minced parsley
1/4 c chopped green onion
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp dried hot pepper flakes

Just mix it all up in a bowl and give it a little time to blend flavours at room temperature. Locally, I think it would be good with salmon, spot prawns, halibut, any dried beans . . . maybe chicken or beef, too. There seem to be a lot of those gooseberries out in Mission. Anyone else have any recipes? Send them in. —JBM

Mission Challenge: Words of Inspiration

DAY 18 — Well, more than two weeks into the Mission 100-Mile Challenge and there’s a quiet, earnest sense of people keeping busy out there. It all feels pretty familiar to Alisa and me, but we’ve been having our ups and downs, too. Up: Scoring some fresh-picked asparagus, grilled just three minutes, fantastic. Down: A major sourdough breadmaking failure, incredibly crusty on the outside, stomach-turningly gooey on the inside.

Well, we live and learn — and we often learn best from others. We’re still eager to hear from more people in Mission. Meanwhile, here are some of the latest blogs we’ve heard about from local eaters hither and thither:

On the Farm: Thea in Woodford, Virginia, blogs about life as an intern on a sustainable farm, where she is trying to eat a (mostly) 100-mile diet. “I’m going to document everything from farming methods and the weather to my diet and emotional/spiritual wellness,” she tells us.

Market Musings: “Local food girl” Kristy in Seattle embarks on a Farmers’ Market Diet that leads into gardening and other addictive local eating behaviour . . . “One thing is certain,” she says, “the local eating habit is here to stay.”

Beth Eats Local: She’s doing a 100-mile diet for a year in Brighton, UK, a place that Alisa and I visited recently and came away astonished at the abundance of the local food system. Read on as Beth makes North American local eaters jealous with her access to fruit, veg, grains, salt, even cooking oils — all of which helps shape a vision of what strong, diverse local food cultures might one day look like around the world. She started on June 1, the same date as the Mission challenge, and she’s courageous enough to post recipes.

Food For Thought: Inspired by, ahem, the book The 100-Mile Diet, Colin in Haliburton, Ontario, tries eating only from within his province for a year. “My favourite food is chocolate and my favourite beverage is Coke… this should be interesting!” he writes.

Tom Libous: We’ve mentioned the local-eating New York state senator for District 52 before, but keep a special eye on his site in July, when his communications coordinator tells us they’ll be posting recipes from Italian, Moroccan, Indian, Indonesian, Chinese, and other styles of cooking, all done with local foods. We strongly agree that there’s no need for local eating to be monocultural!

Wild Man Wild Food: If anyone in Mission — or trying local eating anywhere — is feeling things might be a bit too . . . hard, well, check out this blog, where a UK forager named Fergus is living on wild foods . . .

Happy eating,
James

Mission Challenge: The Rules

DAY 13–The one question we get most often from people taking the Mission 100-Mile Challenge (or trying the 100-mile diet generally) is, What are the rules? So let me try to be perfectly unclear and evasive about it once and for all.

Here’s what we generally say about the rules, as written up on the Getting Started page:

There are no rules. Make your 100-Mile Diet experiment a challenge. If you’re trying it for a day, consider getting tough: every ingredient in every product has to come from within 100 miles (that was our rule for a year). Over a longer period, escape clauses are nice. Maybe the occasional restaurant meal or dinner at friends’ houses? And what will you do if you travel? Ask some deeper questions, too. If you eat meat, where does the feed for the animals come from? If you’re vegetarian, would you be prepared to eat animal products if no beans or tofu are raised where you live? If you just can’t live without coffee, don’t let it stop you. Wave your magic wand and declare it ‘local.’

Pretty soft, eh? But for those who aren’t making a 100 percent commitment to local eating, I still think that’s the best advice we can give. Local eating should feel like an adventure, not a punishment. But what about people who are trying to go 100 percent for the pure fun of the challenge?

Well, all I can tell you is what Alisa and I are doing, and why. As you’ll see, “100 percent” for us might end up being, well, 99.5 percent.

1. No restaurant meals unless at restaurants committed to local foods. In Mission, several restaurants are or will be serving totally local meals to 100-mile challengers — a great choice for a night out. Since we’re in Vancouver most of the time, we’ll allow ourselves a few meals out at a very small list of restaurants that we know are deeply dedicated to local and seasonal food.

2. A very, very, limited “social life clause.” No nonlocal business lunches, beers with the team, meals at friends’ places, etc. So far, we plan only one exception: a special engagement party for two friends. It just wouldn’t feel right to interfere with something like that. And we promise to feel guilty.

3. If we travel, we will eat the local foods of the destinations we visit, or food packed from home, or a combination of the two. We allow ourselves to bring home local foods from the places we visit — that just makes sense. Likewise if friends are coming to visit from away — we’ll welcome any food gifts they bring. Yes, I do have friends in the tropics. No, mangoes are not allowed through Canadian customs.

4. We are drinking local wine despite the nonlocal yeast, and we’re eating local cheese despite the nonlocal rennet and salt. We make such exceptions on a case-by-case, gut-feeling basis. By volume, yeast, rennet, and salt are used in incredibly small amounts in these products, which are otherwise fully in the spirit of local foods. Those are the only exceptions I can think of. We don’t, say, drink sugared wines or eat breads baked locally with nonlocal grain.

5. To us, if the simple product in front of us — like an egg, or a mushroom, or a fava bean — is totally local, we’ll eat it. Where did the feed come from for the chicken? The fertilizer for the mushroom? The seed for the bean? Those are all good questions, and exactly the kind of thing the 100-mile diet is designed to explore. In the end, it’s all about learning for yourself and making informed decisions based on your own values.

So those are our words of guidance. We’re don’t make good “food police” and we’re not too into dogma. That said, the deeper you challenge yourself, the more that you learn and open yourself up to change. Do what you do on any adventure: go deep, and use common sense.

Hey, put down that coffee cup! Radish juice is in season!

Cheers,
James

Mission Challenge: Day 9

DAY 9 — Yes, after almost three years of exploring our local foods, Alisa and I can still be surprised. On our first trip to the Mission Farmers’ Market, we came home with a food I’ve never cooked with before: lovage. What’s more, the market organizers were giving it away! It’s a perfect example of many of the things that I like best about eating close to home: fresh flavours; a sense of discovery; and uncommon generosity.

Lovage is similar to celery, but tastes slightly more herbal and floral. It was popular in classical times, especially among the Romans, and was common in medieval kitchen gardens. As of 2006, the Oxford Companion to Food listed lovage as “little known anywhere,” and you certainly won’t often spot it at the supermaket. My bet, though, is that lovage is due for a renaissance. Its flavour is unique and versatile — and it is traditionally considered a love potion.

I took home a shrub of the stuff, and have since used the leaves in salad and with fish or eggs, and the leaves and stalks to flavour soups and stews. I’m hoping to find more and to dry some for my spice cabinet (okay, it’s mainly a herb cabinet). If you track down some lovage, one very quick way to try its flavour is to sauté a bit of onion or leek, then crack an egg in a bowl and lightly beat in a small handful of chopped, fresh lovage. Cook the scrambled egg and, as you eat it, feel the perfume of the lovage climb up into your nostrils.

Does anyone else have a lovage recipe? Share it here —JBM

The Mission 100-Mile Challenge

JUNE 1, 2008 — Today marks the start of a new 100-mile challenge for Alisa and me, but this time we’re far from alone. At a town hall meeting in April, we challenged people in Mission, B.C., to try local eating for 100 days starting on June 1. Mission is a town of 35,000 people that is hanging in the balance between its rich agricultural past (amazing farmland!) and a possible future as a community of commuters driving daily to the larger urban centres of the Fraser Valley. We didn’t know what to expect, but I know we didn’t expect quite so much enthusiasm: Dozens of people signed up on the spot, and we don’t even know how many others have decided to take on the Mission 100-Mile Challenge since then. In the middle of it all we realized that we couldn’t ask people to make a commitment we weren’t prepared to do ourselves. As of today, we’re back to fully local eating!

We can’t offer too many details because the whole community challenge is being filmed for the Food Network, and no one likes it when someone gives away all the good parts of a show ahead of time. What we can tell you is that this challenge involves people from all walks of life, each with their own passions and weaknesses, and it will test the idea of local eating—not to mention Alisa and me, who stay away from cameras so instinctively that our authors’ photo is one of the few we have of the two of us together—to the limits.

We do want to use this site to support the Mission challenge. Are you taking the Mission 100-Mile Challenge? Send us an email and let us know—and if you have a story (or a recipe) to share or a question to ask, please do. Together, we’re stronger.

It’s not too late to join the challenge. Maybe you’re not ready to take on a 100 percent 100-mile challenge for 100 days. (Though we’re amazed how many people did!) Custom-fit the challenge to your life: Try eating 50 percent local food, or 75 percent. Try it for a month, a week, a potluck with friends, and make sure to let us know what you plan to do. The goal here is to get as many people in Mission eating as much local food as possible for the 100 days between June 1 and September 8. Can a whole community change the way it eats? Let’s find out.

Bon apetit,

James and Alisa

Putting Gardens on Balconies and in Yards in Vancouver

MAY 26, 2008 - I have a small south-facing balcony garden near 12th and Cambie and although I love my flowers, you’ve inspired me to grow container veggies this year. I picked up West Coast Seeds for carrots, cucumbers and several varieties of lettuce and herbs this past weekend. This summer I will aim for the 25-foot salad garden - it is about that distance from my kitchen to the balcony. Of course, I will need to supplement this with produce from our bountiful Vancouver farmers’ markets.

You are simply amazing. I tell all my colleagues about your book and website. I’m a dietitian with the heart and soil-stained hands of a gardener/veggie farmer.

- Elaine, Vancouver BC

***

After surviving the coldest April on record in Vancouver, James and I finally have everything planted in the garden. I crossed my fingers when last weekend I put out the tomato seedlings, which we’d started indoors six weeks previously. We don’t really get guaranteed sun until later June here, and tomato blight from all the rain is a serious threat. But one week on (including a crazy monsoon thunder storm) they’re looking just fine so far. James just put in the beans yesterday, another plant that wants dry sunny weather until it’s sprouted. Fingers crossed — it’s at crucial times like these that I can imagine how a real farmer feels!

Other “crops” (in the 6-by-8-foot plot behind our apartment) include basil, tomatillos, onions, garlic, lettuce and orach (yeah, I don’t really know what that is either).We are also giving the pink Indian corn from Colorado one more go. We got one sucessful ear last year, but the summer was unusually cool. We’ll hope for sun, sun, and more sun for a better harvest this year. We also shared some of the seeds with friends in the hot, dry interior of BC, which the corn will likely adapt to better. One of our varieties of tomatoes is very rare, new to us from Salt Spring Island Seeds: it’s called the Bali, and is supposed to be marbled pink and red, and shaped like a flower somehow. I’ll be curious to see how it turns out — and please do share your garden experiments for the year with us, too. -ADS