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Thanksgiving Meals Planned Around US

NOVEMBER 10, 2007 - The links are coming in . . . people are planning a local Thanksgiving. See what they’re doing to get inspired. An ESL teacher and mother of six, married to a Navy Chief in Pittsburgh. . .

Emily and Mike of Florence,South Carolina . . . they should have no trouble with a 100-Mile Thanksgiving. Starting Oct. 7, they began a year of eating within the Carolinas, and already they’ve been baking bread, making pasta, and growing mushrooms. They have a local-food resources list for their Carolina Food Project.

Phelan, the “Homesteading Neophyte” in Kansas who professes to love Harley Davidsons and death metal, urges a bartered local Thanksgiving to rebuild community; and plans to hunt a deer to trade for flour.

Edible Sacramento has posted food resources to enjoy a 100-Mile Thanksgiving in their corner of California.

And in Australia, where Thanksgiving isn’t a national holiday, Friends of the Earth are urging folks to eat local over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. Down Under, that’s the height of the growing season. Handy! -ADS

Hudson Valley Distillery Breaks Prohibition

NOVEMBER 9, 2007 - In the hamlet of Tuthilltown, 82 miles from New York City, a fiesty local distillery is brewing up the first spirits in New York State since Prohibition ended 70 years ago. Ingredients all come from the Hudson Valley, so it is finally possible to drink a proper Manhattan in Manhattan, with Tuthilltown’s own rye whiskey. (For a fully local beverage, best leave out the orange bitters and lemon twist.)

James and I did a wee tour of the Catskill mountains north of NYC, and were amazed to see how rural it managed to be just an hour’s train ride away from the great metropolis. The patchwork of the old farm landscape was still visible, though to our eyes there were far less working farms than there should have been - if one plans to feed eight million people within their 100-mile radius! However, we did make a pitstop at Vinnie’s farm market near the town of Saugerties, where Vinnie himself makes all the canned goods that are on sale, and we bought a smoked trout that a buddy of his had done up. As James joked when we spoke for Slow Food New York City yesterday: on the west coast, farm markets are named things like Rainbow or Healing Heart, so we felt like we’d had a true New York experience buying our produce from Vinnie’s.

When we heard about a local grist mill, we determined to hunt it down. Flour, we wondered? Locals believed it still produced kosher matzo balls, at least. However, when we arrived at the Tuthilltown gristmill it was closed, though a sign listed it as a National Historic Site, having been in continuous operation since 1788. Next door we saw the distillery, also closed (though through a window we saw the copper still gleaming on the second floor). We refused to be put off. Locals had also informed us that Tuthilltown spirits could be bought in nearby liquor stores, so we picked up a small-batch Baby Bourbon, and Hudson Valley apple vodka, both sealed with wax. We’ll wait till we’ve crossed over the border to open them.

While it seems the grist mill is permanenty closed now, after 214 seasons of production, we will drown our sorrow in the perfect local Manhattan. Such is progress. -ADS

100-Mile Housing: The $250 Home

NOVEMBER 8, 2007 - My trip to see The Sanctuary, a “100-mile housing” complex near Grand Forks, was one of the most memorable in a summer’s travel through the wide world of localism. While I was there, the Sanctuary collaborative was hard at work digging a foundation. Well, here’s the latest news . . . -JBM

The ‘100-Mile Housing’ Home Dome you saw starting has been a joyful, creative and satisfying building process. Sean moved in today, less than two months from the time we started. His original, 22-year-old house burned down on April Fools Day, we began building the new dome on Labour Day, and he moved in on Halloween - why fight existing celebrations when we can join them?

The Home Dome has an interior of 450 square feet (including the loft), and the attached greenhouse has approximately 200 square feet for a total of 650 square feet of new construction. This is attached by bottle-and-cob hallways to the existing ‘laundry’ and ‘library’ structures to equal a grand total of over 1,800 square feet of connected, undercover space. The total construction cost to date is $250.00, which covers gas used in the truck for collecting the clay and new electrical materials such as wire, boxes and fixtures. The rest of the materials were free - with lots of healthy labour expended hauling dead or windfall trees, peeling poles, mixing cob and putting it all together. I think that comes out to a spot under 14 cents a square foot - THAT’S ‘affordable housing’.

Due to the exclusive use of our existing solar electric, wood heat and gravity feed water systems there are no further monthly expenses to consider. The walls are rock and cob (a mixture of local clay, sand and chopped straw) to the 4′ level and sunk that same depth into the earth, topped with cordwood and cob walls. The final 8′ diameter of domed roof is a recycled satellite dish covered in sawdust (collected from the last RCMP Musical Ride). Excluding the electrical components, everything used in the construction is either natural and indigenous or locally recycled and from within 100-miles of our site - actually, mostly within 2 miles.

We are proud of the old wood heater we scrounged and surrounded with a one-foot wall of loose, fist-sized rocks contained in cob-mortared rock walls to the top of the stove. The mass creates amazing heat storage. This is augmented by a rusty, 6″ cast iron sewer pipe donated by City Works from their dump site (23 km distance from site) that we have installed as our chimney to capture and radiate an amazing amount of escaping BTU’s into the dome.

Another few weeks and Sean will be growing all his salad fixin’s in the attached greenhouse while enjoying the cold winter basking in a warm dome finishing the loft, attending to interior details and relaxing.

Update: Scotland’s Fife Diet, Plus Bananas in Manitoba

NOVEMBER 7, 2007 - Alisa wrote a few days ago about the Fife Diet, in which 19 brave Scots will attempt to eat foods only from within the Kingdom of Fife (read your Ian Rankin!) for a year. The challenge, which launches this Friday, has stirred “a tremendous response,” says founder Mike Small - and remember, we’re talking about the British Isles, where local eating is already a near-mainstream concern. And if you’d like to tap into the way local eating is playing out across the Atlantic, check out the BBC interview with Mike.

Meanwhile, the 100-Mile Manitoba experiment is another example of how public debate can open up when a committed group of people make the simple, commonsense choice to eat locally. Here’s an update from Will in Winnipeg, Manitoba - and I have to admit the Assiniboine Park botanical conservatory’s treats were not the kind of November eating I was expecting to hear about…

100-mile diet is going great here. A couple churches are doing 100-mile, or partial 100-mile, fall suppers. The Conservatory (indoor tropical garden place) is inviting us all for Manitoba bananas and chocolate. CBC TV wants to do a follow up with us. No one’s got scurvy yet. A Manitoba wine company invited us for a wine tasting event. The Manitoba Food & Wine show offered us a display table for free. AgriCore United (a big ag company) invited us to speak at a staff lunch event. We’ve had lots of other such invites. And lots of connections have been made with food producers. We’re also hoping to spin off a policy group that will study government policy angles and meet with the powerful . . .

Cheers, Will. Enjoy the local(!) banana fondue. Anything is possible.

-JBM

Take Back Thanksgiving!

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 - A single letter, just 115 words long, is all that remains of the feast that inspired Thanksgiving Day. Written by one of the New Plymouth colonists lucky enough to have survived a first year in the New World, the letter doesn’t even hint at what was on the table. Scholars have had to make an educated guess. Most believe the original Thanksgiving menu was limited to corn raised from Wampanoag Indian seed, five deer provided by ninety visiting Wampanoag warriors, as well as wild turkey and other fowl, fish and shellfish, nuts and berries, and an indigenous species of squash. That Thanksgiving Day was, truly, a celebration of the local harvest.

It could be again. Like most things (and most of us), Thanksgiving has largely lost touch with its roots. The food on the table is as likely to have come from Romania or New Zealand as from nearby farmers’ fields. Meanwhile, the traditional turkey, Brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie don’t make a lot of local sense to folks eating in Anchorage, Palm Springs, or Honolulu.

Let’s take back Thanksgiving as a celebration of the local harvest! In 2006, thousands of people across North America celebrated the first 100-Mile Diet Thanksgiving. This year, the traditional harvest feast is once again a rallying point for the local-eating revolution. It’s easy. Just put together your Thanksgiving dinner using foods from within 100 miles of where you live. There’s nothing tastier than fresh food, in season - and eating close to home is good for your health, the local economy, and the environment. There’s no better time to go local than the day that started it all.

How can I go local this Thanksgiving Day?

The good news: many of the traditional ingredients of a classic Thanksgiving dinner are in season and locally available across the U.S., from turkey to sweet potatoes to pumpkin. The harvest season is a time of abundance, and you might be amazed at what’s available. Simply visit your local farmers’ market or ask at your grocery about regional foods and producers.

Even better, consider shaking up your Thanksgiving routine - why not create some new traditions? Each of us lives in a unique landscape with a food history all its own. Which foods are the symbols of the place you live in? Why not give them a place of honor at the center of your table?

Do you need to go totally local? Many people enjoy the challenge and invention that comes with making an entire feast using strictly local ingredients. But there are no “rules.” Maybe cranberries don’t grow in your area but you can’t imagine your local turkey without cranberry sauce. Or maybe Mom’s famous pumpkin pie is a family favorite. So, serve it up! Getting back in touch with your local food system should feel like an adventure, not a chore.

By following this link to the newly redesigned The Daily Green, you’ll find five sample menus for five very different local Thanksgiving feasts. Some recipes are linked, but many of these dishes can be made using familiar or easy-to-find recipes with local ingredients and simple substitutions. Be prepared to experiment - and don’t forget to share your inspiration with other local eaters.

-JBM

How to Make a 100-Mile Pumpkin Pie

NOVEMBER 5, 2007 - Though pumpkin pie is the classic Thanksgiving desert, during my last two years of local eating I had sadly put thoughts of it aside. You couldn’t make it without nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon, I thought. Take those away, and you’d either have a pie that tasted like a) nothing or b) straight pumpkin, both of which seemed like bad qualities in a desert. Instead I made blueberry or strawberry-rhubarb pie from fruits I’d frozen earlier in the year - but it didn’t feel quite right.

So this Thanksgiving I decided to be bold and develop my own recipe even though my mother-in-law was in town for the Canadian holiday, which because of our colder climate falls six weeks before the US date. She had previously said that my spiced pumpkin pie was “the best ever.” Does lightning strike twice? Could I hope to achieve this in-law approval rating again? You can now take advantage of what I learned from my trial.

As an additional hurdle, instead of making the pie with brown sugar as I used to do, I tried honey. I had a panic when after my accustomed 40 minutes of baking, the whole middle of the pie was still runny. However, I moved the rack down one notch and after another 20 minutes (I covered the crust edge with foil to keep it from browning further) it was done.

The mother-in-law’s verdict? “This is the classiest pumpkin pie I’ve ever had.” Phew! -ADS

Read my recipe on The Daily Green.

From Wheat-Free to Wheat Festival

NOVEMBER 4, 2007 - How times change. Two years ago, Alisa and I followed rumours of wheat here and there for seven months before finally finding one farmer in our area growing local grain. It was one of the biggest struggles of our 100-mile year.

This year, at the end of October, a bread and wheat festival. More than 800 people gathered in Victoria, B.C. - within our 100-mile circle - to taste the fresh-baked goodness. Alisa and I didn’t make it, but we heard from festival founder Sharon Rempel. The most exciting thing to come out of an obviously successful fiesta was the energy generated by people coming together around an idea.

Getting more organic wheat in the ground, expanding the varieties being put into trial, talk of a local mill, and connections like getting the Red Fife wheat from Tom Henry (editor of Small Farm Canada magazine) at Lamb’s Leap Farm into the loaves at True Grain Bread in Cowichan Bay Village. That’s how local food culture is built, and the festival shows just how much can change in a year or two - and might finally convince reluctant funders of the value of supporing such an event.

Alisa and I, meanwhile, have tonnes of wheat…a farmer gifted us with some in the Kootenays, and then my friend Kirk came down to visit from northern B.C. and brought a gift of his area’s local wheat.He doesn’t know what variety it is - only that he gathered it where it had been piled at the side of the road. Fortunately, he had asked permission from a local, who promised to stand by him if anyone asked questions. Otherwise, the local said, stealing a bag of wheat “is a good way to get gutshot.”

Precious stuff, local grain.

-JBM

Greenhouses & Moose: Taking Local Eating Up North

NOVEMBER 3, 2007 - After working at the farm during the summer, “eating to live” became a new concept for me, a spiritual experience engraved into my soul. When I returned to Prince George [British Columbia] for school in September, I tried to transport the Richmond experiment of a 10-mile diet to my new Prince George home. Sadly, that didn’t work out as well — only if I wanted to hunt my own moose or steal my neighbour’s potatoes.

Nonetheless, there is now a small group of students who are playing with the idea of
permaculture indoors, inside campus buildings. We still are in the initial stages of planning but I can’t help but imagine a day when I won’t need to buy groceries but could harvest carrots at school.

I feel very blessed at the age of 19 to have been able to have had experiences working on the Richmond Sharing Farm, and learning about choices about food (like reading your book). I admire how at the end you and James went and collected sea water to make salt. I’m curious if you guys had any worries about the sea water though (pollution etc.) — would the process of boiling out the water filter out contaminants or do you have to choose wisely where you get the water?

Anyways, reading your book brought moments of both laughter and pride to me. I love Vancouver, and don’t want to ever not be able to live there permanently. It feels good to know that if I wanted to make some serious lifestyle choices . . . I wouldn’t have to hunt moose.

-Robin Chang, Vancouver & Prince George, BC

About the salt: Boiling would like destroy any germs or biological contaminants, but pollution is another story. (It certainly made us think it was very wrong the water near our home in Vancouver was too dirty for human consumption!) James and I chose the most remote part of our 100-mile circle we could think of, and rowed on an incoming tide to the open sea, for the cleanest water possible. We felt confident it was cleaner than any coastal waters of France or Portugal, where all that famous fleur de sel comes from. -ADS

Scotland 19 Try 100-Mile Diet

NOVEMBER 2, 2007 - Starting today, 19 people (and counting) have pledged to do the 100-Mile Diet in Scotland’s county Fife for one year, Scotsman reports. A bold move in in November in northerly latitudes, though of course a year of local eating (which these participants call the “Fife Diet”) would have to include winter eventually.

“A lot of people start by saying, ‘What could you possibly eat, it’s impossible’, but it’s only in the last 20 to 30 years that people have stopped eating from around their local area,” says founder Mike Small, whose wife and three-year-old son and baby are also taking part. Their launch meal today at the Falkland Estate is to include beef stew or vegetarian “stovies”.

While there were a number of scoffers on the Scotsman website (”what would you like with your coal burgers and seafood relish??” asked druidh) we are confident that the Fife Dieters, like anyone else in the world with local-food traditions, will have a very tasty year. You can follow their experiment online. -ADS

California Defies Florida Caution on “Diet”

NOVEMBER 1, 2007 - Not long ago, Channel 13’s Central Florida News ran a clip called “100-Mile Diet Gets Scruntiny”. While we were pleased that a mainsteam news program accepted as fact that less fossil fuels should be used in the food system, they made an odd segue based on the word “diet.” They advised that anyone undertaking a diet should first check with their healthcare practitioner.

Okay, we are risking legal action here with our brazen disregard but we’ll say it anyway: Yes, go ahead and eat home-cooked meals of fresh local produce WITHOUT consulting your health care practitioner.

Apparently, the feisty Humboldt County of California agrees with us. We just learned that they, and the city council of Arcata, declared September “Local Food Month” at the urging of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers.

While there are probably hundreds of communities with people organizing local foods events, we were stymied when a while back a researcher from the Texas Department of Transportation asked us if we knew of any civic governments officially supporting the issue. So now we have Arcata and Humboldt County; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Albany, New York.

Dear readers, do you know of any others? -ADS