I decided to post my food logs weekly on Sunday evenings. This is a short week, with the challenge beginning on Wednesday, but here it is, food log for Week 1 of the October 2008 Eat Local Challenge.

Wednesday, October 1:

Default Breakfast:

• Coffee (with raw milk, Stonewall Dairy)
• Apple from Blue Jay Orchards
• Yogurt (my own, made from raw milk from Stonewall Dairy) with a dollop of mixed berry jam (discovered at Dutton Farm in Manchester, VT)

Lunch:

• Sliced tomato (from Waldingfield)
• Farmstead cheese (from Beaver Brook)
• Hard-boiled egg (from Stoneridge Farm, Bethlehem, CT)
• Bread (from Wave Hill Breads)

Dinner:

Here’s where life comes in–I had a a pot luck celebration with my church group scheduled. I brought:

• Cheese (from Beaver Brook)
• Vista Riposa wine (from McLaughlin)
• Macoun apples and peach pie (from Silverman’s)

I also sampled a bit (quite a bit) of the food that other people brought.

Thursday, October 2:

Breakfast: default (see above).

Lunch:

Salad of lettuce and tomatoes (both from Waldingfield) with farmstead cheese (from Beaver Brook), hard-boiled egg (from Stoneridge Farm, Bethlehem, CT), and a red wine vinaigrette from away, except for the shallots from Cherry Grove and the basil from outside. I had some Wave Hill Bread on the side.

Dinner:

More salad (lots of lettuce and greens in the CSA bounty this week), just like the one I had for lunch except with my own Northeast Autumn Dressing.

Friday, October 3:

Breakfast: default (see above).

Lunch:

Still more salad, this one just mustard greens and a yellow tomato (both from Waldingfield), with farmstead cheese (from Beaver Brook), hard-boiled egg (from Stoneridge Farm, Bethlehem, CT), with my Northeast Autumn Dressing, and Wave Hill Bread on the side.

Dinner:

Chicken (from McEnroe, in Millerton, NY), roasted with Waldingfield tomatoes. This dish was prepared last month, and retrieved from the freezer. We also had corn from Dykeman’s Farm in Pawling, NY.

Saturday, October 4:

Breakfast:

Like the default (see above), but with apple cider from Rose’s Berry Farm instead of an apple (because we sauced them all, without thinking to save a few on the side).

Lunch:

Leftover veal scallopini with miatake mushrooms (both from Beaver Brook) from Sunday’s dinner:

(Yes, that macaroni is homemade from local flour (red hard spring wheat from Wild Hive Farm and Micro Mill), but there wasn’t any left over from last Sunday’s dinner to have with today’s lunch.)

I grazed on slices of dried apples, peaches, and plums (all from various local farms), pilfered while packaging our collection in vacuum seal bags.

Snack: Macoun apple (from High Hill Orchard in Meriden, CT, via New Morning Natural Foods this afternoon).

Dinner:

Oven-roasted veal chop (from Beaver Brook) smothered with sauteed eggplant, potatoes, and onions (all from Waldingfield).

Sunday, October 5:

Breakfast: Coffee and Macoun apple (rom High Hill Orchard in Meriden, CT, via New Morning Natural Foods).

Lunch: Salad, consisting of lettuce (from Waldingfield), farmstead cheese (from Beaver Brook), with my Northeast Autumn Dressing.

Dinner: Completely an exception; I met my immediate/extended family for dinner to celebrate a few birthdays and I don’t think anything at that restaurant (Charlie Brown’s) was local. Bummer that it’s my last entry for the week, but a testament to a real dillemma: how to eat well and live in the real world at the same time?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to next week!

I’m taking the October 2008 Eat Local Challenge. We were asked to describe how we’ll be participating in this challenge. Here’s mine:

What is your definition of local?

Local for me is 100 miles from Newtown, CT (just east of Danbury). This year (and for this challenge), I’m extending local to include the items I collected while visiting friends MA and VT. My vacation turned into a locavoring getaway with our “tourist destinations” being local farms and farmers markets. So, I consider the products I brought home local since they were when I got them and are very much in the spirit of this adventure.

What exemptions will you claim?

• Coffee — for this challenge, I’m dropping the convenience and speed of K-Cups for fair trade, organic, and locally roasted beans.
• chocolate — but from local chocolatiers
• several grains — There is local wheat, but not the kind you can use for bread and pasta. (I did try making my own pasta using it. It was edible, but there’s a reason they use durum.)
• legumes & beans
• some spices
• cooking oils
• vinegar
• distilled spirits
• possibly nuts
• sugar
• Bread will be from Wave Hill bakery. I don’t know where they get their wheat, but they are local, artisinal bakers and this is the best bread in CT.
• Sam Adams Octoberfest — It’s regional and in season and it just might end up in my refigerator.
• Social events–where it wouldn’t be practical or kind to be inflexible.

What is your goal for the month?

I’m looking to find ways to make local eating more sustainable from a personal perspective. I’m in this for the long haul so I might as well enjoy the journey.