Localvore Challenge Update: The First Days Aren't the Hardest

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 15, 2008 5:03PM

Truth be told, I agree somewhat with what Michael Morowitz wrote about the Green City Market Localvore Challenge. Morowitz wrote:

"I tend to bristle a bit at these short-term 'events' where people try to endure the pain of changing their habits for a short period of time. Changing your shopping and dietary habits is a difficult process and not something that can be taken on in a cold turkey mode."

There's some truth to what Morowitz writes. In a sense, Morowitz equates the Localvore Challenge as being akin to someone training for his first charity run, then never running another one. But then, one of the purposes of these sorts of events is to see if you can do this and, if so, if you'd like to continue. Morowitz also wrote that he'd like to see Challenge organizers follow up with participants a year later to see if the changes in their eating habits stuck.

What I found surprising in the days leading up to the challenge, as I took inventory of the stock in my fridge and pantry, wasn't if I could switch to a lifestyle of eating mainly locally produced foods, but how much I already adhered to doing so.

The list read like a whole season of visits to various farmers markets: honey from the Chicago Honey Co-Op and May's Honey farm in Harvard; beef from Heartland Meats and lamb from Mint Creek Farm; locally fresh and free-range eggs; flour from a farm near my mother's home in South Wayne, WI; fresh strawberry apples from Michigan; corn from Indiana; fresh herbs and spices from Smits Farm in Chicago Heights, dried herbs and spices from my Gardenist project last year. It made away oranges and bananas a lot easier.

Shopping at farmer's markets isn't that much more expensive than heading to the supermarket. Michael Ruhlman wrote in his blog that $71.25 netted him enough food to prepare four meals for four. If he can do that in Cleveland, certainly I can make do shopping for one. The photo above is a closeup of homemade sausage pizza I made over the weekend. The Italian sausage was from a local butcher; the mozzarella from Wisconsin; the pizza sauce I had frozen from a batch I made last year from tomatoes I grew (I'm including canning and freezing among the list of things I can eat). The total cost was far less than Ruhlman's total, and I have leftovers.

Where I failed in last year's localvore challenge was in dining out. I'll let you know how that fares later this week.