Bill Gerlach

My wife, Sara, and I talked it through over the weekend and we are in. In looking through the categories, I think our personal challenge falls best within the "Sustainable Food Options":

We are going to try and source all our food from a 125 mile radius of where we live in Rhode Island. Sara did some researching over the weekend and we think it's doable -- but definitely a challenge on multiple fronts:

>> Our family is vegetarian and we're heading in the tail end of the growing season
>> We have three young children
>> And because we live in RI, we kind of lose half our radius because we're so close to the ocean -- we do eat fish every once in a while... maybe that's a fall-back.

In thinking about how we'll "score" our progress, we've decided that we will "grade" our food selections by where they fall on this very non-scientific scale:

>> Tier ONE -- Food (or ingredients) is grown and produced within 125 miles
>> Tier TWO -- Food (or ingredients) is grown outside the 125 mile radius but produced within the 125 radius
>> Tier THREE -- Food is grown/produced outside the 125 mile radius

In chronicling our efforts, we believe we can help shed some light on both the great work that has been in play to create local/regional food systems as well as identify the gaps when it comes to the practicality of trying to eat locally/regionally. Here is RI, we're fortunate to have a great non-profit called Farm Fresh RI (www.farmfreshri.org); their maps and databases of locally-grown and produced food will be a big asset.

And the fact that we're trying to modify our diet with three young kids to accommodate the challenge will certainly be telling as we try to figure out simple things like school lunches, breakfasts on the go, etc.

All in all, it should be good. And I'm excited that Sara will be helping produce some of the content for the posts at The New Pursuit.

My EcoChallenge Blog

October 11th, 2011: DAY 11: BREAKFAST: egg sandwiches on homemade bagels SCHOOL LUNCH: leftover homemade pasta, popcorn, apples HOME LUNCH: grilled bread with cheese, pesto and tomatoes DINNER: French toast made from locally made sweet bread and Skinny Dip Farms fingerling potatoes. RI pure maple syrup. CHEAT: cinnamon
October 11th, 2011: DAY 10: BREAKFAST: homemade bagels and homemade yogurt SNACK: apples and apples with apples LUNCH: leftover extravaganza SNACK: popcorn on the cob DINNER: homemade squash ravioli with a butter/sage sauce (dang!)
October 11th, 2011: DAY 8: BREAKFAST: egg sandwiches with Adamsville cheddar on homemade bagels SNACK: dried cranberries LUNCH: leftover grilled pizzas DINNER: handcut homemade whole wheat pasta with your choice of homemade pesto or fresh tomato sauce, topped with dollops of Narragansett Creamery ricotta; everyone has seconds! DESSERT: glass of 2007 Sakonnet Vineyards port with Beltane Farms Harvest Moon aged goat cheese CHEAT: we BOTH had coffee today
October 11th, 2011: DAY 7: BREAKFAST: homemade bagels! plain, sesame, poppy seed and everything SCHOOL LUNCH: kids wanted "hot lunch" today (the school lunch). They've been so good so far -- it's all about balance. That said, the school lunch vendor (Chartwells) does partner with local farms in the fall to offer some local fare. HOME LUNCH: Brown bear peanut butter and homemade jam sandwiches with Wishing Stone Farm (Little Compton, RI) pickled cauliflower (not my choice, but the toddler really wanted it) SNACK: apples
October 11th, 2011: Just a little bit behind posting our daily menus. Preparing everything (especially all that stuff from scratch) is taking a lot of time. It's all good, but there's little time left at the end of the day for posting things! DAY 6: BREAKFAST: Toasted homemade bread and jam or peanut butter and apples SCHOOL LUNCH : same as Day 5 HOME LUNCH: split the Frida Kahlo sandwich from the Provender (a local sandwich shop and bakery)
October 9th, 2011: We'll update our menus from the past few days at some point today/tomorrow -- been busy. On Thursday, I posted our latest reflections on the Challenge at The New Pursuit: http://www.thenewpursuit.com/2011/10/05/day-five-of-our-125-mile-local-food-challenge/ In the spirit of full disclosure, I broke down after six days and had a coffee -- the headaches were just too bad!
October 5th, 2011: DAY 5 of our 125 mile local food challenge: BREAKFAST: toasted homemade bread and jam or peanut butter and honey and apples SCHOOL LUNCH: egg salad sandwiches with field greens and cherry tomatoes, baby doll watermelon and milk HOME LUNCH: homemade strawberry jam and Brown Bear peanut butter sandwiches SNACK: apples and cheddar DINNER: YAY! chili and bread pudding leftovers! DESSERT: we shared some cookies I got from Olga's at the farmers market in Providence
October 5th, 2011: DAY 4 (oh my gosh it's only been 4 days!) of our 125 mile local food challenge: BREAKFAST: Homemade yogurt and maple rosemary granola from The Providence Granola Project SCHOOL LUNCH: same as yesterday HOME LUNCH: open face Brown Bear peanut butter and McB's Honey and apples SNACK: popcorn on the cob from Schartner's Farm, I love popping this corn! We popped the red corn today, very cool.
October 3rd, 2011: (And last but not least...) DAY 1 BREAKFAST: egg sandwiches with local eggs, Adamsville cheddar on homemade bread (partial local flour) and homemade butter made from Arruda's Dairy cream. SNACK: Schartner Farms popping corn popped right on the cob LUNCH: Fresh picked apple from Old Stone Orchard and cheddar paninis. SNACK: more apples and dried cranberries DINNER: RI Royal potato and our onion frittatas with Roots Farm cherry tomatoes, DeCasto's green beans and our basil. DESSERT: showed the kids how to make butter :) CHEAT: salt
October 3rd, 2011: (We're going in reverse order...) DAY 2 BREAKFAST: Gray's Grist Mill pancakes with homemade applesauce and RI maple syrup. (I was really proud of the kids this morning, this was NOT the fluffy chocolate chip pancakes they are used to but they powered through them.) LUNCH: big fat tomato and fresh Narragansett Creamery mozzarella sandwich SNACK: Gerbs pumpkin seeds, apple cider DINNER: homemade gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce and crispy eggplant coins made with homemade breadcrumbs and cooked in homemade ghee (the only local cooking oil option I could come up with, and it's working out perfectly) oh and a salad without salad dressing :( CHEAT: salt, again MISSING: salad dressing, orange juice
October 3rd, 2011: Sara's been keeping a log of all our meals at her facebook site. Thought we would recycle. DAY 3: (I feel like the real test will be the "work week". Maintaining this diet while still getting everyone off to school/work on time and happy. And balancing my allotted time to make dinner with soccer practices, dance lessons, cub/girl scouts etc...) BREAKFAST: hard boiled eggs, homemade bread toasted with our homemade butter and tomato slices SNACK: homemade yogurt and strawberry-rhubarb preserves I made earlier in the summer. (this particular batch came out a little runny for jam but it is perfect on top of plain yogurt) SCHOOL LUNCH: tomato and mozzarella sandwich or Brown Bear peanut butter (made in Providence, no salt or sugar added) & jam sandwich with apples, Gerbs pumpkin seeds and baby doll watermelon from Old Stone Orchard. HOME LUNCH: leftover frittata and eggplant DINNER: Calzone filled with Narraganset Creamery ricotta and Atwells Gold cheese, Roots Farm spinach, Farming Turtle shitake mushrooms and a little of my homemade pesto. DESSERT: warm homemade apple sauce with dried cranberries on top.
October 3rd, 2011: Day 3 and we're going strong. Today, as we were making our breakfast of local eggs, cheese, and homemade bread, butter and yogurt, we were reflecting on the fact that NOTHING we have eaten in the last three days has been from a box. Everything has been fresh and prepared right then and there. Breakfasts have been simple -- eggs, cheese, yogurt and bread. Lunches have been refreshing with sandwiches made from local veggies, cheeses and homemade bread and pesto. Dinners have run from homemade soup to homemade gnocchi and sauce with fried eggplant (using homemade ghee, not oil) to calzones made with homemade dough and sauce and local veggies and cheese. The biggest lesson so far: Eating this way requires you to slow down to allow time to prepare and savor. Each night it seems we are making more of something -- bread, butter, yogurt, ghee -- or prepping something for the next day. But you know what? We've come together even more as a family. Sara and I talking about our days while we prep something; the kids lending a hand making dough or butter or shucking corn. It's living deliberately and with intent. No TV program is going to give you that.
October 1st, 2011: As Day One of our EcoChallenge comes to a close, things are looking pretty well. The last couple of weeks have been all about ramping up -- figuring out what to eat, where to get it and when in terms of all the different farmers markets across Rhode Island. For the most part, we've been successful in sourcing food and/or ingredients to make the things we either wanted to make from scratch or needed to because they are not produced within our 125-mile radius. On the Made-from-Scratch list this week: Yogurt, butter, ghee, vegetable stock (we're vegetarians), bread and bagels. We're still getting a few things out of our garden (tomatoes, cukes) and have new sowing of spinach coming up. Our fingers are crossed that our four Rhode Island Reds start laying during the Challenge (it's got to be any day now!). The biggest obstacle so far is finding local flour to make bread. We found some at a farmers market in Providence, but it was only a small amount of rye flour. So our homemade bread is straddling the fence between our Tier 1 and Tier 3 rating. We continue to scan the regional grain producers' websites to figure something out. (Truth be told: It makes me want to try my hand at growing some next season.) Tomorrow will start out better: Couldn't find apple cider until mid-day so there was no juice to start the day out with. The kids were troopers though. Be well, Bill

Comments

From: Kerry Lyles: Love your food log--and it's making me hungry :-)
From: Lauren Savaglio: Congrats on getting your whole family involved! That's fantastic!

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My EcoChallenge(s): Sustainable Food Options

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