Forget boredom with the eat local challenge, I started feeling like crap. It really started last Thursday and I blamed it on the constant Austin rain (weird, I know) but then after several days of no energy, complete exhaustion and not being able to concentrate on anything, I realized that my diet has been lacking. I wasn’t getting my normal nutrition and I definitely wasn’t eating enough. How could I be with a limited number of veggies, some olive oil and coffee every day? I decided during the day on Monday that I had to quit the challenge. I had a soccer game right after work and I played worse than I have in years. I came home and made tofu scramble and went to bed.

However, I don’t feel defeated. I definitely learned a lot and my weekly trip to the farmers market will continue. I will still buy local over non-local if available and will tailor my meals to include as much seasonal produce as possible. And I’ll keep you posted with my attempts to make homemade granola, pasta and pretty much anything else I would rather make from scratch than buying in a box.

I think the Eat Local Challenge is awesome though and would be lot healthier if I either wasn’t vegan or lived in an area that some of these proteins were grown locally.

Saturday farmers market finds: portabellos, red bell peppers, okra, acorn squash, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, prickly pear (Matt went this time and picked some up and we both agree we don’t like it the taste.)
Wheatsville local finds: olive oil, green beans, broccoli microgreens, bibb lettuce

And I’m not feeling that great. I don’t know if it’s the weather or lack of something in my diet but if it continues I will have to modify the challenge quite a bit. I know I have been eating very healthy but I am exhausted, I can’t concentrate and I have no energy. I have a soccer game today that I am dreading. Is it my diet? What should I do?

This challenge would be a lot easier if I weren’t vegan.

Farmers market finds

Yesterday was a perfect sunny day at the Austin Farmers Market at the Triangle. Funny enough, I ran into Katie again! I need to start bringing my camera to the market. I saw the first signs of green with a few collards at one of the booths. I am totally over the hump of being frustrated with finding things to cook and actually cooking it. I am someone that for years has said that I hate cooking and I just don’t do it and when I went vegan a couple of years ago I told myself I would cook more and I did. But now I am falling in love with it and I look forward to coming home and putting together whatever I have to make incredibly healthy and surprisingly delicious vegan, local meals. I bought arugula and mushrooms from Animal Farm, butternut squash and okra from Ottmars and tomatoes from Engel Farms (none of these guys have websites but are normal vendors at the Austin market).

Tomatoes are one of my favorite things in the universe. I literally have them tattooed on my arm. I bought some smoked salt a few months ago for one recipe and I always forget about it but remembered I had it last night. I sliced up a couple of tomatoes and sprinkled some pepper and smoked salt on them and let me tell you, if you haven’t tried this stuff, run to your local store that carries bulk salt (I got mine at Whole Foods) and buy some and put it on everything. A little goes a long way and has an extremely strong smokey smell and flavor. I also added it to the sauteed arugula and mushrooms. I first learned about it from reading Isa Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch (which is an insanely awesome vegan cookbook).

Here are some photos from dinner:

Black eyed peas with arugula microgreens and tomatoes with smoked salt

Sauteed arugula with grape tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and smoked salt

Wheatsville local finds

In the beginning of September we went to Disney World for one of my best friend’s wedding. I knew I was starting the Eat Local Challenge in October so I was paying attention to the food I eat more than normal, I had added origin to my list There was barely anything a wheat-free vegan could eat but I got a bag of apple slices and saw they were from Chile. I don’t eat apples a lot but today I was in Wheatsville Co-op and they had beautiful apples from Farwell, TX. I stood there and stared at them and thought to myself “Well, they ARE from Texas while definitely farther than 150 miles away, I could just buy some and go home and explain my reasoning on the site.” I walked around the store and passed the apples on purpose about 4 times and didn’t give in. But it was really good to know that we can get apples in Texas in October. (Side note: Custom WF vegan dinner at the wedding was insanely awesome.)

Today’s trip to Wheatsville was pretty awesome because I was craving anything green. I bought green beans and a cucumber from Pedernales, Arugula micro-greens from Bella Verdi Farms , Sunflower and mixed sprouts from New World Sprouts and hydroponic Bibb lettuce. Notice the cotton produce bag and oddly placed phallic cucumber. Therefore, dinner was awesome and I don’t call myself a cook especially since Matt went to culinary school. I started with a salad of bibb, micro-greens, sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms and cucumber (all local) with my homemade dijon vinaigrette. I sauteed some purple long beans and green beans with shallots and garlic (all local) and added 1/4 t of Chinese five spice. We have had it for several years and never opened it. I was surprised how great an addition it was and will definitely use it more often. I also mashed up a local sweet potato with a splash of soy milk and basil from my garden. Tonight actually made me feel a lot better about the challenge, but I still need snacking ideas. Thoughts?

Local salad

Inspired by one of my favorite movies

Oh and radishes from seeds!

Greenling "Just Local Produce" basket

So I’m hungry. Day 4 is nearly over and I want popcorn, I won’t lie. I will however say that I feel great and I have really enjoyed all the food I have been making for the past few days. The Greenling delivery on Friday was pretty awesome. I unexpectedly ran into Katie at the Austin Farmers Market Saturday morning. She took home 2 dozen chicken eggs and a dozen duck eggs for her week in Galveston. I picked up several butternut squash, purple long beans, sweet potatoes, a basket of persimmons and a giant watermelon. I am very much craving fruit right now. Berries are definitely not in season. Dinner on Saturday was shish kabobs of mushrooms, zucchini and grape tomatoes (all from my Greenling delivery) in an olive oil and balsamic marinade. I also made a salad using bibb lettuce, tomatoes and persimmons with a homemade dijon vinaigrette. This morning I roasted red potatoes with rosemary for breakfast along with persimmons and watermelon and I made a vat of butternut squash soup which should last me the whole week.

Another part of this challenge for me was inspired by the book No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. I won’t be using anything that creates trash (ie: to-go coffee cups) and this will definitely be part of my normal routine after the challenge is over.

HEB Far West didn’t have any local produce but Matt, my husband, works there and sent me home with about 20 pounds of fruit and veggie scraps for our composter. I also planted a ton of romaine lettuce and some more cabbage in the garden. I have officially run out of room so I planted the remaining cabbage and some collards in the front flower beds. We’ll see what happens. I also started radishes from seeds today. It says they are ready in 22 days which sounds good to me because I am incredibly impatient.

Courtney's garden as of 10/1/09

Also, Jen from www.eatlocalchallenge.com got back to me and said that the post about the challenge starting should be up shortly – so keep checking it and sign up!

local = 150 mile radius
exceptions:

• garlic
• coffee (fair trade only)
• tea
• Texmati rice (checking to see how far away this is grown but definitely in Texas)
• soy milk (because my coffee has to be beige)
• spices
• olive oil (however I have some Texas oil that was made in Carrizo Springs – 196 mi.)

Here is the part about tofu. Matt went to the Austin Farmers Market on Saturday and found some tofu but didn’t ask the guy anything about it. So I will be going there this Saturday in hopes of finding him and getting some info. I was going to list Banyan Foods tofu as an exception but I had a weird experience today. I called them to ask where they get their soybeans from and the guy on the phone told me he wasn’t allowed to tell me. I told him I wanted to know because I wanted my tofu to come from as close to Austin as possible and since Banyan is in Houston I was hoping that they used Texas soybeans at least. Side note, I am having a hard time finding Texas soybean information and this is something I found (however from 2007):

(photo no longer available for some reason – but it showed a drastic decrease in soybean harvesting in Texas)

So a definite decline but really not a lot of info. Anyway, the Banyan guy says all he can tell me is that their soybeans are non-GMO and grown in the mid-west. Grown in the US but not grown in Texas. I asked him why he can’t tell me where they get them and he doesn’t even know, just that he was instructed to not disclose that information. Monsanto, anyone?

It’s becoming more obvious that I am using this time before the actual challenge starts to learn more and actually do some research rather than dive into this local eating thing. Katie and I took a trip to the Wednesday Farmers Market at the Triangle and due the rain only got to visit about 8 vendors. We started off at Kick-Butt Coffee where I finally bought an Go Local Austin card (I have been meaning to do this for some time). For $10, there quite a bit of local discounts involved so I would recommend it to anyone. Even some of the Austin Farmers Market vendors are listed. I bought butternut squash and shallots from Ottmar’s Family Farm and okra and eggplant from Hands of the Earth. I also bought some black eyed peas but I forgot to see where they were from because I was so upset that Happy Vegan Baker was not there!

I was starving and hadn’t eaten all day so we went to Whole Foods and I ate some tofu and rice from the hot bar. Definitely not local. I then came home and made Butternut Squash soup made with the local squash I bought and non-local onion, garlic, ginger and olive oil. It’s quite delicious for not having any margarine or soy milk in it. So I am really using this time to cook more at home and shop more at the farmers markets and really getting ready to kick off the challenge on October 1. I am still trying to figure out what my exemptions will be but I am pretty sure they won’t change from coffee, soy milk, garlic and spices.

Katie asked the question today: Organic apple or non-organic, pesticide grown local apple? More on that soon.

Today there was a coupon for Greenling going around – $25 for $50 of Greenling groceries delivered (which ends at midnight). They have a local produce basket which I will definitely check out.

Do you have any favorite local farms or food producers?

Taken from Jamie S. on the Eat Local Challenge website.