Blog Fri Sep 14 2007

Localvore Challenge, Days 3 and 4

By Lori Barrett

Things got a little hairy by day three. Our supply of local bread had run out, and our supply of local granola was gone before noon. My son tried his best to eat another serving of the granola for breakfast, but he couldn’t face it for a third time (he’d supplemented his dinner with it the night before); my daughter didn’t even look at it. She had her usual frozen waffles—from Canada—and ate them with a scowl because we didn’t have any bananas. I managed to fill the lunchboxes with mostly local foods: Sandwiches (on supermarket bread from somewhere far out of shouting distance) with the pesto our friend made and reasonably local cheese, some corn chips from Chicago’s own El Ranchero food products, and an apple. With that, the bulk of my local-food supply was wiped out.

I was working from home, so I thought it would be easy to slip out to Red Hen and pick up more bread and something for breakfast; and I hoped I’d even have time to go to the Green City Market for some more produce. Didn’t happen. I barely had time for my lunch: leftover chard and egg noodles from Monday’s dinner. I spent the afternoon working on a deadline, trying to save the world from dangling modifiers, but distracted by where my next few meals were going to come from. Canada? California? Or could I eke out another local feast for dinner. In the end, I made a frittata with local eggs, cheese, basil and tomatoes. Since I didn’t have any bread, we ate it with the El Ranchero chips and Earl’s salsa. Voila. I went to bed feeling like a localvore champ.

Thursday morning we had to improvise a bit. I grilled some of the Brunkow baked cheese I got at the Green City Market for breakfast. The package recommended dipping it in coffee (not local), which must mean it qualifies as a breakfast food. My son talked us into giving him a small mug of coffee (and mostly milk) so he could dip his cheese. As he did, I packed the lunches. I used the pesto and cheese again, and the chips and apples. Shortly after breakfast, the nausea from my cheese breakfast set in. For the next several hours the thought of eating anything local (or shipped from afar) made my stomach turn and my head swim.

By dinner time I had recovered, and I made a pot of potato chowder with the potatoes and shallots (pictured) I’d bought Saturday at the Green City Market. Since I’d found time to go to the bakery, we had some ciabatta with our soup. But with the potatoes gone, that left us with no more produce, except for some pears and six ears of corn. We have scones and croissants for breakfast on Friday; the rest of the day will truly be a challenge. The local diet is turning into the carbo diet.