7 Days 100% Local Round 2, Completed

We actually finished the 7 days last week, but I've been kinda slow in writing about it.  It was a good time.  Some other families joined us which made for a new dynamic.  The social part of it made it more fun, and helped with supplies.  But just talking about the challenge with other people was interesting to me.  If you take a hair-brained idea and put it out there, you can get some pretty neat stuff.

My new Meyer lemon tree.

Anyway, moving on to our week.  It was pretty good.  It was easier than last time.  I already wrote about the yogurt issue.  That was the big lesson for this week.  We didn't have the shock of the limits of local food; we knew what to expect.  We knew how to find most of what we needed.  But the devil was in the details.  How local is local?  When is it okay to bring in outside things?  What is reasonable?  Those were the things we dealt with, mostly around fermented dairy products.  One surprise was that I didn't really miss spices as much as I thought.  If you have salt, butter, and/or garlic, you can make most anything taste pretty good.  Having lemons was nice too.

Things we really liked this time

One really good thing we found was the corn grits from Gee Creek farm.  Kim used these to make polenta a couple times and it was really good.  So easy and a perfect base for all kinds of stuff.

Another treat was the blueberry pancakes on the last day.  I don't know how Kim figured this one out, but they were great.  No baking soda meant they were a bit flatter than normal buttermilk pancakes, but that was fine with me.  

The rock fish from Linda Brand was really good.  After this meal, we decided we need to eat a lot more fish.  At around $9 per pound, the price wasn't bad and the quality was excellent.  

Fruit roll ups from Raynblest Farm.  These were a great find.  And these are the people who had meyer lemons also. Raynblest Farm mainly sells honey products, but their fruit stuff was a real treat for us.

100% local corn levain bread from Grand Central Baking.  A great loaf of bread that seriously made the week so much easier.  Bread is such a fundamental food.  

Here is a run down of what we ate this past week, with some pictures.:

Chicken, roasted potatoes and salad

Monday

B: Oatmeal with honey, mint tea

L: Nut butter and Jelly Sandwiches

D: Sauted fiddleheads, blackbeans and spinach with garlic.  Potatoes au gratin.

Tuesday

B: Gruel.  Mint tea, strawberry yogurt, toast

L: Sandwichs, hard boiled egg, apple

D: Roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots.  Spinach salad with pears, cranberries, and lemon cheese. 

Wednesday

B: Scrambled eggs, gruel, toast, tea

L: Sandwich, hard boiled egg, popcorn, apple

D: Kate and Ian came over and brought Quiche.  We made polenta with mushroom cream sauce.  Rogue beer. Spinach salad.

Dinner with Ian and Kate and Celeste was a mid-week 100% local treat.  

Thursday

B: Eggs on toast.  Tea

L: Leftover polenta. Hard boiled egg.  Apple.  Popcorn.

D: Braised ham with carrots on pasta.  Spinach salad

Friday

B: Egg sandwiches

L: Leftovers

D: Leftovers

Saturday

B: Oatmeal with cranberries and honey

L: Sandwiches, yogurt

D: Potato Leak Soup, spinach salad, toast

Sunday

B: Blueberry pancakes

L: Soup with Ham

D: Broiled rock fish, sauted kale with garlic, golden potatoes.

School Lunches--!00% No Problem

School Lunches were not a problem again. My daughter usually likes local week lunches better than her normal lunches, in face.  In general, we just pack these items, more or less, each day.  

A 100% local school lunch for a fourth grader.

Sandwich (hazelnut butter and jelly)

Hard Boiled Egg

Carrot sticks

Cranberries

Yogurt with fruit

Fruit roll ups

Popcorn

Honey Sticks

The baby had these foods this week, mixed around at most every meal.  We found out he loves black beans, which is pretty neat.

• Oatmeal with blueberries
• Steamed carrots
• Yogurt with fruit
• Hard boiled egg yolks
• Polenta
• Pureed prunes
• toast strips with lemon cheese
• black beans
• chicken breast meat