Locavore Challenge Begins September 1st - Prep Day

Today is prep day for our house. We've accumulated a large selection of veggies in the height of their perfection and today is being spent grating celeriac root, slicing beets, chopping sweet peppers and celery, dicing red and green peppers, mincing onions and cucumbers, and canning strawberry balsamic jam. I'll be making meatballs and stripping a local chicken for soup next. As our challenge is dinner only, I don't feel overwhelmed trying to tickle my picky eater's fancy at every meal. But I'm going to certainly give it a valiant effort!

Check out my previous post about the challenge that begins tomorrow: NY Locavore Challenge

If you are in the WNY area, come to the End of Challenge Potluck on Sunday September 25th from 6 to 8pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo. Bring a dish made from local ingredients to share. And yes, if you would like to bring something to add to our food donation basket, please bring it with you! Donations of any kind are always warmly welcomed, but if you want to shake things up a bit, try for goods sold in NY or PA to keep with the Locavore theme.

Now, here's the really fun part. There are exceptions to the rules.

"Does the challenge sound great, but are you in a panic about your morning coffee addiction? Well some rules were meant to be broken, and we have a few exceptions to the rules that we are willing to grant to challengers.

Marco Polo Rules:
Go ahead, add some spice to your life. Salt, spices and seasoning do not need to be local. Feel free to use yeast, baking soda, baking powder and etc.

Wild Cards:
Each participant can also choose up to (5) wild card ingredients that cannot be sourced locally but that the challenger feels they cannot live without. Typical items include: coffee, chocolate, sugar, tea, olive oil, nuts and rice. Challengers are encouraged to purchase Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade items if they cannot be sourced locally." (NOFA-NY)

Our house will be using the following:
Salt
Olive Oil
Rice
Yeast
Chocolate (I was willing to give up coffee for the month, but there is no way I'll give up my bars of salted Organic Chocolate!)

If you have any questions on how to participate please comment on this post and I'll answer you right quick!