Day 2 Results

"Are you on your way home?" That was Dawn on my cell phone.

"Yeah," I said, "I went to the farmers' market out at the fairgrounds, remember?"

"Okay, well, I've got soup on the stove."

Oops! Okay, she forgot about the Illinois Products Market on Thursdays, and I forgot that she was making soup for dinner. Luckily I didn't get home too late and the soup was still hot!

So here's how day 2 of the locavore challenge went.

Breakfast was pretty much identical to yesterday: Local eggs, (this time both from Bear Creek Farm and Ranch and from Triple S Farm, near Stewardson, IL, about 80 miles east of Springfield), scrambled with non-local milk; non-local toast and butter with local honey (from Sasse's Apiary, in Chestnut, IL, about 95 miles northwest of Springfield). Luckily Dawn went to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Wednesday and bought some more eggs, because we were down to the last 2 from Bear Creek! (Triple S Farm, incidentally, is the possible source of wheat that I mentioned yesterday.)

While I was making breakfast, I realized that I had forgotten to prepare my lunch the night before, so I had to quickly throw together a salad. I only had time for buttercrunch lettuce and red lettuce, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA, leaving out the radishes, onions, and chives that I had added the previous time. In addition to the salad (with non-local dressing), I had local strawberries for dessert. Yum! Dawn had picked them up at the farmer's market on Wednesday, and they were very good! Strawberries are coming in fairly early this year, since we didn't have a late frost. On the other hand, sweet corn is going to be late, because it's been so wet!

The soup that Dawn prepared for dinner was mostly made from non-local ingredients: potatoes and vegetable broth (organic, at least!), but with local collards and local red spring onions from the CSA. She was also planning on using local garlic from last year's CSA, but it had all sprouted! We had left it in the garage were it was nice and cool all winter, but forgot to move it inside when the weather started heating up. Oh well. And of course, for dessert, more local strawberries!

Anyway, that was day 2.

At the farmers' market this evening, I picked up more strawberries, as well as snow peas and brocolli! I'm looking forward to that brocolli! Maybe I'll have some for lunch tomorrow.

When I was at the Bear Creek Farm and Ranch booth talking with Debbie Daniels, she mentioned that she had seen the article in the SJ-R, visited my blog, and saw that I had eaten some of their eggs for breakfast. Nice!

Incidentally, they will have fresh chicken (whole or cut up) every 2 weeks at the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Saturdays, starting May 30. The price is $3 per pound, plus $1.25 for cutting. Dawn's a vegetarian, but I'm not. I do eat less meat than in the past, and I've drastically reduced the amount of beef and pork that I eat ever since watching King Corn and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I tend to stick to chicken and fish (I know, overfishing - *sigh*), but I still eat some beef and pork. A good breakfast sausage would be nice!

"Are you on your way home?" That was Dawn on my cell phone.

"Yeah," I said, "I went to the farmers' market out at the fairgrounds, remember?"

"Okay, well, I've got soup on the stove."

Oops! Okay, she forgot about the Illinois Products Market on Thursdays, and I forgot that she was making soup for dinner. Luckily I didn't get home too late and the soup was still hot!

So here's how day 2 of the locavore challenge went.

Breakfast was pretty much identical to yesterday: Local eggs, (this time both from Bear Creek Farm and Ranch and from Triple S Farm, near Stewardson, IL, about 80 miles east of Springfield), scrambled with non-local milk; non-local toast and butter with local honey (from Sasse's Apiary, in Chestnut, IL, about 95 miles northwest of Springfield). Luckily Dawn went to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Wednesday and bought some more eggs, because we were down to the last 2 from Bear Creek! (Triple S Farm, incidentally, is the possible source of wheat that I mentioned yesterday.)

While I was making breakfast, I realized that I had forgotten to prepare my lunch the night before, so I had to quickly throw together a salad. I only had time for buttercrunch lettuce and red lettuce, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA, leaving out the radishes, onions, and chives that I had added the previous time. In addition to the salad (with non-local dressing), I had local strawberries for dessert. Yum! Dawn had picked them up at the farmer's market on Wednesday, and they were very good! Strawberries are coming in fairly early this year, since we didn't have a late frost. On the other hand, sweet corn is going to be late, because it's been so wet!

The soup that Dawn prepared for dinner was mostly made from non-local ingredients: potatoes and vegetable broth (organic, at least!), but with local collards and local red spring onions from the CSA. She was also planning on using local garlic from last year's CSA, but it had all sprouted! We had left it in the garage were it was nice and cool all winter, but forgot to move it inside when the weather started heating up. Oh well. And of course, for dessert, more local strawberries!

Anyway, that was day 2.

At the farmers' market this evening, I picked up more strawberries, as well as snow peas and brocolli! I'm looking forward to that brocolli! Maybe I'll have some for lunch tomorrow.

When I was at the Bear Creek Farm and Ranch booth talking with Debbie Daniels, she mentioned that she had seen the article in the SJ-R, visited my blog, and saw that I had eaten some of their eggs for breakfast. Nice!

Incidentally, they will have fresh chicken (whole or cut up) every 2 weeks at the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Saturdays, starting May 30. The price is $3 per pound, plus $1.25 for cutting. Dawn's a vegetarian, but I'm not. I do eat less meat than in the past, and I've drastically reduced the amount of beef and pork that I eat ever since watching King Corn and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I tend to stick to chicken and fish (I know, overfishing - *sigh*), but I still eat some beef and pork. A good breakfast sausage would be nice!

Comments

[Mary Cockrell]

Hi Wally,
I must say your posts are very discouraging. Only for the fact that I'm in competition with you and it looks like you are doing amazing! Congrats to you and Dawn, could you please tell about some local ice cream that you are eating 2 bowls of under your strawberries. So you need to post on your calorie count journal, I bet you have made huge improvements since your last post.

Mary

[Don Smith Moorman]

Yeah, truly fresh broccoli is SO good. When we had some in our garden I would just eat it right off the plant sometimes. Didn't even need ranch dip!

I just ate Bear Creek eggs with Ropp Jersey cheese, and garlic mustard and plantain from my yard. The tortilla I wrapped it in came from Humphrey's Market, but I have no idea where they got it from. Seems like we should be able to get local tortillas, here in cornistan.

[Charles Birdwell]

Do any of you purchase food at Food Fantasies? I know they try to carry local and I thought they had locally-produced bread too. I shop there whenever I visit Spfld on my annual trip to see family (I live in Seattle and we are blessed with many options to buy locally). I have encouraged all my friends to also buy locally, even if it costs more, as there are too many benefits!