A locally harvested (Thanksgiving) menu takes some legwork (100 Mile Diet)

[jpak]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/columnists/jill_silva/16012864.htm

Have you tried the 100-Mile Diet?

It’s tastier than the cabbage diet and has a catchier name. But it’s not really a diet, per se. It’s more an eating philosophy — one that nails the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims and their Native American guests planned a feast based on what they could grow — not what they could have shipped in 1,500 miles, the average distance food travels in this country.

I stumbled on the 100-Mile Diet while researching a series about local food. Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, an environmentally conscious couple of Vancouverites, had spent an entire year eating only food grown and processed within 100 miles of their apartment.

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[pitohui]

1. i can't afford it but yeah i've heard about it

i couldn't possibly afford it although a diet of strawberries, satsumas, sugar, and seafood would probably be very tasty

[jpak]

3. My brother did a "100 yard" Thanksgiving a few years back

He grew or "harvested" (just about) everything within 100 yards of his house.

Wild turkey with apple-cornmeal-sage-shallot stuffing (he grew and ground the corn himself), mashed potatoes, carrots, squash, broccoli-onion-and-cheese casserole (neighbor's milk - his homemade cheddar), pumpkin and apple pie and hard and sweet cider.

He also had wild cranberries from a bog a few miles away.

Cooked on a wood cook stove with his own wood.

It can be done with a little planning and a green thumb...

[drm604]

4. Sure,

if you have enough land and live in the right climate and have a neighbor with dairy cows and have nearby cranberry bogs and wild turkeys. Very few people are in that situation.

[jpak]

7. You miss the point - to maximize the use of local agriculture, plan ahead

The writer in the OP waited until the last minute to put her meal together - and she had problems.

Do your homework, and do it early.

Grow it yourself, pick-it-yourself, cook it and/or freeze it in advance.

Local farmers markets still have most of what's needed for T-day dinner (potatoes, squash, pumpkins, apples) and in many places you can contract with farmers for fresh (not frozen) locally raised turkeys.

And there are micro-dairies producing artisanal cheeses and other dairy products in many parts of the country.

Even The Big Apple is not far from local farmlands...

[jpak]

5. Can't afford it???? Nonsense

Produce prices at every farmstand or farmer's market I've every been too - from Hawaii to Newfoundland - were much lower than supermarket prices.

In south Texas you can literally fill your car with local (Valley grown) veggies and fruit for a few bucks.

Same thing in the Southeast and New England - and especially at U-Pick-It orchards and farms.

But of course nothing grows in Louisana - not even okra...

:P

[MADem]

2. Ya know, I do try to eat local, but not THAT local.

Screw the fancy Irish oatmeal...someone had to pack it up, put it on a ship, send it here, only to put an absurd four dollar price tag on it, and ya can get US made stuff that tastes just as good at less than half the price and three times more of it, too.

Also, agricultural realities have regionalized much growing...why grow potatoes when they grow them en masse in Prince Edward Island, Maine, Idaho, and so on, and economies of scale keep the prices reasonable.

It's a bit of a foolish construct, really. Eons ago, people a hundred miles around you WERE growing all sorts of shit, to eat themselves, to sell, to trade...and nowadays that just isn't happening. People don't grow stuff in their yards, they work for a living in an office all day.

The concept is nice, but carrying through with it? I like my salad! I live just down the road from a small farm, and there's the odd bit of broccoli and squash and so forth left at the end of the season, and of course honey, but damn, can't live on that alone.

Off to the supermarket with me!

[eclipsenow.org]

6. Not enough land

Many people in urban environments simply do not have enough land for 100 yard diet. :-)
Permaculture founder David Holmgren says that each human being needs at least 300 m2 for basic foods.

However, I applaud efforts to live by the 100 km or 100 mile diet, as the more local our economies become, the more prepared we will be for peak oil.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Hands up, people who drink coffee... nt

[XemaSab]

9. Shipping a sack of beans 1500 miles once a week

as well as the odd chocolate, sugar, and other exotic foods from time to time is no sin.

The problem is the off-season tomatoes, apples, and asparagus grown in New Zealand.

It's more a philosophy of food awareness than a new way to persecute your neighbors for eating the wrong food.

But you can do that too. :D

[htuttle]

10. That's a tough one

While I only buy fair trade brands, coffee is something I'm probably really going to miss someday. Not to mention all the spices that I won't be able to get anymore...makes you realize why the 'spice trade' was so important once, if you think about it.

Oh well, maybe I'll be so old by then I'll only be able to eat applesauce (which grows locally). But maybe not...and then there's my kids...and grandkids...

[jpak]

12. Hands up who lives in NZ and drinks tea/coffee and uses imported gasoline and sugar

:evilgrin:

I personally am addicted to NZ Long Blacks...(with that brown sugar)...and see nothing wrong with it.

But I do believe there was a thriving trade in tea, coffee and sugar before the invention of steam ships.

Could modern hi-tech sailing vessels (augmented by PV and biofuels) be used to transport coffee, tea, spices and tropical foods like bananas and pineapples in the future????

Yup.

Importing fruits and vegetables from Latin America to the US, however, is going to become much more expensive after Peak Oil.

The best solution is to use greenhouses and renewable energy to grow these crops in the US year round.

They're doing it in Maine today...

http://www.polarbearandco.com/mainedem/toe.html

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2809156.shtml

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/midmaine.aspx?articleid=136066&zoneid=182

[Dead_Parrot]

13. Me, Sir!

:D

We've been toying with the idea of planting some coffee in the garden - Robusta should just about crop even down here, although I'm told it tastes like shit without blending. :( Still, if the grapevines do OK I won't care too much...

I'd agree that greenhouse cultivation is much better than shipping stuff around, but having some old-fashioned clippers full of spices has a certain appeal.

[Kolesar]

11. Chilean and Australian wines are off my shopping list

That means France and Germany, too. We grow fantastic Reislings here in Ohio, so I won't miss them.