Day 1

Today is the beginning of a new lifestyle for my wife and I. We chose Earth Day to be the first day that we eliminate all of the thousand-mile-salads and January-tomatoes. Starting today and continuing until April twenty-first of 2011 we will consume only food that is produced within one-hundred miles of Lancaster PA.

Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver and her family's adventures with local food in Animal, Vegetable Miracle, we decided to try out the one-hundred-mile diet ourselves. So for one year we will eat produce grown in the very same soil that dirties our hands and gets in our eyes. A large portion of our diet will be sustained by our garden which we cooperate with my brother Cody and his wife Chelsea on. The rest of our food we will buy from produce stands, markets and local food stores.

We awoke early and had local free-range eggs and pancakes made with flour from Daisy Organics. Daisy breaks our rules a little bit but most of the wheat is sourced near by and if not than it still comes from the east coast instead of from out west. It is also milled in Lancaster County.

Which brings up a good point. Not every thing grows in Lancaster, Berks, Lebanon, Chester... one hundred miles goes along way. However, nowhere within one hundred miles will we find a fruiting banana tree, or a citrus grove. So where do we draw the line? Well we had to sit down and decide what our purpose was and what foods do not comply with that purpose. We'll explain our decisions another time. But for an example; we decided to purchase only fair-trade coffee from a Lancaster City roaster, Square One Coffee. The coffee farmers get a break, a local business gets a break and we get really good coffee. So we tread a line between what works for our diet and what does not. Basically any major calorie food will be grown and processed within one- hundred miles of Lancaster.

Today was rough. We got hungry. We got grumpy. At the end of the day Kristin made an amazing meal with spinach, mushrooms and a cheese sauce. Local food at its best.