Eat Local Challenge: Day One

Saturday I experienced once again something I had not known since my days as a vegetarian: near-constant hunger. Clearly, I should have done some more prep, because a freezerful of local meat will not feed a person in its frozen state. Still, I managed to eat decently.

For breakfast, I had Butterworks Farms yogurt (223 miles) with a spoonful of raw honey from Reseska Apiaries in Holliston (25 miles) and farmers' market strawberries. By 10:30, I was ready to eat anything in sight (I'm a big breakfast person - yogurt is NOT going to cut it). J. and I had gone in town to walk around by the water, and I was very, very glad I had brought some cherries (42 miles) along with. I tried to use this experience as a chance to meditate on how much I take for granted the ability to just buy food whenever I want it, but my attempts to feel grateful failed in the face of my hunger. We went home.

I had a nice salad:

Lettuce (41 miles), radishes (left over from Monday's market - I have to check the name and location tomorrow), pepper goat cheese (59 miles), and California olive oil and vinegar. I followed this with frozen blueberries (293 miles) thrown in the blender with whole milk (Crescent Ridge in Sharon, 28 miles) to make a purple and lightly sweet milkshake. By dinner, the heat had taken the edge off my hunger, so I had scrambled eggs (47 miles) with cheddar cheese (same farm, 47 miles), followed by a big bowl of more strawberries and honey-sweetened whipped cream (Butterworks Farm, Vermont, 223 miles).

Today I got up early and put a top round roast in the oven in the cool of the morning. I started it off on 450 degrees to brown, then lowered the heat for 300. Once the heat was down, I baked off a couple ramekins of egg/cheese/sauteed swiss chard in a bain-marie. I also shelled some peas (which may be the most soothing activity on earth) as prep for dinner tonight, and made the custard for a maple ice cream (grade B dark amber maple syrup from Littleton, NH 151 miles). I had a swiss chard baked omelette for breakfast, along with some maple syrup-sweetened yogurt. I feel full and very pleased with the good food waiting in my kitchen, but I still need to hit the Harvard Square farmers' market for more strawberries.