Challenge 2008- NEWS UPDATE

Hi all! Eat Local Challenge 2008 has begun! This year Wasatch Community Gardens and Slow Food Utah will once again be participating and Tree Utah and The People's Market will host events also. These organizations will be posting news on their websites and stay tuned as this blog will report on events, resources, recipes, etc. from you and fellow challengers. Currently we are having technical difficulties on the resource pages (they look like the front page) but scroll down to 2007 and submit any helpful comments on the corresponding resource pages there. The best part about this experiences is all the information we can learn from one another!
Below are the events happening for the Challenge, it is a great way to meet people, get healthy and become aware of all the great foods our area has to offer! We look forward to seeing you at some of these events! Sincerely, Andrea and Mike Heidinger

· Monday, August 11th, 5:30 PM - Pasta & Sauce Making Party - Join us at our home to prepare some ready-made local pasta and sauce for your busier days during the challenge. Please RSVP so we know how many to plan for, and we can tell you what to bring and how to get here! –Home of Mike and Andrea Heidinger RSVP: andrea@greenbuildingcenter.net

· Saturday, August 16th from 6-9 pm - Eat Local Kickoff Event - local produce and foods that can be found at the People’s Market; a locally grown food-swap will be an exciting focus of the gathering; information on sourcing edible amenities; meet your fellow Localvores! – Home of Kyle LaMalfa, 150 South 800 West

· August 22, from 7:45-10:30 pm The Wasatch Community Gardens’ Eat Local Movie Night Enjoy a summer night with good company, homemade food, and a great movie under the stars. Bring a blanket or chair and a local-ingredient dish with the recipe to share. - Tomato Garden, 600 S 800 E

· August 23, 6 PM - Urban Harvest Celebration at TreeUtah’s EcoGardenHarvest Celebrations are a time to honor, celebrate, and share in the bounty of local agriculture, to encourage people to reconnect to the land and the seasons, and to understand the benefits of having local gardens and eating locally grown food. Please join us for food, music, and lots of fun as we share in the harvest of our food forest garden. EcoGarden at Day-Riverside Library1575 West 1000 North Please RVSP by calling TreeUtah at 801-364-2122.

The Challenge 101: How to Go Local

If you've read the recent press coverage in the Catalyst Magazine and Salt Lake Tribune or attended the Challenge organizational meeting last month, then you have a pretty good idea of what we're about. If you are a newcomer to the site or still aren't really clear on how to participate, we'd like to help with a few more guidelines and ideas.

Here are a few tips to help you get started and stay motivated.

• Pick your Local Range. We suggest either 100 miles from your home, or 25o miles. You might also consider "250 mi + the entire state of Utah", as the SE and SW corners of the state are just out of the 250 mile range. Your foodshed will look more like a keyhole than a circle, but its not just about geometry, after all.
• Pick your start date and time commitment. The challenge month officially begins Saturday, Aug. 18 and runs through the Fall Equinox September 23rd. But you can start anytime if you aren't doing the full month. Participate for a day, a weekend, a week, two weeks, a month . . . once you get going, you might not go back!
• Pick your Localvore Level. These include:
• "Localvore Purist: All local all the time" - if it doesn't grow here you don't consume it;
• "Localvore, but . . . " - you eat 90%+ local but can't give up a short list of items (such as coffee, olive oil, tofu . . items hard to substitute);
• "Majority Local": more than half of your foods are local;
• "Newbie": you're just getting started and want to be a part of the challenge, but are starting small - say 10-30% local beyond your current diet. That's OK! We all have to start somewhere.

That said, we strongly encourage you to eat as locally as absolutely possible. The challenge should be a stretch goal for you, not just basically what you are already eating. That might mean substituting your daily morning banana for peaches or plums for the Challenge, or learning to make your own tomato sauce with seasonal produce. if you already eat locally and seasonally to a large degree, step it up a notch or 3. That's the idea!

As you celebrate this Local Food Challenge, keep some notes of your experiences and share your reflections with our group. Submit posts, organize your own supper clubs with friends, have a movie night with a local food theme, go volunteer at a community garden, read up on local food issues or the farm bill . . . make this a month of learning, sharing, community, and fun. Oh, and of course, deliciousness!

For local product availability, visit the sites linked on this page as well as the blog posts by category (most are archived under the July posts). Please add to the list as you find more. Obviously, the local farmer's markets are a good place to start.

For a few good reasons to eat locally, visit the FoodRoutes website. For a more personal testimonial, I share a note from Lori Anne Lau of Lau Family farms, from their last email update:

"Our summer has become dominated by concerns about the drought we are experiencing. As our farm has no irrigation we are totally dependent on the weather. Our hay crop has been devastated by a combination of frosty nights (back in May and June), hot days, and little to no rain. To illustrate how poor the hay crop is, one field that has normally yielded 30 to 55 bales, this year yielded just 5 bales. . . Thank you again for your business! These are trying times for farmers in SE Idaho, and other parts of the West. We are so thankful for your support: moral and financial (buying our meat at prices that allow us a living wage). If we were still in the commodity market with our beef and lamb, I don't think we could survive a year like this. So thanks again for three great years. We look forward to providing your family with beef and lamb for many years to come."

Your choices matter! Join us in celebrating the height of harvest season and our local foods.