I have to start off by saying that I am NOT a baker.  I prefer cooking because I can toss ingredients together without measuring and the results are almost always great.  Baking on the other hand takes time, accuracy and a bit of skill.  As a busy mom and someone who doesn’t spend too much time in the kitchen I have just passed on this skill thinking that I will work on it when I have more time.  Well, that is what I thought until I came across Jim Lahey’s No Knead bread recipe, which was published in the New York Times.  Jim owns a bakery and wanted to share a secret to easy tasty bread.  I made a batch of dough as soon as I found the recipe and the next day I had a real loaf of bread - good enough to serve to company!

The discovery lead me on a mission to find more recipes like this one, recipe that would allow me to toss ingredients together and have a good result.  We LOVE chiabatta bread but I find artisan bread to be a bit expensive so we don’t eat it often.  A quick search landed me on a youtube page that gave me step by step instructions to what turned out to be a great loaf of bread.  I have made this one several time - it economical and really easy to make.  Click here to see the Youtube Video and make a loaf yourself!

Now that our family is trying to source out local foods we are on a mission to find wheat in our 100 mile radius.  So far no luck but I have found two mills in Ontario so I am not giving up.  If we have to buy from one of the mills we have found I am ok with that because they are still more local than the flour that is in my pantry right now.

Oh - and keep your eyes open for more on no-knead bread.  The recipes above were easy but I have found an even easier method to this style of bread and when I am finished reading the book and testing out some recipes, I will share more here!

Helen

Our journey to eating more local has been interesting to say the least.  We started out the weekend by visiting a local market and we had a great time walking around looking at what seemed to be the end of the winter stored vegetables.  There was no shortage of potatoes, carrots and turnip and because we were a bit late getting there (I read you should get to a market really early to get the best pick or late to get the best deals - not sure if the latter is true but early is good and we will try that!)  we missed out on the true SPRING offering.  I did see the very last of some fresh mushrooms and I am sure there was some asparagus in the early morning.

As we walked around we mentioned the 100 mile diet and every vendor we chatted with knew all about it and were very happy to share what they could about what they were selling.  I loved that a pasta vendor could pick out the package that was 100% Local and she even shared some information about food from the area.  We were able to pick up fresh eggs, some potatoes, turnip and a HUGE bag of carrots.  Why did we buy a big bag?  I have no idea.  Sometimes we get excited about the strangest things.  The bag was 5 bucks and I knew I could use them up in cake, dinners and salad.  I must say we still have more carrots than I care to admit.  Lesson learned, unless I am canning or freezing I will try to control myself.

We have been watching the Food TV 100 Mile Challenge and it has opened out eyes up to what is truly local.  Just because cheese is local doesn’t mean the ingredients in the cheese is 100% local.  And while we are not striving to be purists it is pretty interesting to explore the ingredients with the kids.

Sam and I spent some time online looking up salt.  On the TV show the family (on the west coast) went and got salt water, boiled it down and they had salt.  We live on Lake Ontario so salt water is not an option.  A quick search online showed us that we didnt’ have a salt mine within 100 miles either.  What our search did show my kids was that salt doesn’t come from a box in a store.  Cool eh!  We also learned about the various salt manufacturers and which ones are closest to our 100 miles. This will help us make the choice to buy from that company over another from a different part of Canada.

So there you go - it is slow going but interesting.  We have eaten  local potatoes, carrots, eggs and at some point this week we will eat the turnip. We are more aware of what we are buying at the store and where the ingredients are coming from.  We are planning a garden too!  By the way, the carrots were amazing.  Crunchy, sweet and yummy raw and cooked!

Oh, and my next goal is to find out more about grain in the area, we have a great recipe for no-knead bread and it would be great if we could make a loaf with some wheat from within 100 miles.  I’ll keep you posted!

Helen

About a year ago a church in the area had a gathering after the Sunday service to showcase the local growers in the area.  Our family was away and I am disappointed that we didn’t have a chance to meet the many growers who attended.  A friend attended and she was surprised we had so many growers in the area.  In addition to fruits and veggies we have a number of amazing farms producing poultry, beef and bison! A few years back we participated in the Rural Ramble Farm Tour, and learned quite a bit about the local area, but I think the age of our kids at the time and the fact that we were a little unaware of the importance of supporting local growers, we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity like we might now.

Fast forward to today…. with the economy and environment calling our names our family has decided to embark on a journey to wellness and awareness.  We want to raise our kids to know that food comes from the earth not the store.  We want to get back to basics and say goodbye to many of the packaged foods we have come to eat more than I care to admit.  In a nutshell - we want to be healthier and more aware of our community and our environment.

So, where do we begin?  At the Dinner Table!

Not being experts of local growers (other than the annual berry, apple picking) we have decided to use The 100 Mile Diet, a book by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon from Vancouver BC.  The book outlines their year long journey to eating ONLY foods from their 100 mile radius.  We are just reading the book so we’ll share more when we finish.  The authors are amazing and have really started a movement among Canadians.  A televison series started recently on Food TV, The 100 Mile Diet Challenge, where you can follow along a number of families who have taken on a similar challenge. Not only will the book give us ideas to get us started but the website has an extensive information base and a huge following.  The TV show has a great website as well so we know that we will connect with other families who have taken on this challenge.

When we first started talking about this the kids were excited, and then the reality of what they might give up came into the coversation.  What no chocolate bars or potato chips?  No pop or Kraft Dinner!  Notice the junk I just typed!  Then the discussion turned to what they would get from it - a chance to learn about where food comes from and enjoy food in its freshest form - who doesn’t like fresh strawberries from a field!  Then there’s… more time together as a family, in the garden, preparing meals, and going to the local farmer’s market.  A recipe for success!

Even with us sourcing out local food, the reality of this journey is that we know there are some items we want to keep on our “Williams Family LOCAL foods” list.  Things like pepper and olive oil are just too necessary in our home and I am sure we will find others that we really don’t want to give up.  We know that as we start digging we are going to learn so much and uncover so many local growers that we will be able to buy local more often than not.  For the foods we do decide to keep we will learn a bit more about them, where they come from and whether there are alternatives in our local area.  Maybe even uncover some fair trade options.

We are lucky that spring is upon us and local produce will be easier to find but we have decided to do a little leg work before jumping in.  While we are doing our research we thought we would eat some of the foods that is already in the house, food we may not want to put on our local list when we begin.  There is no point in wasting what we have already purchased!

So, if you’re looking to get back to the way your Grandparents ate, I hope you will join our family in taking on the 100 Mile Diet Challenge and share your journey too.  Post your comments here or better yet - start a CPO Blog about it!

Here’s to going LOCAL!

Helen