No Food

So nothing’s really that different from when I made my last post. Well, I’ve forgotten to bring a lunch to school the past two days, so have been forced to starve before I could get home, but I think I’ll remember to eat for the last few days. This is the last stretch, and I am really looking forward to being able to eat non local foods again.  

Maple

So I have learned of one of the greatest locally made food substitutes ever made. Let me introduce to you: granulated maple sugar. This is a sugar with larger grains than regular sugar, and it is produced after maple sap has been boiled down to make maple syrup. A small container of it is pretty expensive, but you don’t really need to use much if you want to use it as a sweetener. This type of sugar is about twice as sweet as regular sugar, and adds amazing flavour. So far, I have used this sugar to put on apple slices, as it creates an amazing, and entirely local, snack. Well, that’s all for today folks, until next time.

Popped

So another two days, another two dollars. Actually, I have no idea what in the slightest this has to do with eating locally. Anyways, I made a rather interesting discovery today. Not a discovery really, but I remembered something really awesome; I had local popcorn in the cupboard. Now, it’s not the type of popcorn you would expect to buy at a grocery store. This type of popcorn is completely local, and instead of being popped in a bag of kernels or in a popcorn machine, it is popped right on the cob inside of a paper bag in a microwave. After remembering I had this popcorn, I was super excited to try it, and I followed the instructions and put it in the microwave. Things didn’t go as well as I had planned. After the full time had elapsed, only about a third or less of the kernels were popped, so I put it in for more time until just over half were popped. All in all, I ended up with about half the kernels being unpoppped, and of the ones that were popped, a lot had a slight burnt taste to them. So, it was great being able to eat another local snack, and try something fairly unique, but if you are thinking of getting popcorn like this, I would advise against it, as it really isn’t popcorn that you will be used to.

Somewhat Bland?

Aaaaand, it’s been another two days, and I’m still alive. Maybe it was due in part to the fact that I was actually able to eat bread the past two days. Not only was I able to eat it, but it was quite good too. The bread itself is actually somewhat bland, so is not that exciting on its own, but once something is added to give it some flavour, such as churned honey, then it becomes one of the best locally made snacks available. Well, perhaps it’s one of the only locally made snacks that is available, but none the less, bread with honey is good, and the fact that it is completely local makes it so much better. 

Baked

Well now that the one day of the week where I could eat non local foods is over, it’s back onto the local diet for me. However, after going to the Farmer’s Market again to get more food, a discovery was made that I would be able to make bread from local flour. Hey, now I have less of a chance of dying, seeing that I can actually get all four of the food groups now. So yeah, my mom made me bread, and I’m actually looking forward to this week, as I have a fresh bunch of apples, as well as more eggs, and especially, the bread that I will be surviving on.

Heaven

So, it’s been nearly a week, and even though this isn’t really such a long time, it feels like forever. But wait, today wasn’t just one of my normal local food eating days. No, quite the opposite in fact. Today was the one day per week when I was able to eat non local foods. Oh, how much I missed eating bread and chocolate, and everything else required for a human to survive it felt like I had died and gone to heaven. Oh wait, a sudden realization, no it couldn’t be. Yes, it must be, the rapture was today! I understand now, I was raptured and that’s the reason why everything was so good. Well, now that I’ve figured that out, I’m going to go see what else heaven has to offer in its all inclusive buffet.

Disclaimer: I'm not actually dead.

Owner's Manual

Aaagh, I did it, I ate something that wasn’t local! But seriously though, you can’t really blame me, that brownie tasted so good. Well alright, maybe it was 3 brownies and 2 muffins, but close enough. The thing is though, I didn’t eat them because I had a momentary catastrophic meltdown, but because I was offered them. I guess this means now though that I have a full rule set for my 100 mile diet challenge;

1. Food must be produced within 100 miles (give or take a bit).
2. Foods can not contain ingredients from outside the 100 mile area, unless the ingredient is of minimal quantity.
3. It is OK to eat locally produced meat, even though the grain to feed the animals is most likely from far outside of the 100 mile zone.
4. If non-local food is offered to me (in a reasonable manner), it is alright for me to eat a bit of it.
5. During each week, I will have one meal (and general time surrounding it) where I can eat foods that are non-local.

Noticing the last rule, it could be so that I don’t go insane, but also so that I don’t die, as Ottawa seems to have a lack of bread production and fruit variety this time of year.

As far as the diet has been going so far other than mentioned above, it is going pretty well. I’m still eating scrambled eggs, cheese and apples mostly, though I also ate local bacon for the first time today too, but that was mainly because I ran out of eggs and cheese, but have since replenished my stock. Anyways, a sudden abrupt ending to this blog post, and I will leave with a picture of part of my dinner. To be continued…

Scrambled Eggs and Cheese

Well the first few days have been a success. By success, I mean that I managed to eat everything completely local, and didn’t die. Working with the limited variety of food that is available in Ottawa this year, my meals for the first two days have consisted of oatmeal with maple syrup for breakfast, apples for lunch, scrambled eggs for dinner, and cheese for snack. Now, this isn’t a lot of variety at all, and the effects of that have started to show on me. Never before have I been so fed-up with the smell of fresh baking bread, or a pizza in the oven, but knowing that I will be trying not to eat them for the next few weeks makes me go almost insane. There have been some moments where I am about to grab something that looks really good to eat, but then remember that I am not supposed to. I guess I’ll just see how things come along. I might break eventually, so maybe I’ll have one meal each week that isn’t local, after all, I do need to eat bread eventually to keep my health up.

What I have been drinking the past two days: local apple cider.

The 100 Mile Search

For the next three weeks, I will be attempting to do my bit to help the Earth. In order to do that, I will eat only foods that are grown locally (within 100 miles/160 kilometres) of the Ottawa area. Some might say now, ‘what kind of good will that do?’, well the true answer is that it does do a lot of good, maybe not a visible amount of good, but a theoretical amount of good. By living off of locally grown foods for several weeks, I can prove a point that humans are perfectly capable of living their lives sustainably for the greater good of the Earth, their health, and the local economy.

The reason that getting all foods locally grown is such a good benefit to the environment is as follows; the transportation of goods is one of the largest contributors to pollution and anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and every year, accounts for about 10-25% of the greenhouse gases released by the food sector. Seeing also as the food sector accounts for about 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, this means that simply transporting food to get to our table accounts for 2-5% of all greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The average food product travels 1500-2500 miles to reach a household table. When eating locally, products will travel about 10-100 times less than the distance the average food item travels. By having just one or two locally grown and produced meals each week, every family could reduce the impact they have on the environment by a few percent.

Now getting onto actually carrying out the task... Seeing as it is Ottawa, and still only springtime, I didn’t expect much to be available in terms of a variety of balanced and healthy foods. I was right on some counts, but I did manage to find a fair amount of foodstuffs. After a trip to the Ottawa Farmer’s Market, I have a healthy stock of food to last me for the first week. The items that I have include:

-apples (stored over the winter)

-cheese

-all beef hamburgers

-rolled oats

-eggs

-apple cider

-honey

-maple syrup

-cucumbers

-carrots

-smoked bacon

-potatoes

-popping corn on the cob

-salad

-asparagus

So, with all that in hand, I can officially begin the three week journey of eating everything locally. Whether I will succeed is a question left so far unanswered. I’m not worried so much about me cracking under the pressure of a different diet and straying back into non local foods, as I am worried about me forgetting that I am doing a complete 100 mile diet, and accidentally eating a snack produced outside of an 100 mile radius from Ottawa, due to a momentary lapse of concentration.

Well, all in all, I’ll hopefully be able to make it for a full three weeks without eating a single item produced non-locally. My 100 mile diet has now started, and I will leave briefly with a picture of some apples that I’m dying to eat.

Apples from the Ottawa Farmer's Market