1. What's your definition of local for this challenge?
Local will be anything within 100 miles (as the crow flies) of San Francisco, CA.
2. What exemptions will you claim?
> Coffee. All coffee will be roasted locally.
> Salmon and halibut in my freezer that my dad caught in Alaska
> Steel Cut Oats. I haven't been able to find a local source of oats. Normally, I would say that we would just eat something different for breakfast, but morning oatmeal has been a pretty important part of Jason's regimen since we have completely changed our at-home diets. Therefore, it's going to stay. We will be buying organic steel cut oats from Rainbow Grocery. The oats come from Fiddler's Green Farm in Maine.
> Sugar. Each time we use sugar in the household, we will try to find a reasonable local substitute (ie., honey, orange juice, etc.) but when we need to use sugar, we will do so.
> Rice. We will be buying our rice from Lundberg Family Farms which is technically about 115 miles from San Francisco. It is organic rice, and is readily available in San Francisco. I am putting it under exceptions because it is a little out of the radius.
> Spices. A couple of posts ago, Barbara made a comment about how even many of the settlers carried spices from afar. This led to a discussion in our household about the amount of spices (by bulk) that we use, and will use in a month. It's a minimal amount, and I am going to keep spices from afar in my diet for this challenge. With the caveat that if there is a local and known provider I will use them (ie., Tierra Vegetables and Happy Quail farms for my chile powders).
I am a little skeptical of not making and exemption for other grains, soy and corn tortillas, however we have committed to at least start the challenge with only the above exemptions.
3. What is your personal goal for the month?
Anything that I buy or cook for the household will be locally grown. If we go to a restaurant that makes a claim of using foods from local farmers, then we assume that most of the food we will eat there is local, and it will work for this challenge. Other than that, I can eat out once a week at a restaurant that does not make local food claims.
