Welcome to the kick off of the Local Bite Challenge!
This challenge has been many months in the making and I hope that you are as excited about it as I am!
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
New Mexicans currently spend less than one percent of all cash receipts for food on local food. More than 99% of cash spent on food is spent on imported food and food products, and most of the food produced in New Mexico is exported.*
Despite the fact that New Mexico grows and produces a huge amount of food each year, I have to be honest when I say that I have not, up until now, been very intentional about learning about all that our state has to offer in the way of edibles. Luckily, the list is intensive. With ~50 edible crops and countless varieties, I feel better and better about this challenge every day!
Truly, though, the statistic above shocks me! Maybe I am simply naive, but I wonder how it is that we have gotten ourselves so highly dependent on foods that are sourced from so far away instead of from our own neighbors!
So, this challenge is designed to push ourselves out of our current comfort zone…to force us to look at what’s available locally and to learn how to enjoy it. In the process, we will be building relationships and contributing to our local economy.
Win, win.
Here’s how we’ll do it:
Our Personal Parameters:
- Source 100% of our food from within the state of New Mexico
- Source the majority of our food from within 100 miles of Santa Fe
- Spend no more than $100 per week on our food purchases
Our Personal Exceptions:
- Various spices & salt
- Olive Oil (to make salad dressings, mayo and the like)
- Locally sourced or personally grown and preserved items currently in our pantry and freezer. (These items were not hoarded, promise, and I will figure out how to count the consumption of these items into our weekly budgets.)
- An occasional Jameson
Our Sources:
- The Santa Fe Farmer’s Market (the counties included in our SF Farmer’s Market are outlined in green on the above map)
- The Real Butcher Shop
- La Montanita Co-op
- Our backyard chickens and the fruits and veggies grown in our own yard
Are there concerns? Absolutely!!! Honestly, my biggest concerns are meat, dairy, oils and fruits….which is a lot of concerns, isn’t it? Well, let’s break it down a bit:
Meats – According to Dreaming New Mexico: The most accessible market niche is “New Mexico 100% grass-finished beef.” The cattle are “matured on grass” which means the minimum number of grazing days must be at least 120 days with each agro-ecoregion’s “personality” making the grazing season’s dates variable. (Over-wintering can be a difficulty for grass-fed cow-calf operations.) Though not strictly organic and with occasional problems of tenderness and taste, grass-finished beef is drug-free, grown from local cattle and has higher nutrient values.
Now, not all beef in New Mexico is this lovely, but we do have some amazing ranches very close to Santa Fe who we trust and will be sourcing our beef from since we do not currently have any left in our freezer from previous purchases. However, grass-finished/organic beef (and meats in general) are very expensive.
Dairy – We are very lucky to have a new, legal, raw dairy here in the state of New Mexico! De Smet Dairy will be the source for all of our dairy needs and I will be learning how to perfect the art of butter and yogurt making!
Oils – Butter will be made (or purchased) and fats will be rendered, but we are not in the habit of completing these tasks, so this will be a huge learning curve for us. We are very used to just grabbing what someone else has prepped and packaged for us. Also, we are very accustomed to eating avocados almost daily and use coconut oil and milk in a lot of our meals. Neither of the last two items can be sourced from anywhere near here and might (maybe) have to become one of our exceptions. This is yet to be determined, though.
Fruits – The beginning of this challenge will be the hardest since there won’t be much available for at least another month, maybe even two. We do have some Apple Sauce on the shelf we put up in 2012, so that might have to hold us out until other fruits come available.
So now, what do you think? Are you ready to take the challenge with us? Set your own parameters? Eat a little local food? Maybe even have some fun while you’re at it? Yeah…you know you want to 😉
And hey, while you’re at it, follow along in these places too!
::: FACEBOOK ::: INSTAGRAM ::: PINTEREST ::: TWITTER :::
::: LOCAL BITE FACEBOOK GROUP :::
And don’t forget to enter our phenomenal Local Bite Giveaway!
xoxo,
M
*(Quote Source)
Yes! Thanks for doing this! Great job on your parameters! I like your idea about 100% from within your state and the majority of that from within 100 miles of home. I’d like to try and use that idea:) Since we raise much of our food already I am focusing on my weak areas. I started by finding an excellent pasta maker on Craigslist today. I use locally grown organic flour from a mill an hour away, and we have our own eggs. So I will now be able to make pasta a local food! We were going to go fishing for our dinner tonight but it’s raining so it’s pork from the freezer. (We raise pastured pork.) Instead I will work indoors on garden planning. My weakest area though is dairy. I do buy organic milk from within our state. Does anyone have opinions on buying milk to make cheese and yogurt? I’d very much like to try making these things but it sounds expensive and maybe counterintuitive to buy milk at the store to make these products. Opinions? Have a great day all!
Claudia recently posted…Local Bite Challenge
Claudia, sounds like you’re off to a great start! I love your questions about buying milk to make cheese and yogurt! I actually just bought some raw milk to make yogurt and butter! I’ll do a post about it and see what the cost comparison is while I’m at it 🙂 I think this would be a great question to pose to the Facebook Group, though, as I’m sure some of our member shave recipes and experiences to share 🙂
So excited for this challenge Melissa!!! Thank you so much for putting it together and initiating!