Hmmm....the 100 radius around my home is for the most part made up of rocks, trees and water. The exception would be the occasional small community and the odd bear or moose. I would have a really hard time sustaining our family on locally grown/raised food, but I think it could be done.

It's an interesting idea!

That should read "100 mile radius"

We keep trying to eat locally, but there are a few items that I don't think I could give up. Of course, coffee and chocolate are at the top of that list. Damn them for being so delicious and evil!

I'm going to have to expand my radius to 150 miles -- that'll include two of Oregon's biggest cities (OK, Oregon's two big cities) and the Hood River valley, where they grow apples peaches cherries etc etc.

I'll start with you tomorrow. Today is the farmer's market (most produce coming from the Valley, that is, from 130 miles away) & tomorrow all day I'll make meals from what we eat.

My exceptions: bananas and oranges (my husband is allergic to almost all other kinds of fruit), coffee and Hansen's soda.

I read Omnivore's Dilemma, and it completely freaked me out. I could hardly bring myself to eat anything for over a week. I keep meaning to review it on my blog. Thanks for reminding me.

uccellina, I look forward to reading it. I've been meaning to read the book myself so I'd love to get a few opinions.

Jennifer--Tomorrow? Ack! I'm not ready! All I have in the house right now that's grown locally are the peas on the plant on the deck. And some hothouse tomatoes. (But I look forward to seeing how you do.) I think I need to shop first.

Casey, yeah. I'm going to try to be strict about it for a day, just to see what it's like, but like you I don't think we could give up bananas, and tea and chocolate are must-haves in small quantities. Actually one of the things I found interesting on the website was their story of how hard it was to find locally grown wheat, and how without wheat they lacked so many typical staples.

Sue: C'mon! A little bark never hurt anyone. IT's roughage.

We've been doing this for a while now--the locally-grown movement has been strong here in Madison for quite some time. I read somewhere, though I can't remember where, something that convinced me that in general, local+non-organic is preferable to long-distance+organic, but I have found that I end up making those decisions every week, depending on the food.

The challenge will be doing this in the winter. Those of us in the North have to get back to eating preserved and storage produce, and it takes some getting used to. I have found it useful to do a lot of reading in older cookbooks as well as "survival" type books. Both assume that you aren't getting food that is out-of-season in your area, and give lots of recipes for things like rutabagas. It does take more planning to have a variety of healthy choices in February.

Of course, when you buy things like bananas and chocolate, at least you can buy them at locally-owned markets or co-ops and support local business.

Listen to this. This is funny.

At one of the stalls at the farmer's market they were selling berries (from Albany, OR, which is allllmost w/in 100 miles of here) for $2.50/pint, which I think is outrageous but which is just slightly cheaper than the price in the stores and of course they were just picked yesterday. So there was a rush on the Albany farm's berries, a frenzy, the line was deep, there was some shoving, and I caught the hysteria and bought an entire flat of berries. I got them in the car and thought, oh my god, I just bought $15 worth of berries. How will we eat them all?

They're gone. Yes, all gone. My kids and husband and I ate EIGHT pints of berries last night. Also we had some buffalo kabobs made from a buffalo killed not 30 miles away. And a beer from a local brewery. (I doubt the hops are from here but it counts if it's processed here, right?) And milk from a local dairy.

So last night we had our 100 mile dinner, and I will have to go to the Farmer's Market on Friday to restock!

Also, last night my husband went mtn biking with a friend from work who lives in a very nice house equidistant from the husband's work in Bend and the wife's work at the reservation; which is to say, in the middle of sagebrush scrub.

After the ride I talked to him about the farmer's market & the buffalo kabobs, and he told me this. Each year he & one of his wife's friends from the reservation go in on a steer. They order it directly from a rancher on the reservation, and a butcher from Redmond goes out there and butchers it. It costs them $1000 and they get 600 lbs of beef, all different cuts. He shares half with his sister-in-law & the remainder goes in a huge freezer in his garage.

They are very proud of this and feel lucky to get such fresh meat, but mostly they love that they hardly ever have to go to the store, which is 25 miles from their house!

So, when I stop by the farmer's market again on Friday I'll see if we can't buy in bulk in the same way. Not 300lb because we don't have an extra freezer, but enough to send the price down a bit.

That *is* funny. That is a lot of strawberries. But it's great that you have so many good options so close at hand. The problem around here is that while there's tons of good farmland, it's mostly been paved over and while there are a few farmer's markets still around, out here in suburbia they're small and the selection isn't very good. But I will find a way.

Carrie, wow. You are hardcore.

I'm not sure we even have a locally-owned market or co-op around here. I'll have to look into it.