100 Mile diet? Ever seen/done this?
 

www.100milediet.org

Yes it would be a big leap for me. How about you?

You know what my first thought was... I hate to admit it.

IS THERE SUGAR PRODUCED WITHIN ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM ME???

The answer was that YES there is sugar beet industry in Northwestern Ohio that I never knew about.

Thinking about doing this once a week or something... not sure how hard it would be.

This looks very interesting, but I think I would start it in the spring. Without proper preparation we could starve to death this winter! I do think it would be a good goal though.

Impossible. They don't grow cocoa beans, or coffee beans for that matter, in Canada. :D

Actually, this is interesting. Thanks for the link, Bob.

Tracy

OH MY GOODNESS... I had not even thought of coffee...

WHOA... I don't know if I could talk my wife into that she is officially an addict. And I like my coffee, but I have given it up before.

How about locally manufactured coffee. A small company in my town of 1500 packages 'local blends' of coffees which I'd make a tiny exception to buy...

Check out www.slowfood.com. Similar idea. Probably long term better for you and the local farmers and economy. It's a worldwide movement getting people to understand how far all of their food comes from- and to look locally for a higher quality product. Picked ripe at that!

The big question is this...

Can you eat food produced by companies that get their ingredients from other places?

In the midwest, I'm in luck - lots of variety. I'd miss the coffee, though, too.

Nope, you can't. Even local eggs they attempt to make sure the chickens are eating local feed. And if organic is important to you.

The organic, even though we raise OUR vegetables that way, would be too much for me on top of the 100 mile diet. So I think we are going to try a one day a week model. Probably won't start until we get some research done on it.

Obviously I am ahead in that I have my own pork/chicken/veggies. But the basics like sugar (doable) salt (EASY for ohio) flour (doable) coffee (OH NO) Tea (Yeah, I can do the weird teas i guess), milk (plenty of dairies here but WHERE do they get THEIR feed?) might be more interesting.

Considering the Salinas Valley, Watsonville (where most of the nations packaged berries come from), and a good chunk of California's central valley are within 100 miles of where I live, as is a chunk of prime commercial fishing waters, so long as I stick with whatever is in season its a pretty good bet that nothing I eat came from more than 100 miles away. I even have orange groves in my radius.

No coffee though.

Oh, didn't think of "oranges." My 100 miles include Maine, NH, VT and upstate NY. So I get Maine potatoes (pfew!). The husband works for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters so I get coffee (nevermind where it was actually grown!) and tea (since one of my clients packages gourmet tea).

Actually, if I expanded this (not that it is fair, but IF) to include "what is packaged within 100 miles" I'd have plenty of gourmet, admittedly expensive, options. We've got people doing quick breads, pancake mixes, muffins, scones, soup mixes, spice blends... really, what is packaged for the gourmet market in VT is quite impressive.

Also shockingly expensive, since most of it is sold in the tourism/gift market.

Boy would I miss lemons though!

I would bet that there are beekeepers within 100 miles of you as well.

Actually, the authors of the plan give you an out. They use coffee as an example, and give you "permission" to declare it "local" if it isn't grown within 100 miles.

I like the idea. Obviously there would have to be a gradual shift, but it certainly isn't impossible.

There are alternatives to coffee such as chicory and roasted grains, although that would be one of the bigest challenges for me at least. Another problem would be no more olive oil or tropical spices (cinamon, cardomom, etc.). Some plants such as ginger, stevia and lemons could be grown in hothouses or as houseplants. Winter would be the bigest problem. I would need to ensure that I had enough stocked away to last until I could get a garden in.

I actually do this, pretty much. Didn't know it was a diet tho- :) It just kind of worked out that way, with the CSAs and co-ops that I am involved in. I buy my veggies, meat, milk, eggs, and butter from local farmers.
Here are the "problems" (which become exceptions to the 100 mile rule, for me personally)... 1)local cheese (though, I can do that, but the place is BARELY within the 100 miles. Not sure I want to go that far to get cheese).
2) Citrus fruit (too cold here. We hardly ever eat citrus fruit). 3) I have not found a local source for grains. 4) I WILL NOT give up my coffee. I can get it from a local roaster, but it is not grown here. 5) Sugar, as you said, Bob, is a problem, but I just replaced it with sorgum molasses and raw local honey. Good for allergy sufferers anyway. :) 6) I do a lot of canning, freezing, and drying for the winter months to make it work. 7) It is A LOT of work, because it means cooking just about everything. (Though I am attempting to eat more raw foods - where veggies are concerned anyway. 8) It takes planning. You would think that this would seriously limit your variety. Actually, if you are in a CSA, it doesn't. They grow a lot of heirloom varieties of veggies that you can not get in a grocery store because they would not have a long enough "shelf life" to be trucked in across the country, and then still sit on a shelf for weeks. But they are perfectly viable if they are going to be picked, put directly in your box, and then eaten within the week. It is nice knowing WHERE your food comes from. If I ever have a problem with my spinach :) I will just go to the farmer who grew it and ask some serious questions. That is a pretty high level of accountability. As such, the farmers are pretty meticulous (at least I haven't had any problems at all, and we have been eating this way for close to a year and a half now). I know where he lives. I know his (or her) face. Another thought for homesteaders... If a CHTF scenario ever hits, I will probably not be cut off from my food supply even if services are interrupted at the grocery stores. It is good to know your local farmers. :) For some, it may be a more viable option than raising all your own food.
Cindyc.

<<salt (EASY for ohio)>>

?

What a cool idea!

I didn't realize how big 100 mile radius is. I think this is very doable, especially since I don't drink coffee :p

We bought a dwarf lemon tree and will try to grow it indoors in the winter. Does that count, since the tree didn't originate here? Hope so.

I think it would need to be at least the whole state of Washington for me. That would make things much easier and give more variety. Then I would also add olive oil, coffee, chocolate, peanutbutter, and sugar. I'm sure there are other things that I forgot that come from to far away.

L!

I know we just aim for things at least being from the NW. Some of the stuff at the farmer's market is trucked in from over 100 miles here because the market is so well organized and they can make enough to easily offset the gas.

This concept was taught to me years ago, we do it somewhat but I really think it makes sense. The ability to get fresh ripened fruit and veg that hasn't laid around for days is a very good thing. I so agree that eating what is grown in your area is far superior then eating what is shipped from a thousand or more miles away. Oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes are the fruits I would miss the most. In fact most fruits don't grow 100 mi around me, however the western slope has peaches, cherries, pears and apples, I have to make it a 300 mi radius. Would be hard to live without fruit.

Salt mines all over in Ohio. Morton salt plant is about 20 miles from here.

Interesting concept, thanks for posting.

Bob, we get a lot of our milk from a neighbor who has milk goats. They raise their own hay and grain organically. It is actually a great deal for us because she charges less than $2/gallon- at one time not long ago a gallon of milk at the store was $3.99. We get better milk at a lower price, she is able to sell some of her surplus, and we're all happy, lol, and I don't have to milk a goat twice a day to get fresh milk, which makes me the happiest of all! We just got some goat cheese from her last week and I think we're hooked, so we'll probably be buying that on a regular basis now as well. Sometimes we trade eggs for milk which is an even better deal for us. We started an orchard this year but won't have any fruit for several years, so we get apples from the same neighbor. This year she wants to trade for some of our home grown potatoes, and maybe some rabbit meat.

We are just about to build a 10' x 28' attached greenhouse (as soon as DH gets our furnace and chimney installed, brrr), and the first thing I asked for was a lemon tree. I also want to try growing water chestnuts, which I love in stir fries and salads. We'll have an assortment of herbs and veggies year round which will go a long way towards achieving self-sufficiency.

We already keep bees, so we could do without sugar- actually, we hardly use any sugar as it is, except for canning and I guess we could can with honey, though I've never tried it.

Definitely have to give this some thought.

I know that I was really happy last night when I prepared a batch of chili for supper- the onions, garlic, bell pepper, and basil all came from our garden, and the meat was from a moose DH shot two years ago. Only the tomatoes, beans, and tomato sauce came from the store, and those are all things we will be growing next year when we get our garden established (we moved this year or we would have already had them).

Thank you Bob! :)
I'm going to give it some serious thought. I can see a problem with coffee, bananas, oranges, olives, olive oil and a few other foods that I regularly consume. However, I think I’m going to try harder to eat closer to home.
veme

Hey BCF,

That's pretty cool about the goats milk. I want to find someone around who I could buy it off here to try, but Ohio is filled with Milk Nazi's and it's against the law to consume raw milk here, even if I know the "risks" and accept them.

Bob-
I used to sell my extra goat milk; I sold it for "pet food" . I'm sure you could find someone who is milking goats or cows that would sell you a couple of gallons of "pet food" a week for your dogs & cats :) . "Pet food" is the code word in W. Pennsylvania - might be the same where you are.
veme

BearCreekFarm
I tried canning w/honey this year - put up peaches. Following directions, I was able to substitue 1/2 of the sugar for honey and was very pleased w/the result. I don't know about using 100% honey and the risk of ruining an entire canner load. Do you happen to have any jam/preserves recipes that use honey?

Marilyn-

I think I have an entire book on canning with honey, but it is over at our old farm. I'll see if I can find it next time I am over there.

Oh yikes.. peanut butter!

Hmm... I wonder what else I don't give any thought to...

I'd be in trouble - I couldn't have my black olives

I do LOVE the idea & our family goal is to try it starting in the spring (with the exception of black olives :p )

What nuts grow near you? Nut butters aren't too hard to make, and lots of nuts make excellent butters! I happen to love haxelnut butter...mmmmm...

My dh and I have actually attempted this. With our farmer's market, Amish cheese producers, fruit/grain/nut growers and various canning places we can get about 80% of our food within 100 miles. Sugar was hard and so was coffee. One of the Braums farms is within a hundred miles, actually 30 miles from our home so we get milk, some meat and ice cream from either them or Blue Bunny. We are surrounded by nurseries so our bedding plants, shrubs and such come within 30-40 miles so my garden is in good order. But seeds were a problem. Hiland milk is also located within 100 miles or us and I get my eggs from friends. I could get my meat from local growers but don't have a large enough freezer for that but I can locally grown meat from several small grocery stores here when I need it. Mainly Oklahoma Angus. I really didn't spend that much more, we didn't really continue this year until the gas prices went up. Then the drought hit and the vendors at the farmers markets had a hard time with production. We can also get locally grown wine, beer, paper products (Georgia Pacific and Kimberly Clark) and a few other products.

One of the things the original 100 mile diet people did was to make sure that even if there was a producer in their area of a good that all the producers ingredients are local also.

This is interesting! Not much growing in my neck of the woods come winter...too close to Canada, and my southern 'border' would be just north of Tacoma WA. I don't even reach over to Eastern WA for some of the best fruits...sniff!

I would imagine that there are some things that just aren't the worse for wear after 1000 miles on a truck, such as coffee or sugar or salt. But obviously there are things that are much tastier and healthier if you buy them locally...and fresh!

As someone mentioned earlier not having spices would be terrible. I can't imagine living without pepper. What the heck would you put on fried eggs? Most spices are grown in tropical areas.

What about other things like baking soda or baking power? Where the heck are those made? I can't imagine there is a bunch of small plants churning out Arm and Hammer for local markets.

Ack...bananas. What would I put on oatmeal?

I think I could do about 95% of my food by weight on this plan, but there are a few specialty items that would be impossible.

Whistler

The most intriguing thing to me about this is that it will get me to think about using things that I have never used before. For instance, I use black pepper, but for the one day a week we are going to try it, I am going to use local seasonings including my own dried peppers (which I know is not the same as the pepper from the pepper berries). But I might find out that certain foods are really good prepared a different way than what is normal or easy.

I especially liked the fact that was pointed out on the website, that many of the regional cuisines we love today (think tuscany, or mediteranean fare) would never have come about if everyone had the same basic ingredients.