Days 47 through 62 – 100-mile Diet - Last day came earlier than planned, but crossroads are always hard to come to…

It has been a while. My carpal tunnel having gotten the better of me, all little energy I had was used up at work and rest in the evenings was a must.

Although honestly, it would have been hard to get inspiration the last 15 days : Markets having closed, fresh produce became unavailable and all we have been living on since then is reserves like frozen and canned produce, potatoes, a few rationed root veggies, limited dairy and eggs.

I must admit that we had to apply the social life amendment a few time since November is a very busy month for us. Half our friends are born within this month it seems and every week was a reason to celebrate. We tried to keep it as 100-mile as possible, but failed to do it 100% during those times.

But we were happy for the little breaks. What was a fun experience became, on November 1st, an experience in seclusion it seemed. The most wonderful part of the challenge was going out and meeting people. This became close to impossible. I don’t know how James and Alisa did it for a year because 2 weeks almost made me go mad.

We woke up this morning realizing that having added the days we did at the beginning made this the begging of the last week. Originally, this day (November 15th) would have been our last day. But we had added days due to social life amendment application, but our reserves were only good until now.

As of this morning we are out of fruit and all we have little vegetable left besides frozen leeks and peas and the last of our potatoes, carrots, onions and beets. It being flu season and us having refused the vaccine, this worries us greatly.

So the crossroad was reached and we made the decision of stopping today at the original date we had planned on. Having brought out all the food we had put in storage, we will not need to buy much besides some vitamin C sources, but our 100-mile radius will be breached.

I hope this does not disappoint too many of you and I want to thank my readers for supporting us through this whole adventure.

We have thought quite a bit about how we can keep at least a part of this going and we have decided to apply the 50% rule for winter, 75% rule for the growing season and we will be going 100% again for a month next summer.

We have met so many amazing people and discovered so MANY amazing local products that we will never be able to simply buy imported anymore. I can’t imagine us not getting our flour at the Seigneurie des Aulnaies Mill or buying our balsamic vinegar anywhere else than the Petit Pré winery. So many amazing cheeses eaten, I never will feel the need for imported brie, camembert, blue or feta again. Growing our own herbs and herbal teas will be a long living tradition with us now and we are already looking forward to planting our garden again next year.

When we cannot buy 100% local foods during the winter months, we will strive to encourage local businesses, buying organic and fair trade products whenever we can.

We are ending this challenge forever changed.