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.

Sustainability In The Workplace - A Survey by Brighter Planet

Hey everyone,

A quick hello this morning to share a site for a survey on "Sustainability In The Workplace" by the Brighter Planet team.

Please take a few minutes to fill it out: You may win 200$ in the process.

Just follow this link and voice your opinions!

Have a great day everyone.

Taking a short break : Carpal Tunnel Syndrome acting up.

Hello to all!

I wanted to make sure you all knew I hadn't just dissapeared.

I have been suffering from a bout of my CTS and have been unable to spend more than a minute or 2 typing away.

I will be back in a couple of days to bring you up to speed with all I've been doing and how our challenge is progressing.

I hope you have a great week.

Day 46 – 100-mile Diet : Halloween without candy is no fun - But week-ends in the woods are!

So I didn’t really think about it until today. I had thought of the challenge finishing before the holidays and not having to sacrifice any of my favorites like pumpkin pies, cranberry walnut sauce and sweets. But I hadn’t given a thought to Halloween.

My office is a sweet factory on any given day, but on Halloween, it’s ridiculous. I walked in to bowls upon bowls sitting on top of filing cabinets filled with soft butterscotch candy, mini Mars bars and my favourite : Reese’s pieces!

*shivers*

It was a hard day and I will admit it, I faultered. I had a mini Mars bar at lunch and I’m not too proud of it. But it was sooooo good! So that I wouldn’t feel so bad, I brought a little mini bag of Reese’s pieces to my hubby and he gobbled it up. It just made our day!

Home we came and started our busy night of preparing for the week-end.

It will be my birthday next Tuesday and I decided to take Monday off to make it a 3-day week-end. We are going on a rustic, wood deep, cabin retreat and we are so happy!

Going away for a week-end would have been very complicated during this diet. Where do you go when you can’t cook for yourself and nothing is truly 100-miles? Well, these cabins are what they call “Ecogîtes” (eco-inns in french) and they are a network of cabins that are electriciy free, candle lit, wood stove heated, spring water pumped “chalets” that you can rent and commune with nature in.

The eco-site is called “Entre cimes et racines” (between tree top and root) and it is situated about 3 hours south of Quebec in the Eastern Townships. The one we rented for the week-end is a small log cabin one-room place. We will make sure and take lots of pictures and share with you all when we get back!

Besides all the clothing and bedding, board games, card games books and magazines, we are leaving with a strict 100-mile menu :

• Home made sourdough bread
• Carrots, potatoes, beets and onions
• Cheese, goat yogurt, milk, butter and eggs
• A big container full of cauliflower and brocoli soup
• Fresh made fruit juice from the frozen berries and melons we have stashed away
• Fresh picked apples
• Herbal tea

Our only luxury : Coffee. I asked for my birthday present that we have one hot steaming cup of coffee in the brisk late fall morning of Sunday! I think that is fair…

I hope everyone has a great week-end!

Day 44 and 45 – 100-mile diet : Finding allies

Following a wonderful comment left by Elle on my post a few weeks ago, I decided to go on a hunt for information on a little town called Vernon in British Columbia that has been doing something pretty amazing with the challenge!

On September 1st, 2009, this is what the Vernon Morning Star had to say :

People join the 100 Mile Diet Challenge

A challenge has been issued to the people of the North Okanagan – to eat mostly local food that has been produced or processed within a 100 mile radius of your home for 100 days.

This 100 Mile Diet Challenge has been issued by the Food Action Society of the North Okanagan (FASNO) in order to encourage people to see how local they can go.

People fearing that this 100 Mile Diet might mean an end to their morning cup of coffee can rest reassured. FASNO’s classification of local food includes food that is processed locally, such as coffee that has been roasted by companies based in the region.

“Buying locally produced food supports our farmers, but buying locally processed food is also good because it supports local businesses, and that benefits our community too,” said Mary Stockdale, one of the organizers of the challenge.

People are encouraged to join the diet at a level of local food consumption that is challenging but manageable.

“We have three levels at which the pledge can be taken: Gold, for people who will try to eat almost 100 per cent local food; Silver, for 75 per cent or more local food; and Bronze, for 50 per cent or more local food,” said Andrea Gunner, one of the organizers.

The diet will officially start on Monday, and will end 100 days later on Dec. 15.

“In the North Okanagan we are lucky to have a wonderful choice of food within our 100-mile radius, ranging from the Okanagan to the south, the West Kootenays to the west, Kamloops to the north and Merritt and Princeton to the west,” said Gunner.

The Interior Provincial Exhibition (IPE) in Armstrong is a strong supporter of this 100 Mile Diet Challenge. At the IPE grounds, the Centennial Theatre will be devoted to local food events Sept. 2 to 6, including local food tastings, films and presentations.

People are encouraged to visit the website: www.foodaction.ca to find out more or to sign the 100 Mile Diet pledge online. They can also visit the Centennial Theatre during IPE week to ask questions and sign the pledge on paper.

Stockdale said there are many reasons to eat local food.

“It is much better for our health, better for the local economy and better for the environment,” she said. “Plus, fresh, seasonal, local food tastes really good.”

How inspiring! And I must admit I absolutely LOVE the Gold-Silver-Bronze system. We also love the importance of supporting local businesses that may have imported ingredients in their products, but still are produced locally which means jobs and a healthy local economy.

For us it is simple : During the growing season, you buy fresh veggies and fruits, eggs and meat (for my husband) from local farms to support our farming community. During the winter months, those same farmers live off processed foods they produce - preserves, salsas, meat based products such as, pâtés and potpies, dessert items – so encouraging them year round, even though their pâtés have salt or their jams have sugar, seems like an important step as well.

So my husband and I, who had been struggling with the idea of balancing imported, far away foods again after such an adventure, have decided to try and stay at Silver level after the challenge.

Thank you Elle for bringing this to our attention and making our transition after the challenge less of a scary one!