One Local Summer 2008: Week 1
So, a few years ago, Liz over at the now-defunct Pocket Farm started this thing called One Local Summer: a challenge designed to get people to make a meal with locally raised ingredients one meal a week. We’ve participated for the last two years, and this year, I’m coordinating for the Southern region. This year, updates are going to be over at Farm to Philly.
The rules are pretty simple. Your challenge: prepare one meal each week using only locally grown ingredients – the exceptions are oil, salt and pepper, and spices. Everyone defines local differently – a lot of folks are working to stick to a 100 mile radius, and that’s pretty awesome. My definition for local is pretty much North Carolina (or southern Virginia, as we’re pretty close to the state line) grown. Our exception to the North Carolina grown foods is our cheese. It comes from Ohio, but it’s sold at our farmer’s market. We know the people (the Molners) that we’re buying from, and we know we can trust them when they tell us that the milk used in making the cheese is sustainably raised. Ohio isn’t so far away, and I know that this cheese isn’t made in a large, unsustainable factory. That’s good enough for me. (There is North Carolina cheese available at our market and our co-op; Goat Lady Dairy makes some incredible cheese that is normally right out of our budget; perhaps, for a splurge this summer…)
I’m a bad, bad person and forgot to take pictures this week; I haven’t gotten back into the OLS mindset yet. 
We did quiche and vegetables Thursday night.
Quiche: eggs from the Wards, cheese from the Molners, bulk sausage from Rocking F Farm, milk from Homeland Creamery, and Southern Biscuit flour, along with a touch of non-local oil and salt and pepper and nutmeg.
Veggies: local yellow squash from joe-random vendor at the market, Chinese cabbage from Weatherhand Farm, and tossed salad with spring mix from Weatherhand Farm
It was all very, very good. The inmates were pleased. 
We also had a bonus local meal Friday night: roasted pork tenderloin from the Wards, and twice baked potatoes (cheese from the Molners, potatoes from Faucette Produce), along with leftover vegetables from Thursday night.
Everything was purchased at our local curb farmer’s market, except for the oil and spices, purchased at our co-op.