Day 122 – 160km Diet

I know, I know.  I haven’t posted about our 160km (100 mile) diet since day 38, but you will be glad to know that it still continues even though a few things have come up in that time.

I estimate that we eat about 70% of local produce now that Summer has past.  At the end of summer I had the percentage up well over 90, however as the veggie patch died down for the season and new crops went in, there was a bit of a gap in production.  Add to that my health issues, I could not keep up continuous cropping.

So, what are we still eating now?  Well for starters, we still go down to the produce store in Bacchus Marsh every fortnight to buy whatever fruit and veg they have in season.  The new seasons apples and pears are just so tasty, as is the broccoli and cabbage.  We only buy local flour, milk, and cheese, and if we have to buy tinned goods, only purchase Australian produce.  I cannot remember when we last bought imported food stuffs, except for the Moccona coffee that is our only foreign food vice that we can’t seem to shake.  At least I gave up Nescafe instant when I learnt about Nestle and their unsustainable use of palm oil.

We also buy Belmore Biodynamic Meats who source their products from Victoria for the few meals that we still eat meat a week, and we buy MSC Fish but only occasionally.   We make our own yoghurt which I now have to eat every day, and I am still making cheese about once a month.

From our own garden I have been harvesting celery, spring onions, rainbow chard, limes, lemons, and eggs.

In the garden beds, we are currently growing garlic, brown and red onions, beetroot, leeks, broad beans, cabbages, broccoli, and snow peas.  In the greenhouse, we are growing tomatoes, chilli, capsicums in big pots, with spinach and more broccoli seedlings being raised for the garden beds.  I have cayenne peppers drying in the garage, which should be ready in a few weeks.

We have been eating preserved apples, cucumbers and apricot jam.

For instance, today Kim made two tasty Vienna style loaves and we made Welsh rarebit from yoghurt and cheese that I made.  It fed the entire family and except for the two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, it what all local fare.  Lunch was egg and bacon pie, all local as well.  My only non local meal is usually wheatbix, as I find that it is a cereal that does not hurt my condition later on in the day.

So we are still being true to the challenge that we set upon at the start of the year, I am just not verbosely reporting it every week.  I found that it was getting a bit repetitive, not only for me, but probably for you as well.

I will continue to report on local sources of food when I can find it, like I did when I found the fig tree at the medical clinic, as I really enjoy sharing that sort of thing with locals.  We have found that once you take the effort to look for local food in the early stages of the challenge, it certainly helps in the long run for the rest of the year.  It has become second nature to us, and even though we haven’t reached that magical 100%, I believe that because of the way the modern industrial food complex is set up, it is a very difficult goal to reach.  So all we can do is stay true to our values, and remain on the path we continue to travel.

After all, the only real vote for the sustainable food industry we have is each dollar we spend, so wisely we must spend it.