June's Mini Eco-Challenge - How Did You Do?

Well, how did you do? Me, I'll give myself a 70%. Not so great, I know. I did the walking - well over 15 miles. But I didn't start reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and at this point it will be due back at the library before I even get a chance to pick it up. That's okay. I will get around to reading it.

Now for my local meal. Not all of it was local. The main course, some very yummy honey chicken kabobs, was made from ingredients I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday morning. The chicken came from Lancaster County (91 miles away) and the vegetables were all from farms in New Jersey. The mushrooms came from Kennet Square via the farmer's market. Unfortunately, the marinade was not made from local ingredients. I was going to buy the honey from the bee guy at the farmer's market, but he wasn't there last week. I don't think I can get vegetable oil or soy sauce locally. If I'm wrong, someone please let me know.

Here's my husband cooking the kabobs. They were really good. Definitely something we will be serving to guests. With them, I served a loaf of bread from a local bakery. But, I also warmed up some leftover Purdue chicken nuggets for the boys (they would have gone bad if I didn't use them) and a box of Uncle Ben's natural rice as a side dish.

I've decided to do this weekly over the summer. Hopefully with greater success than I had this past weekend. As the crops become more plentiful and there is more variety, it should get easier. I'm not happy that I didn't succeed 100% with this. I could have. Mainly, I didn't want to get a lot of whining from my kids so I added some things that were sure to please them. I know. I'm a wimp.


Something else that I got locally at the farmer's market that day was a bunch of lillies. The woman said she had gone out to the fields the night before to pick them. Many of them weren't open when I bought them, but today, three days later, most of them are open and they are beautiful. I had made a decision not to buy flowers unless they were grown locally, and I have been waiting many months for the farmer's market to to open so I could have fresh cut flowers again.

I'd love to hear from all of you who took the challenge and see how you did. I hope you did better than I did, but if not, who am I to judge. We'll have another mini-challenge in July.