Day 29

Yesterday I had lunch with my Mum and Dad, rather, I watched them have lunch!

We went to Spago's at Colonnades and I asked where the fish came from hoping it would be local. NOOO.... the seafood was from Vietnam and the fish from China, they said the chips were from Australia, but I decided it was safer to have a liquid lunch rather than go through the entire menu. I stuck with Mt Compass Mountain Fresh apple juice, and a Coopers Pale Ale, quite satisfying actually, and had the added benefit that I could pay more attention to my parents than my food. I did actually make a garden salad to take with me in case there was nothing suitable on the menu, then forgot it.


I tried out a new Zucchini muffin recipe from a vegan cook-book (Get it Ripe www.getitripe.com) that we bought from the author (Jae Steele) who we met at Findhorn while doing a non-violent communication course last year. Sorry I forgot to take a photo. I had no ginger and only had one cup of dates, but they still tasted pretty good. As our pantry store of spices disappears we will need to find some innovative substitutes. (eg. dried figs might work instead of dates)


Zucchini Date Muffins


1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates
3/4 cup just boiled water
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
2tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup flax or sunflower seeds, or chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower oil (plus extra if using to coat pan)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar


Place the dates in a bowl, pour in just boiled H20, cover and soak.

Preheat oven to 190C, prepare 12-cup muffin tray

Whisk together dry ingredients. Stir in the zucchini and seeds and mix until zucchini is well coated with flour.

Mash soaked dates with a fork until smooth (no big chunks). Add date mash and oil to to dry ingredients. Stir just until all flour is absorbed. Add the vinegar and stir just until evenly distributed.

Portion the batter into muffin cups and bake for about 22 minutes, until the tops are domed and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Stores in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or in fridge for up to a week.

Makes 12 muffins.


Today I went to Seaford Foodland to stock up on goodies to feed the hoards of teenagers about to descend on our home for a sleep-over tomorrow night. I bought 4 litres BD milk $8.48, 1L yoghurt $ 5.25, & 1 nuage blanc $4.99, salt free butter 200g $3.51, all from Paris Creek, Hahndorf mettwurst 500g $8.99, The Goods Fleurieu Foods Spicy roast pumpkin dip & roast pepper & cashew dip ( Middleton) $6.99 each, Murray Valley Fetta in brine 300g $5.99. Organics pizza dough (Torrensville) $2.45, Abbotts country grain bread (Dry Creek)$4.49, L'abruzzese organic lasagna (Glynde)375g & spaghetti 375g $4.44 each, plus a 5kg bag of Laucke's plain flour (Strathalbyn) $10.05.

I popped into the fruit store next door (don't remember the name) to buy Mt Compass juice, Langhorne Creek beetroot & horseradish spread, and a punnet of Mt Compass strawberries. I wanted to buy lemons too (thinking of pancakes for breakfast) but their lemons were from Queensland!

Michael did some research today too. And had two big wins! Firstly, the Health Food shop across the road from his work on Beach Road, Christies Beach (the beach end!) sells hot pies made by Bull Creek Organics (which is not far away at all). The Pies have meat and vegetables sourced from the owners farm (Paul Van Zati), plus another farm near Strathalbyn. The flour for the pastry is Lauckes Strathalbyn sourced unbleached organic flour, with BD butter from Paris Creek. The only thing Paul is unsure of is where exactly the free range chicken is grown - he will find out and let him know at some point soon. Paul is a major advocate for local produce and Michael is happy - he can stop making his own lunch!!
Secondly, another hint from the Health Food shop - given that without any sources of local Rice milk, Barley Milk, Soy Milk or Oat Milk, we are left with dairy, that is OK, except for people with allergies, it is not brilliant. Well, now we have a recipe for Almond milk!

Almond Milk

2 Cups local shelled almonds
Rainwater as needed

Soak almonds overnight in water. Wash off water in morning. Add 'plenty' of water and blend until almonds are completely pulped. Drain off liquid into jug while straining the almond pulp out. You are left with a creamy almond milk, and pulp for use in cakes or other recipes. Brilliant! Haven't tried it yet though!

Day 27

Hunting and Gathering in the EcoVillage

Here is what we were able to find in the village orchards -a bit of a disappointing crop from approx. 600 fruit & nut trees:

• The pears were windfalls, and may not ripen sufficiently to be eaten;
• The carob may or may not have been picked too soon depending on who you listen to - I thought it tasted OK, and I will try grinding it in the food processor;
• Tomatoes are from my mother-in-law's garden (she lives in the village too);
• apricots from Hakea orchard
• nectarines from Gina's and townhouse orchards

It was an interesting process, I was glad I was not relying on this for my dinner. Fortunately we have our own garden abundant with silver beet, tomatoes (green at present), lettuce, beetroot, asparagus, rhubarb, chillies, cucumber, pumpkin, spring onions, capsicum, zucchini, and herbs. (the photo I took of the lettuce mysteriously disappeared as I was trying to format it). I found myself wondering how many fruit trees we actually need to feed 160 households, and how large a vege patch needs to be to feed a family?

Today for breakfast I ate the last of the organic ancient grains cereal and opened the last carton of organic oat milk. The pantry stores are dwindling, tonight we will eat the last of the spelt pasta, second to last can of organic tomatoes, and the last of the anchovies, although, I found a small jar lurking in the back of the pantry - phew! Did a google search on SA anchovies, it seems they do breed in the Spencer and St Vincent Gulfs, so there is a chance that they would be within our range if I can find someone who sells them. From what little info I found, I get the sense that they may only be available fresh. I was discussing pantry life with my friend Kylie, and she said that it takes her about 3 months to empty her pantry. I guess at that rate, we will not be fully signed up to the 100 mile diet till April. This information had a strange impact, as I have heard that the supermarket shelves would empty in 3 days when we run out of petrol. That gives the average household 93 days from 'oilopause' to starvation.

On the way back from Byron Bay we found Icons South Australia - a store promoting SA produce. Most of the brands that we have mentioned in this Blog were represented, including a few others we had'nt heard of, including :-

Tumbeela Native Bushfoods - Verdun - http://www.tumbeela.com/
(also available at Stirling Market)

Many of the other products were packaged and produced in SA. but the ingredients were not neccessarily sourced in SA. Many included chocolate and coffee, and "Local and imported ingredients". Of course, all of the sweets, chocolates, biscuits and jams contain sugar, which brings us to the sugar dilemma - if we say that we are deleting all non-local ingredients, then to be authentic, we are removing sugar from our diet which eliminates practically all packaged foods, and pretty much all eating out. This debate still continues in our household, with michael firmly in the "No sugar" camp and me in the "Lets allow sugar" camp

Above is breakfast dessert from Aarod, via Russell's - panacotta with one nectarine from "Gina's orchard" in the EcoVillage.

Right is a happy meal smile Michael made for my Birthday breakfast - awww!

24th January Birthday Lunch at Locavore restaurant in Stirling - Their creed is :- "If not Local, Family farmed, if not Family farmed, Organic, if not Organic, Fair Trade."

Locavore

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to food. It probably gets jet-lag just like humans

EAT LOCAL !!!





We chose the Tapas Yaddah Yaddah the lot:

• [ABOVE] Smoked Paprika Organic Aldinga almonds;
• Coriole mixed olives marinated in garlic & chilli;
• Stoned chicken liver pate' with Stone ginger wine;
• Willabrand fig fennel & chilli chutney;
• Woodside Goats cheese tartlets;
• Smokehouse salmon (Hahndorf) with Mannum caper berries and horseradish (Langhorne creek) cream;
• Lemon Myrtle sobet palate cleanser
  

• Followed by asparagus wrapped in San Jose gamon with Hollandaise sauce;
• salt/pepper lemon myrtle squid with house made sweet chilli sauce;
• chicken roulade with Paris Creek Nuage blanc, Aldinga almonds, sage, & Buzz honey;
• Abondigas spanish style meatballs with Napolitana sauce and La Vera Pecurino cheese;
• All accompanied by Pawn local wines - Jeu de Fin Savignon Blanc 2008, and The Gambit Sangiovese 2007. Aarod chose a Bickfords Cola.

The meal was delicious, good service, excellent wine, and plenty of food.

After lunch we went across the road to the Stirling market.

We bought Udder Delights Camembert, 2 Goats curd packs, and a Blue cheese for $20 because they were closing shop for the day - yum. They no longer produce their own milk, but buy in from local dairies in the hills and the Fleurieu. They have a Cheese Cellar in Hahndorf where you can taste their cheeses, open 7 days. http://www.udderdelights.com.au/

Michael was delighted to find local Valencia oranges from Dave and Joy Schultz from Nildottie on the River Murray. Their disclaimer says: "We hold a small permit to sell this fruit to consumers only. We are not required to treat the fruit with a fungicide or wax." We bought 2 4kg bags! Either Dave or Joy's mother has a farm North of Swan Reach which has Apricots - so we bought a bag of Dried Apricots!

I was very happy to discover that Naturally Nice (Lenswood) Raspberry jam raspberries are grown in Maccelsfield. We had a taste - delicious, we bought a jar. Their strawberries are sourced from Maccy too. I was also impressed that unlike most jams, the first ingredient is fruit, not sugar, at 49%. Approx $4 for 450g.

We also bought more Organic seedlings from Bickleigh Vale farm Greenseed's stall: Celery, beetroot, lettuce, & asian greens. I am so grateful to Diana & Jen for making these seedlings available, they save me a lot of time; and when one occasionally gets eaten I am not so disheartened as I was when I had grown them myself from seed. They have an excellent survival rate too, except when I forget to look at the weather forecast and I plant them in the lead up to a heatwave!

Day 23 - Back from Byron

We have just returned from a week of surfing and yoga in Byron Bay. We had an amazing time. Given the nature of the retreat though, we were not able to stick to our local diet - we were catered for by the Byron Yoga Retreat staff and had some great food - healthy, but not particularly local. The mangos definitely were local though - and brilliant. We did find out some things that are good to know though - like there are coffee bean growers in Byron! Try Byron Beans, Zentvelds or Coffee Nirvana to name just three. Great if you are looking for Australian grown coffee.
On a similar note, and whilst visiting The Balcony restaurant in Byron, we saw on the menu that they served 'South Australian Anchovies'! We are going to find out more about this - but it could leave the name of this blog redundant!

Cheers, Michael

day 15

Our Last 160 km Breakfast for a week, all out of our garden, except capsicum - farmer's market. Bread -Abbots village bakery. Chai tea - from pantry.

Check out - www.thekingsbardining.com a pub in King William Street claiming to supply all local SA food and drink, thanks to Mike Middleton for the heads up.

day 14

I am amazed that it has been two weeks since New Years already!

Aarod picked all of the chillies today:

Last season we dried them, we might try a chili paste this time. The garden is producing Zucchini's, chillies, spring onions, capsicums, tomatoes, basil, silver beet, beetroot, rhubarb, asparagus, rocket, pepinos, lettuce, and many herbs. Hopefully my sister and her family will enjoy some of these while we are away next week.
I have been busy today packing for our trip, cleaning house, watering gardens, discussing with Stefan the build of our new limestone wall, and finishing the mosaic on our deck - phew!
Consequently no research to report, and we are off for a seven day Yoga & Surfing retreat in Byron Bay tomorrow. While we are away we will be fed and watered by the cooks at the retreat centre. I will be back in communication on the 23rd.

Tonight we tried another Moosewood cookbook zucchini treat:-

Zucchini -Fetta Pancakes

• 4 eggs
• 4 packed cups coarsely grated zucchini (about 4 standard zucchini)
• 1 cup finely crumbed fetta cheese
• 1/2 cup finely minced spring onions
• 1 Tbs fresh mint
• a little salt
• lots of black pepper
• 1/3 cup flour
• oil for frying
• sour cream or yoghurt for topping

Beat the egg whites until stiff: Combine in bowl, zucchini, egg yolks, fetta, spring onions, seasonings and flour, mix well. Fold the egg whites into the zucchini mixture. Heat oil in fry pan. When it is very hot, add spoonfuls of batter, and fry on both sides, until golden and crisp.

Serve immediately, topped with sour cream or yoghurt.

Surprisingly very yummy -Aarod cooked this and it left us wanting more - I suggest doubling the recipe. Apologies for the blurry photo, had to be quick before it was all gone. Enjoy!

Day 13

We are harvesting loads of Zuchini right now, so.....

Zucchini Research:

From the old, faithful Moosewood cookbook :-
Sweet zucchini - spice bread
35mins to prepare, 35-45 mins to bake
preheat oven to 350f, butter a medium loaf pan
2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (packed measure)
1/2 cup honey
6Tbs melted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
21/2 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
optional 1/2 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup currants

• Place grated zucchini in a colander over a bowl or sink. Let stand 10-20mins, then squeeze out all moisture.
• With an electric mixer at high speed, beat the honey for about 5 mins, or until white and opaque. Beat in the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Beat several minutes more.
• Sift together the dry ingredients.
• Add the sifted dry ingredients, alternately with the zucchini, to the honey mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ( Flour/zuke/flour/zuke/flour). Mix just enough to blend after each addition.
• Stir in optional nuts and currants last.
• Spread into a medium sized buttered loaf pan. Bake 35-45 mins.

Lunch today - Smoked chicken salad (from Willunga) with greens from garden: rocket, sorrel, spinach, basil, and several types of lettuce; plus cucumber, snow peas, cherry tomatoes and red onion (from food co-op, market, and Foodland). Served with grated beetroot (from garden) and carrot (food co-op) salad with Laksa Mint (garden), balsalmic vinegar and sesame oil (pantry).

Dessert - fruit salad with peaches and pears (from market), apples, grapes, and strawberries (foodland), drizzled with Maggie Beer's quince sauce (also foodland), which I dropped and smashed on the bamboo floor (weep).

Fess up - Grapes from Foodland are from Mildura (doh), and my sister Wendy brought Ferrero Rocher chocolate today to share. We had decided at the last family meeting - if it is a gift, we can eat it - happy days!

Tonight's dinner - see photo. I thought that the Zucchini cake might be more savoury, however, it is a cake, and sweet, a bit wierd with salad!

Bridget

Day 12

Hi, feeling a bit sheepish as I am painfully aware of all of the assumptions I have made and mistakes about food sources. I am also aware of the research that is piling up, and more seems to be required each day. I am also starting to realise what everyone else probably knew from day one (especially the ones who were saying things like "You are so brave" and "Wow, that's a challenge"). I am not sure if I am naive or innately attracted to struggling. If we are really serious about sourcing all of our food locally, we will have to exclude sugar, which just about eliminates all packaged foods, which means - eating fresh fruit and veg, meat, and dairy products, and making all of our own bread, and baked goods, and rarely eating out except for fish and chips - but then there is the oil it is cooked in! :(

It RAINED today - what a relief from the heatwave we have been experiencing - this may have contributed to the small number of customers coming through the door of the food co-op today. It was a perfect opportunity to do some investigation into the products on the shelves.

The following is the (short) list of local products:
Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Honey $3.70 - 250g and Quandong conserve $6.70 - 250g; both
from Ildoura Wild Fruits in Parndarna KI.
Carrot and Ginger Juice from Douglas Park Organics (not sure about the ginger though)
'Willunga Hills Organics' extra virgin olive oil grown and packed in Willunga $17.50 Litre
Rosie's Free Range Eggs - Eudunda SA
Alexandrina Cheese - Mt Jagged SA
Of course there is local honey, almonds, and fruit and veg, but these were not labelled, so I could not verify the location they came from.

The following is the (long) list of non-local products:
Australis Organic Chai - QLD
Clear Mountain Rooibos Tea - South Africa
Austral Herbal Teas - NSW - Local and imported ingredients
Macrobiotic Sea Salt - QLD
Spiral Seaweed - all varieties - Japan
Rapunzel Organic Vegetable Bouillon - Switzerland
Felafel mix - VIC
Thomas Chapman organic corn chips & potato chips - Lillydale VIC
Herbamere A-vogel herb salt - France
Organic prunes - NSW
Pure Harvest organic corn cakes & rice cakes - VIC - local and imported ingredients
Pure Harvest oat milk, rice milk, & almond milk - VIC - imported and local ingredients
Organix buckwheat, navy beans, kidney beans & berlotti beans - China
Muir Glen Organic tomatoes - USA
Mexicana organic corn chips - Yarra Valley VIC
Organic popcorn - VIC - local and imported ingredients
Natures Path Organic cornflakes - Canada
Envirokids cocoa pops - USA
Orgran muesli - VIC - Local and imported ingreds.
Organic cherry tomatoes - VIC
Organic free range eggs, Sunny farm - QLD
Wild Rocket - VIC
Organic Root Beer - USA
Phoenix Juice - NZ - Local & Imported ingredients
Lloyd's Organic Harvest Biodynamic juice - VIC
Harmonic organic spreadable butter - Denmark
Savy organics unsalted butter - NZ
Muso organic miso - Japan
Robinvale biodynamic juice - VIC
Pure Life Organic sprouted Essene bread - NSW
Organic Indulgence dips - VIC
Spiral Foods Tamari - VIC
Organic potatoes - TAS
Organic Tahini - made in NSW from Mexican sesame seeds
Organic chocolate Green and Blacks - Italy
Lotus Foods VIC
Pure Harvest Organics - VIC
Good Morning Cereals organic - QLD
Mary's Gone Crackers crackers - USA
Kialla Pure Foods - QLD
Steve's Organics macadamia & cashew paste - cashews from Vietnam
Norganic Mayonnaise - NSW
Riverside Foods organic apricot jam - VIC
Central Australian Date & Ginger jam - Alice Springs NT
Mexican Agave nectar This Earth This Food - Mexico
Molasses This Earth this Food - Paraguay
Clipper Organic teas - VIC
Healtheries Dandelion coffee alternative -NSW
Green & Blacks organic hot chocolate - Italy
Native Arabica organic coffee - USA
Clipper coffee - made in Germany from imported ingredients
Hari Har Chai - NSW
Formosan - Taiwan (packed in Lonsdale)
Natures Cuppa tea - Ceylon (packed in VIC)

I am shocked about a few of my old favourites, especially the ones from overseas like spreadable organic butter, herbamere salt, and tahini. I am soon going to have to report on my pantry contents, which is another story altogether - I am starting to realise that the stocks in our pantry are going to last for a long time. We need to have another family meeting to discuss not opening or not using some items that will last for longer than a year.
We have a glut of zucchini at the moment so I am finding recipes for them, like stuffed zucchini, zucchini cake and ratatouille. Tonight we had a hybrid sort of ratatouille and brown & wild rice. It was not that popular with the boys, comments being, "Not very tasty" and "It's vegetarian". This does not auger well for our spice free future!

The Good News:

I received an email from Greenwheat Freekeh today - their wheat is grown between Clare and Two Wells - within our radius, and their product is a substitute for rice or cous cous. Yay!

Day 11

Hi there,

We have just returned from a trip to Seaford Drake (Foodland) for our first supermarket shop since our project began 10 days ago.

Aarod and I decided to do some supermarket research - we were only going to take a basket as we thought that there would be so few items to buy - luckily we took a trolley because there was much more than we expected to find, probably because our criteria was different to our usual (Organic, wholemeal, free range, min chem). We were only looking for local products: if the company had an SA address and was made from Australian ingredients, we bought it, regardless. We rejected anything that did not list it's ingredients, or where it was from, or anything mentioning imported ingredients. We even bought plastic cheese (you know, those separately wrapped slices - euww). There were many fresh products such as fruit and veg and meat that we did not buy, though, as we had just been to the farmers market and are growing alot of our own. It was a very interesting exercise, with a few surprises.

They stock a large range of Maggie Beer products which appeared to be all local, except for those containing spices. They also stock many Spice Girlz relishes which we unfortunately had to pass on because of the spice content. They have a great range of Paris Creek BD Farm products as well as Murray River and Udder Delights cheeses. We found 3 brands of bread that appear to be from local bakeries,( will need to check what flour they use): Abbots Village Bakery; Ryemill Bakery; and Riviera Bakery. They stock an extensive range of Beerenberg jams and sauces including a strawberry sauce that could be a good alternative to maple syrup for pancakes. They make two interesting salad dressings, however the oil used is Canola - so could be imported, and/or GM.

Three items that were a surprise: Newman's Horseradish is made in Langhorne Creek; Bickford's cordial has imported ingredients (I am not sure how I missed that information - it would probably be the concentrated lime or could be the sugar?); Udder Delights make a percuno cheese - which would be a good substitute for Parmesan.

A note for myself for the next supermarket research trip, which will be to Woolworths, or Coles, (the other two local supermarkets) - take a pen, camera, the map, and my reading glasses! The map would have been very useful for the fishmongers, as he kept telling us where the fish was from and we were unsure if it was in our radius. The camera would have been very useful to photograph the products that we did not want to buy, and the barcode of the Beerenberg products.

For Michael's Mum I will add the prices here:

• Beerenberg Jam - Blackberry and Raspberry 300g $3.49 each
• Bickfords Lime cordial 750 ml $3.44
• Foodland Pear Halves 825g $2.19
• Mountain Fresh apple juice 1.5l $4.47
• Laucke bread mix crusty white 600g $2.31
• Douglas Park Organic Apple Juice 1l $6.95
• Kraft Philedelphia cream Cheese 250g $3.86
• Newman's Horseradish 250g $5.40
• Nippy's Tangy lemon juice 2l $3.67
• Foodland sliced cheese 500g $4.99
• Paris Creek BD unsalted butter 200g $3.51
• Paris Creek Norwegino cheese 200g $5.99
• Fleurieu milk iced coffee 500ml $2.90
• Fleurieu milk 1l $3.05
• Macro Meats kangaroo minced meat 500g $3.99
• Punnet strawberries 250g $2.98
• Hydro Herbs $1.99
• Apples 1.5kg $2.99
• Tomatoes 500g $2.99
• Tomatoes cherry punnet 150g $2.98
• Grapes sultana .375kg. $1.87
• snow peas punnet 150g $2.98
• mushrooms .061kg. $0.58
• brown onions 1kg. $2.49
• Maggie Beer quince vinno 250ml $19.99
• Hahndorf Smallgoods kangaroo salami 500g $8.99
• Murray Valley fetta 300g $5.99
• Udder Delights goats curd 200g $7.99
• Riviera Bakery Organic pizza dough $1.99
• Riviera Bakery herb foccacia 400g $4.36
• Ryemil Bakery yeast free bread $5.03
• Abbotts Bakery rustic white bread $ 4.49

The fish was from the Seafood Chest in Seaford. It is Coorong Mulloway - they had a few local fish varieties, including snapper, and mullet.

For lunch Aarod and I had fresh Mt Compass strawberries with local cheese, macadamia and chocolate (oops - this is so hard!) dip from Blackwood, as we were pretty sure none of the cafe's would have anything local and were too hungry to ask. For dinner Aarod cooked the Mulloway which we ate with fresh greens from the garden. Aarod cooked the fish beautifully, with lemon grass, garlic, lemon juice, and secret herbs and spices (from pantry...) - it was exceptional.

Disappointing news

The Beerenberg jams I bought are not local - the company has a lot of integrity though, their website is well worth a visit, and has a 'provenance pathway' which tells you the source of the main ingredients in all of their products. However, you need to purchase the product first - then put the barcode and use-by date into the website. The raspberry and blackberries are grown in Hoddle Creek, Victoria, and the sugar and glucose is from Harwood Island NSW. The Hahndorf farm only grows strawberries, plums, quinces, cherries, gherkins, chillies, dill, and sweet corn. The citrus, apricots, tomatoes, and onions, are grown in the riverland.

Just rang Four Leaf Milling and they confirmed that only wheat, barley, rye, alfalfa, and oats are grown in SA, along with the Sultanas & apricots in their muesli. Their rice, spelt and millet is grown in Victoria near the NSW border as they need summer rainfall.

Oops, we just bought about 5kg of wholemeal spelt flour from the food co-op on Saturday. It is a learning process.

Day 10

Hi - Michael here. Bridget is taking a break from blogging for today. It was pretty hot and so we were not trying to do too much anyway.

I did however go for a surf with Toby and Steve this morning down at Middleton, and we stopped off at the Bakery there afterwards for a Heritage Meat Pie, baked fresh in Goolwa. More research needed though - where did the beef and pastry actually come from? It was a nice pie - hit the spot. I forgot to look for some Mt Compass based Mountain Fresh Juice - usually stocked in most delis and bakeries in SA - and stuck with my own rainwater.

We did cook dinner - on the BBQ - huge baked home grown Zuccini with my sister Phaedra's mince beef (from her farm up at Kuitpo - ReyserLea), home grown basil and spring onion, and tomato and garlic from the farmers market. Our son Aarod did get carried way though and sprinkled some Taco spice powder from the pantry onto the meal - ruining the 100% local produce I was going for. We had home grown lettuce on the side (a few varieties) and some BD Paris Creek Farm Quark (like cottage cheese) as a garnish. I can tell you the meal was devine! Sorry - forgot to take a photo.

I just wanted to comment on the Useful Links section on the page - and let you know I will be adding to this as often as possible, and expect it to grow into a huge list. I dont know how user friendly it will be then though! We are very keen to provide everyone reading this blog with links to who we are sourcing our food from. Unfortunately so many do not have websites! If you know of other local producers within our radius whom you think we would be interested, please leave in the comments section of the blog - it would be much appreciated.

Enough from me today - sorry no updates on all that research we are going to do.

Day 9 - Willunga Farmers Market

Today We shopped at the Willunga Farmer's Market, ate breakfast of pea and fetta patties from the "From my Garden" stall, and bought the following items:
Potatoes from Mt Compass; BD Milk, butter and Camembert-style cheese from Paris Creek Farm; Peaches, tomatoes, apples, pears, and apple juice, from Miss Merbein's Mclaren Vale Farm; Mushrooms from Middleton; Blueberries from Mt Compass; Cucumbers and capsicums from Virginia; Honey from Nangkita by the Honey Lady; and then Four Leaf Organic wholemeal spelt flour and rolled oats, and local chemical free almonds from the food co-op. We also bought locally smoked, locally raised, free range chicken from the Willunga butcher.

Mark McCarthy from Miss Merbein said he was concerned about the food miles of our pistachios if he processed them for us, so we said we could buy local ones from the food forest and he offered to pick a pack up for us from the Sunday Farmer's market as he goes each week. We took him up on his offer - such heartwarming kindness.
We had a chat to local Midwife Rosey about our diet and she shared some stories and some very useful information about local fruit trees that are available for wild harvesting. I have fantasies about developing a map of local fruit and nut trees on public or vacant land that can be harvested.

When we came home Aarod shared some doggy-bagged Russell's pizza with us which is all local except for the seafood which comes from Spencer Gulf, the Buffalo Mozzarella cheese which is from Victoria. We are still not clear where the chicken and lamb come from - Aarod will need to ask that question next week.

For tea I shared (once again) local fish and chips on the beach, then watched the sun set. I also shared some low-alcohol locally brewed Coopers beer.

Day 8 - with large scale map

Howdy,

Welcome to all of the new followers, it is exciting for us to see new people taking an interest in our project, please feel free to ask questions, make requests, offer suggestions, etc. It helps me to have your input and ideas. Today Michael has worked hard at adding improvements to the Blog, the map and links are his handy work, and he usually edits my entries as I apparently say things that are too embarrassing. So it is very much a team effort, and we have sent Aarod off to work at Russel's Pizza in Willunga tonight with the mission of finding out how local Russel's Pizza is. My fingers are crossed that he comes home with good news, I don't want to go without Russel's Pizza for 12 months! If you haven't been, this is no ordinary pizza, this is to-die-for pizza, the best I have ever eaten, and well worth the wait for a table. They are only open Thurs and Friday nights in summer, Friday nights in winter, and Saturday nights and Sunday Lunchtimes for large bookings. They are usually booked out well in advance, sometimes for months, but the locals know a secret - you can buy takeaway after 6pm. and sometimes they can squeeze you in around the fire outside during winter.

Today we have eaten at home - home made bread, veg and salad from the garden. I visited our neighbours Elizabeth and John today, who offered me coffee, and then quickly offered garden tea - Lemon Balm picked from their herb garden. It was actually delicious, very strong flavour. Elizabeth, said the secret is to roughly chop the leaves and then crush briefly in the mortar and pestle to release the flavour - yum, it worked well, I will definitely try it with my Lemon Verbena and peppermint.

Today Michael did some research on Outback Pride, looking at where their products are grown, and found that there are farms in Meningie, Murray Bridge, and Port Victoria (Yorkes). Which means that the products from these farms are available to us, Yay!

Err just looked at the map again and realised that Macarob is grown and produced north of Burra, unfortunately out of range for us, so we still need to find a yummy substitute for Maple syrup.

I still need to tackle the rest of the research - I will keep you informed.

Day 7

We are now on day 7 and discovering new things about food every day. Even Aarod, our 15 year old son is keen on this venture, and his cousin Connor who came to stay with us for a few days has become a convert too and may be influencing his mother Lisa's shopping list! I hope that you find this as interesting as we are, we are taking it slowly, easing into it as our (imported) pantry stores slowly diminish. I sense that as we get further along the track we will become more informed and hence more strict with our diet. I don't want to rush the process and want to keep it engaging, exploratory, and fun, not a regime that we end up rebelling against. Most importantly I want to make changes that we can live with long term. One of the foreign items in my pantry that I knew I would miss big time was anchovies, hence calling this blog "Life Without Anchovies". In all honesty, I love them so much that I buy them in a big jar, so we will not be running out for a few months.

Last night Michael made delicious bread from Tarlee-based Four Leaf (http://www.fourleafmilling.com.au/history.php) organic wholemeal spelt flour (bought from the Singing Cricket Food Co-op in Willunga). We enjoyed it fresh and hot with local Bio dynamic butter, so yum. We will be checking whether the spelt is actually grown in Tarlee soon when we arrange a visit to the farm.

Breakfast this morning was superb, also cooked by Michael on the gas BBQ, as we had a power blackout. On the gas hob he cooked free range eggs from our neighbourhood chooks, and asparagus spears from our garden, served on top of home made bread, topped with a dob of BD butter, and sprinkled with basil from the garden.

I am feeling a bit ashamed about the frequency with which we have been eating out lately. I think we have eaten out every day since the 1st of Jan. and as I write this, Michael is out trying to find locally sourced fish and chips! He left home with the instructions to find local fish, which we know is possible here. A few fish shops in Aldinga and Seaford have Coorong mullet and several varieties of fish from Victor Harbor. We have never asked where the potatoes are grown, I mean, they are so easy to grow, I assumed they are sourced locally. Alas, the past 5 days have taught me that I cannot make any assumptions. We agreed that I would cook our own chips at home if unable to find local ones, and Michael would simply bring home raw fish. However, in the door he came, triumphant with local fish and chips! The proprietor of the Aldinga Fish shop assured him that the chips were SA grown (Michael assumed this would be in Virginia, but still needs to do further verification) and prepared, although the proprietor refused to reveal the exact source as he said his competitors are always trying to find out where he gets his chips from! We enjoyed Victor Harbor Flake and rough cut chips, without salt - we added our own organic macrobiotic sea salt from the Great Barrier Reef (oops - still in the pantry and slowly being eaten - but soon to be replaced by salt harvested at Dry Creek (north of Adelaide) or from the Murray, I hope!).

I need to fess up that on Tuesday night we went to the movies and we fell off the wagon. We could not resist the hot popcorn, and bought a big bucket to share. We also had just been to a Funeral and Wake, where we ate all sorts of food provided by the Langhorne Creek Football Club (they did have local wine ofcourse). Our resolve was at a low ebb, but I will investigate where the corn comes from - need to call Wallis Cinemas and find out!

Actually, we have a few things to research from the last 36 hours, including: sources of SA grown potatoes for chips, corn for popcorn at Wallis cinemas, sources of local rice (if any) and sources of local anchovies. We also will determine which of the Four Leaf products (including spelt) are homegrown. Then there are all the things we promised to investigate in the last 4 posts! Starting to get overwhelming!

Day 6 Photos of food from our Garden

Day 5

We went to have lunch at Locavore, a restaurant in Stirling that sources their ingredients locally (within 160km) but they are closed till 14th January. Our second choice was the Organic Market Cafe - they were very open to discussing what was local on the menu, even though they were extremely busy as always. I am pleasantly surprised by the attitudes we have encountered as we go about asking our questions about food sources. So far everyone has been very willing to go out of their way to answer our questions, or find someone else who can. The staff at the Organic Market Cafe were very helpful and knowledgeable about their food. We ate focaccias made with Laucke's flour, home made (predominantly local) pesto, (assumed local) tomatoes, and local Bocconcini cheese. I had the locally smoked ham (not sure the source of the meat though) with home made relish and (not local - but delicious) cheese. We drank our own rainwater as we did not want to ask any more questions about the sources of their juices!

We explored the market shop thinking we were bound to find some local produce - however, there were slim pickings, it seems the majority of our organic and biodynamic packaged foods come from interstate or overseas. We did find a good selection of Four Leaf grain products (although where these were grown is unknown as yet) and Macarob - carob sauce grown and processed near Burra. The staff were very helpful and found us some organic lepinja (Turkish Pide) bread made they believe with Laucke's flour in (Picadilly) Adelaide (we will need to check with the bakery though), we bought 2 loaves and picked up a breadmaker from my parents (one that we had given to them a few years ago - what goes around.....?) so we can make our own Laucke's bread!

When we returned home I looked through our pantry, not one of our cans of organic food is from SA. Not tomatoes, beans, lentils, chick peas, or coconut milk, even the tuna - wouldn't you think that tuna would come from Port Lincoln? - Nope - Thailand! John West and Greenseas dolphin friendly in spring water, all from THAILAND.

I am a bit shocked and embarrassed, when I shop I am so busy looking for Biodynamic or Organic/Wholemeal/no MSG/no Phenylalanines/no artificial flavours or colours or Fair Trade - I don't look at where it comes from (sometimes I also look for Australian made but it is not a priority - until now ofcourse). I realise my main focus is my health & my family's; not the health of the planet. But actually the two are strongly linked but one is a short term goal one is longer term and bigger picture.

Day 4

Went to the Surf Art Exhibition at Port Willunga and stopped in at Beck's Bake house for lunch across the road. Walked in feeling guilty and wondering what we would find to eat that was local. We asked the woman at the counter where the flour came from, taking the position that flour is the main ingredient in all of their products. She had to go ask, and came back saying Laucke's flour. We were delighted, as we know Laucke's is in Strathalbyn, well within our 160 km. There is another Laucke's mill in Eudunda, either way, there is a good chance that most of the grain from these mills comes from local areas. However, I need to call and check, to be sure.
Yesterday I looked into Bush Tucker herbs and spices and found an inspiring place in SA (Outback Pride Project www.outbackpride.com.au) that grows bush tucker commercially and produces a huge range of condiments and relishes, jams, etc. and is fair trade, got very excited, then found that they are out of our radius - Reedy Creek - near Kingston. I would like to visit anyway to get an idea of what flavours and uses there are for plants that will grow in our conditions here in Aldinga.
So far I have found that the following that are growing somewhere in SA.
Desert Lime; Desert Raisin; Lemon Myrtle; Mountain Pepper Leaf; Muntries; Native Thyme; Passion Berry; Quandong; River Mint; Salt Bush; Sea Parsley; Tanami Apple; and Wattle Seed.

Lots to experiment with, I need to find out more about how to source seed/seedlings, and when to plant etc.

More tomorrow.

Day 3

Well I am very excited to find out today that Four Leaf Milling Co. grow and mill Biodynamic grains of all sorts including brown rice within 100 miles of Aldinga! YAY! We all thought we would need to give up rice this year, but we will be well provided for via Four Leaf and the Singing Cricket Food Co-op.
Yesterday we had our first hiccough with the diet. We went into town to pick up my nephew and the boys were all hungry. We saw a Lillydale Chicken shop (I did not know they existed - I was impressed) Yum - Free Range chicken for tea. They even had recycled cardboard takeaway containers. However - we all learned something - their chickens come from VICTORIA! So we left the shop and missed an opportunity to share with the staff why we were leaving. I decided in the car to use those opportunities to share our project in future.
We went next door to the supermarket "spread out and look for the local foods." I say to the troops. I had no idea that potato chips are all made in NSW. or VIC. We struggled to find anything that was made in SA. Eventually we found the old faithfuls - Farmer's Union iced coffee, Fleurieu iced coffee, and Balfours cakes. We chatted for a while about the lack of local food available, and then realised that coffee has to be imported, and we had no idea where Balfours source their flour. Oh Dear.
Then comes the question, do we only concern ourselves with the main ingredients? If Balfours and Farmer's Union use local flour and milk, is that then OK for our project or are we going to be strict about the other ingredients too?
Will we end up eating only meat from Phaedra's farm, local fruit and veg in season, local grains, and having to cook all of our own food?

I am starting to wonder who thought this was a good idea.
One added bonus is we are having great conversations about food!

Day 2 2.30pm

Hey there,

As we mention it to friends, they ask the questions - "So what about eating out?", and "what about the food in your pantry/freezer that is imported or not local?".
We need to set some boundaries on our project.

A family meeting is called - we acknowledge that spices are all imported (as they have been for centuries). I wonder if there are places in Australia that grow spices? We decide to do some research into bush tucker spices.

Is it cheating to use up the spices and foreign foods from our pantry? Do we give this food away? hope that it keeps fresh for a year? Have a big cook up and invite all of our friends over? Or is it OK to eat what's left and not buy any more foreign foods from then on? Maybe we spend the next month eating lots of curry and chai, and use them all up as quickly as possible. We decide to think it over for a week - any suggestions?

We had a "locavore" breakfast this morning - John Campbell's wood fired oven bread, home made pesto (made with local almonds, perennial basil, and olive oil), eggs from our street's chook co-op, and rocket and asparagus from our garden. See photo.

We normally go to the Willunga Farmer's Market to shop locally for our fruit and Veg.
When we shop there we don't usually ask where the food comes from as we assume it is from the Fleurieu Peninsula. Today we ask everyone.

The salted pistachios are from further away than 160km - the same with the sultanas, raisins and figs. I am concerned that we will go through pistachio withdrawal.
Mark McCarthy from Miss Merbein suggests that we do some wild harvesting in McLarenVale (he tells us a secret spot!) and in our own ecovillage, and generously offers to process a couple of buckets for us at his production facility in Merbein. We might just take him up on it.

We then go to the organic citrus fruit stall and ask where they are grown. Their farm is about 300km away, so, sadly, we say "see you next year!". Some research is needed to see if we can buy oranges at all this year.

It seems that everyone we speak to is supportive of our project, which is very encouraging.

Day 1 - January 1 2010

This is it! My husband (Michael), son (Aarod) and I have committed to a year living the 100 mile diet (but in Australia we will be working in kilometres - 160 km in fact). We recently heard of this diet designed to reduce our food miles (or the distance our food travels to get to us) and without doing much research at all have decided to go for it and take it on as our challenge and commitment for 2010.

So what does it involve? We are going to source ALL of our food from within 160 km of our house at Aldinga. At first glance this might seem easy enough, but we already realise we have a few favourites we will not be able to buy for the whole year - like anchovies!

More tomorrow.

Chow
Bridget