One Local Summer Week #1

This summer I took on the "One Local Summer Challenge" at Farm To Philly's blog. I assumed it would be easy here where much of the land surrounding my town is still farmed. And it would be. Except my husband put a wrench in my efforts. He didn't do it on purpose, he doesn't even know that I am in the challenge.

What happen was he wanted meat this weekend. And to top it off he was willing to cook it. How could I not accept his offer? So Saturday we had steak and tonight we are having chicken, both on the grill. Well, I still have not been able to find a local meat producer. I found veggies, fruits, nuts, honey olive oil and eggs but no meat. I have to confess, the meat is from the supermarket. But it was on sale, I couldn't resist that either.

Yet all is not lost on our meals with non-local meat. The sides and marinades are mostly local, right down to the olive oil used to baste the bird. The chicken was grilled with a marinade of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, basil, parsley, and oregano (the last 3 from our garden.) And we are having baked potatoes from the farmer's market. Yesterday our grilled veggies were corn, zuchini, onion, garlic and herbs all locally grown. I did buy the red bell pepper from the market. It was left over from this week and I needed to eat it. And may I add (just so I don't get in trouble too much by breaking Farm to Philly's rules) the cherries, oranges and nectarines my daughter and I have been munching on today for snacks are all local, I even rode my bike to get the cherries.

My daughter enjoying her cherries just a little too much.

So I am sorry that the whole meal is not local. I do plan on making more than one meal a week local. I just had to learn a hard lesson-don't make the meal on the weekend when my husband wants meat.