(Mostly) 100 Mile Thanksgiving on Foodtv.ca

Jump to Comments

Due to my work schedule and a few other concerns, we had our Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. We decided to do a 100 mile Thanksgiving dinner, and I wrote about the experience for Foodtv.ca.

It was a huge amount of work putting this dinner together, mostly through planning out what to have and where to get the ingredients. We learned a few things, too:

1. There’s no such thing as “one-stop shopping” with eating local. While we did pick up all of the produce for the dinner from the farmers’ market, we had to go to the Forks for bread, a grocery store for butter and milk, and a different grocery store for honey (which we eventually found at the market anyway, but - oh well.) The chicken was brought to me at work by my coworker who hunts, but if I had to purchase it myself that would have been yet another stop. I was amazed at the amount of running around we had to do.
2. This is the main reason why I believe local eating will not really catch on in the mainstream until major grocery stores start making a point of carrying local produce and meats. People want to stop at the grocery store on their way home from work and pick up dinner - not traipse all over town picking up one thing here and one thing there. Visiting several different stores is fine for one special meal, but not for everyday eating. This is why it’s so important if you’re interested in supporting local agriculture to buy local products at the grocery store whenever possible. The more people buy them, the more the stores will realize that there is a demand for local products, and the more local products they will carry.
3. It’s a good idea to test run recipes before the main event. I knew this before, of course, but there were a few things we had at the dinner - specifically the whipped cream - that would have benefitted from trying out ahead of time, especially since we were cooking by the seat of our pants.
4. The little garlic heads we got from the farmers’ market were the sweetest, tastiest garlic I’ve ever had. Those big California-grown heads at the grocery store are going to be a poor substitute now.
5. One moment of forgetfulness… We always cover unattended food in our house, especially if it’s poultry or fish, since our cats (all three of them) have been known to steal food when we’re not looking. I’m irritated with myself that I forgot this once, and one of the chicken breasts vanished as a result.

All in all, I’d say it was a successful dinner. It was fun putting it all together, and most of the dishes turned out great. And to finish, here’s a photo of the suspected chicken thief, Belladonna: keep an eye on your food!

0 Comments

Filed under Eat Local, Food Ethics, Meta, Poultry