OLS dinner 2007 01

I did it! I made my first One Local Summer dinner! W00t!

One Local Summer 2007, Dinner Menu 01

• Blueberry wine (Country Creek Winery - 6 miles) with fresh blueberries (someone's front yard produce stand - 6 miles) and chopped apple (DelVal College - 12 miles).
• Water and ice (from our tap - 0 miles) ;)
• Lightly sautéed spring onions, garlic scapes and fresh basil (all from our Blooming Glen Farm CSA crop share - 5 miles) mixed with steamed summer squash (Blooming Glen) and pattypan squash (DelVal College - 12 miles), and steamed, chopped collard greens, kale and Swiss chard (also from Blooming Glen). Nonlocal ingredients used: olive oil, salt, pepper.
• A cool cucumber salad includes cucumbers from Blooming Glen and our own garden, and spring onions and turnips from Blooming Glen. Nonlocal ingredients used: olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes.
• Baked tofu (Fresh Tofu - 25 miles) in a garlic scape and basil (from Blooming Glen) marinade. Nonlocal ingredients used: olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, Bragg's liquid aminos.

One Local Summer (OLS) is an online project created by the fabulous Liz over at www.pocketfarm.com. OLS encourages each of us to get in touch with our inner locavore by preparing one dinner each week of the summer that is comprised of local ingredients. Each participant then blogs about her/his meal (or reports to L iz if s/he doesn’t have a blog), and submissions are tracked at Pocket Farm.

OLS is not a contest or a competition. Simply, it's a way to “explore your world and support local growers and start learning what's available in your local foodshed. One Local Summer is an easy way to gradually enter the world of eating locally."

So once a week, starting June 24 and ending the week of September 1, I will be preparing one dinner using as many local sources as possible. I first heard about OLS mid-season last year and was ready to join, but was quickly thwarted by the seemingly impossible task of finding locally-produced vegan protein sources. We’ve got lots of great, organic, free range, antibiotic- and hormone-free, grass-fed, pasture-raised, etc., etc., etc., sources of meat and dairy that are incredibly easy to get a hold of, but not so much in the way of grains, beans, seeds, legumes. Now, I'm not saying that they're not out there; they're just much more difficult to track down.

Since then, I managed to find a source of tofu, Fresh Tofu, located about 25 miles from my home. Once I located a retail place from which I could buy the tofu (Plumsteadville Natural Foods), I decided that I could give OLS a shot this year.

I’m kind of nervous, but very excited about my participation. And really, now that the first meal is done, I'm feeling much less nervous. I’ll be tracking progress, photos and challenges here as the summer continues. Of course, I've also included this as one of my 43Things :P

Wish me luck! Or, better yet, go join and we’ll wish each other luck :D