So my housemate, Chris, cooked a near local meal for me last night. I let him put tofu from Virginia (about 175 miles from us) in his broccoli/shiitake/kale stirfry, and he had quinoa with his. We had a beautiful arugal/Sunny Slope tomato/Celebrity Dairy goat cheese salad on the side. I’ve eatten arugla every day for the last two weeks–a seasonal over-endulgence for me. I’d made a sweet potato curry (local artisan sells curry sauces) for him the night before with a rare arugala free salad of biodynamic lettuces from a farm one town north of here.
I get a little food geeked out this time of year anyway, and this week has been no exception. The two nights eating with Chris were especially fun, as then I had a witness to my pleasure, plus he’s a total food geek too. That said, he’s not willing to participate in the challenge, and we don’t eat dinner together very often. We had corn bread with the curry the night I cooked and the veggies from the night he cooked were given to me by Todd Dumke, from ECO–Eastern Carolina Organics. Herein begins his point of contention and our agreed point of “cheating.”
On cheating–he says I’m cheating. I say I’m cheating. We aren’t talking about the same things.
We do both agree that Kerala Curry, though made and sold right here in our tiny town of Pittsboro, hardly qualifies as “eating local.” That despite the proud label of “Goodness Grows in North Carolina”
that denotes a NC business I guess . . . I used two tablespoons, he says condiments shouldn’t count, so it doesn’t matter in this case . . . I’m thrilled the local business if here, but nothing about the ingredients listreally fits my intentions for the week . . .
I’ve also been “cheating” to my mind by using locally milled oats and flour and cornmeal from Lindley Mills. None of which is grown any where near here . . . We are local grain deprived.
Now, where Chris says I’m cheating is on the budget. I have used green onions from my yard, parsley from the beds at Piedmont Biofuels, arugala from Melissa Bell’s garden in Raleigh, and now a bag full of ECO veggies–broccoli, kale, collards, mushrooms, chives, and a tomato–from Todd. Chris says it screws my whole budget. I say, one, I’m being transparent about what things I got free, and, two, it is part of living the way I do. I put about seven hours of sweat equity into preparing a field of Sunflowers for Piedmont Biofuels new Oil Research Station in the last week; stuff comes around. It just does, especially in a small town, rural living, and when surrounded by sustainably minded folks. He says he wants to KNOW how much it would really cost him to eat locally for a week. My agree, numbers are not “real.” I say, hey kid, it would cost you less cause you live with me, and my eventual website will cost me less cause I live with him. . . . Bartering, scavenging, and general karma . . . I think it is part of sustainable living. 
Besides, as many folks have mentioned, figuring out how much a serving costs you is really time consuming, and this week is already too packed for me. Yo Chris, you want to deal with money details, you figure it out! And I’ll put a jar for your funds when the shiitake logs are harvested (not in time for eating this week, of course . . .), and that would be at $12.50 a pound.
BUDGET: as cheap as possible (as always)
EXCEPTIONS: oil, lemon juice, sprout seeds, tamari, salt, lindley mills products (spelt flour, cornmeal, oats, wheatberries, cracked wheat)
FOOD: (I ate locally much of last week, but started officially a day early)
Sunday–$5.50: Black Cohosh tea, lindley mills spelt buscuits, scrambled eggs, tomoato, moong bean sprouts, wheatgrass juice, arugala (free from Mel) salad with beets, carrots, moong bean sprouts, dried basil from last year, buscuit
Mon–$6.25: camomile tea, egg and buscuit, tabbouli, arugala (free from Mel) salad, strawberries, burdock tea, sweet potato oven-fries, salad with hardboiled egg/lemon dressing, strawberries, 1 Duck Rabbit ale.
Tue– $8.50: black cohosh tea, oats and fried egg, strawberries, (conventional) braised green beans, spring onions (from yard), cornbread, strawberries with wheatgrass juice
Wed–$5.60: burdock tea, left over green beans, hard boiled egg, biodynamic greens and arugala/tom/goat chees salad, white and red sweet poptato karala curry, boiled peanuts and raw cow cheese from Goat Lady, 1 glass Silk Hope wine (dinner for two was 8.80)
Thu–$8.00: camomile tea, oats and fried egg (I dry cooked the oats and this is new favorite!), tomoato, goat cheese, busicut, broccoli/kale/shiitake (all free) and tofu (from Virginia) stir fry with arugala salad and slice of tomato, 1 glass of Silk Hope wine. (dinner for two was 5.50 w/ free veggies)
Fri–no dinner yet, no tally yet . . . wheat grass juice for breakfast, hard boiled peanuts and arugala salad, mint tea.
