As passionate advocates of locally sourced produce, we were delighted to discover that Local Harvest were challenging Australian’s to eat locally for the first week of April (1st to 7th April), and we couldn’t wait to participate. In their own words, this challenge is “a week when people are asked to take on the task of reducing the degrees of separation from their food.”
You may have read about Local Harvest on SMH Good Living recently but if not, Local Harvest is a new website that facilitates consumers locating good, honest, locally produced food close to them. By visiting the site, you can type your postcode into the ‘search’ function and locate producers, providores like us, restaurants, cafes, community gardens and farmers markets all within reasonable distance of your postcode. It’s a perfect directory for those of us concerned about where our food is produced and how far it has traveled.
Above: Our listing on the Local Harvest website when “Orange, 2800” is searched.
Naturally, we eat locally every day so we were keen to increase our level of commitment for the Local Harvest Challenge and we are hoping to eat 100% locally all this week. We are so lucky that the Orange region grows incredible produce so the only things that will be challenging for us (that we foresee) are milk, cream and hard cheeses as the area doesn’t currently boast a dairy.
Approaching other people about participating in the challenge, we are now also joined by other passionate local foodies who have committed to the challenge for the week. Those lovely Orange/regional locals are:
– Katie and Beau Baddock from The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co. These guys are the amazing growers who supply us with the delicious fruit and veg that we sell in store as well as our bountiful weekly produce boxes. You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook as well as their blog. We will be using produce boxes from The Farm Gate all week during the challenge and they are bursting with amazing seasonal delights.
– Sophie Hansen. Sophie is a food writer who also owns Mandagery Creek Venison with her husband Tim. We are enormously proud to stock their venison in our store and I am sure it will feature once (if not twice) in my menu this week. You can follow Sophie’s gorgeous blog here and she is also on Twitter and Facebook.
– David Cumming. David owns Define Wine, a marketing and communications agency specialising in the wine industry. As an enormous advocate of local wine it didn’t take much for David to jump on board too. Follow David on Facebook and Twitter.
– Julia Andrews. Along with her husband Jamie, Julia owns Hamilton’s Bluff Wines located just outside the gorgeous country town of Canowindra. While I am sure that would keep her busy enough she somehow also has time to write freelance for a number of publications including STYLE Magazine. Julia can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.
– Kate Barclay. Kate owns Bendy Street Emporium, a stunning shopping haven in Canowindra. If you are keen to drool over her wares or keep up date to with her local food challenge you can follow Kate on Facebook and Twitter.
We will all endeavour to keep you up to date with our daily meals and challenges during the week so please stay in touch via our Facebook pages, Twitter and our blogs. If you too would like to join in the challenge it’s not too late to register on Local Harvest and, of course, it’s never to late to try and incorporate more local food into your weekly shopping every day 🙂
