Locavores Are Everywhere!

I think it was the huge amount of food I saw on Sunday in Chinatown and North Beach that overwhelmed me. "Where does it all come from," I kept asking myself. I think I even said it outloud.

"What?" The cute guy asked.

"Nothing," I mumbled refocusing on the girls, my little chickadees, I called them.

Tonight while I ate my little orange bowl of beans cooked entirely with local products (Rancho Gordo's and delicious!), I thought about the mass quanities of food we eat as a nation, a city, just a neighborhood and started sinking deeper and deeper into the couch. The banana devil sensing my weakness started whispering, "You can quit the challenge anytime. It won't matter."

To quiet him up, I went looking for other people taking the challenge and they are everywhere. There's Cookin in the 'Cuse, in Syracuse, New York. The name alone makes me smile. There's Mom's Pizza Dough in the east bay. The folks at Cookthink in western Mass are eating local and expecting a baby any day. And there's a local food story I can't wait to tell the cute guy at The Valley's (Chippewa) Eat Local Challenge. In a quiet college town somewhere else the Baklava Queen is canning and rolling in the dough. And then there's An Urban Sustainability Project and the three women at RFD to NYC. They are all eating local, talking and writing about it.

There are more locavores at the Eat Local Challenge. They're everywhere and I bet if we were put all together we could fill Chinatown AND Northbeach with local food! And that gives me all the hope I need for today.