"We have held a Localvore Challenge in September for the past four years and it felt like it was time for a change," noted Localvore project co-founder Kate Stephenson. "Tremendous strides have been made in local food production as a result of the challenges. The challenges created greater awareness about what is and is not available locally and that served to encourage local farmers to try new crops to fill the gaps. Local cooking oils were non-existent in 2006 and today sunflowers that are turned into oil are being grown on several farms throughout Vermont. Last year there was a breakthrough in local flour production when Aurora Farm in Charlotte produced enough wheat for Red Hen to produce an all-local bread year round."
The idea behind Eat Local Week is to celebrate the significant strides in local food that have been made since the term "localvore" was coined in 2005. "There is so much more local food available today than when we first started the challenge in 2006 that, honestly, the Eat Local Challenge isn't that much of a challenge any more," said Localvore Project co-founder Robin McDermott.
Instead of asking participants to take a pledge to eat only local food, as was the case with the Eat Local Challenge, the group is asking Valley residents to keep track of the local food they consume during Eat Local Week with a special scorecard that will be available at area farm stands and restaurants starting on Friday, September 10. The scorecard lists numerous ways to earn points throughout Eat Local Week. Once 100 points are attained, participants are eligible to enter a drawing for gift certificates to area restaurants.
According to Nancy Baron, the restaurant coordinator for the Localvore Project, "We wanted a way to give back to The Valley restaurants who have been doing such a great job sourcing ingredients locally so we are purchasing $25 gift certificates from each restaurant that has agreed to participate in Eat Local Week and those will be the prizes for our drawing."
In the past, restaurants have been asked to prepare a totally local option for the challenge week. Instead, this year, restaurants were invited to participate if they were willing to offer at least one entrée where the main ingredients are from local farms. According to Baron, "This is fairly easy for most of our local restaurants since they already source many of their ingredients from local farms, especially in the summer."
The rules to enter the drawing are simple. Pick up a scorecard at a participating restaurant, farm stand or store or complete the form on the Localvore website at www.VermontLocalvore.org. Be sure to return the scorecard to the Localvores by September 25. The winners will be announced in The Valley Reporter on September 30.
For more information on Eat Local Week go to www.VermontLocalvore.org.
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