Keeping score tricks participants into keeping a food journal of sorts.
Points are earned every time local food is consumed in a variety of
specified locations and capacities. Hosting a strictly local potluck,
for instance, will get you 25 points, as will canning or freezing
something for the winter.
Once 100 points are earned, localvores are entered to win a gift certificate to a Valley restaurant; 10 will be drawn.
Localvore grand marshals explain, "Our group in the Mad River Valley
hosted more consecutive running challenges than any other localvore
group in Vermont. In analyzing our participation rates over the year, it
seemed that less new people were participating and at the same time
there were less veteran participants. We thought that if we changed
things up this year, we could get our message to a wider range of people
-- perhaps reaching folks who didn't like the 'rules' and
restrictiveness of the challenges."
What other localvore chapter has claim to a yak farm? Organic shitakes?
saucy delivery? Rules are ripe for the breaking in the Mad River Valley
food system.
The new twist here is more like a complete departure from the previous
challenge, where the competitive element used to be in the elimination
of all but five essential food items (in previous years my "wild cards"
included cooking oils, tea and coffee, chocolate and Diet Coke).
Now, under the new points-earned model, there is nothing preventing
participants from eating anything and everything despite its origin;
local foods earn points, but there is no penalty for binging on food
that, in theory, could survive a nuclear event (think Twinkies).
It's hard to not imagine a sliding scale of sorts, where the 25 points
earned for finding a creative use for all that zucchini could quickly be
reduced to negative five points for the Kraft macaroni and cheese that
practically cooked itself...two steps forward, three steps back.
All that is left is good old-fashioned honor system guilt and every intention of keeping it local.
The system was adapted from Burlington's Eat Local Week, coincidentally
happening this week as well. Localvore officials changed it as a sort of
homage to all of the positive growth of the local food system - a toast
to all the growers', producers' and supporters' sustainability.
The principle of local food consumption and support remains the tent
pole of the weeklong challenge-it's evolved to incorporate competitive
eating out, events and activities in support of local food, and the
thrill and promise of a drawing for gift certificates to keep the whole
cycle continuing.
Score cards can be downloaded online and, once the week's points have
been tallied, cards can be dropped off at the Gaylord Farm, Hartshorn's
Santa Davida farm, Kingsbury Market Garden, Knoll Farm and at the East
Warren Community Market.
Generally, the idea here is to keep track of volume of local food
consumed; participating restaurants (named on the score card) will offer
dishes that feature local ingredients and points can be earned at home,
at the farmers' market, Fungi Fest, whatever.
Halfway through the week, it's hard not to feel like a Girl Scout toting
a crumpled scorecard around in my back pocket, making checks and
tallies that will be undecipherable should you need to read them later,
choosing between the cinnamon raisin Kingsbury bread or the Neill farm
corn.
At press time, I'm under the assumption that my scorekeeping is off,
given the excessive amount of points accumulated. Perhaps, for
accountability's sake, scores should be kept online and visible to
others?
For more information visit www.vermontlocalvore.org.
{loadnavigation}
