The Backyard

The Backyard

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Eve of the Sustainable Food Budget Challenge

Tomorrow it starts -- a full month of staying under $176.00 for locally produced, organic, family business, or local business food. For some folks, this will truly be a challenge. For others, it will be a practice in learning what local food and organics is all about. No matter what the turnout, you succeeded if you are trying it because it will teach you a ton about local and organic food production. What can I get locally? Where is the best place to get it cheap? How far can I travel to still call it "local" (that varies -- most say within a 100 mile radius and it's worth it to drive 60 miles to save $3.00 a pound on organic chicken. I don't eat chicken, but if I did, this Eberly Brothers is where I'd go to get it). Is there such a a thing as "cheap, affordable" organic food (yes! -- Shiloh Farms in Lancaster -- buy in bulk. Shiloh falls into the "local business" category. Be careful though, some of their organics are grown and shipped from afar. If you ask, they will share the country of origin. You will learn a lot -- it will be an education AND you'll change some habits because we all know it takes only 20 days to change a habit. The Crunchy Chicken (the orginiator of the Challenge) posted some clarifications of challenge. And the Challenge itself, with the guidelines, is here. Have fun with it! There's 90 or folks joining you on this quest (on the Crunchy Chicken blog). Post your comments/updates -- would love to hear what you found.

1 comment:

DailySAHM said...

$176 for the entire month of April? Or a week? There is no way in he!! I could do that for an entire month worth of food. Maybe during the summer, but even that wouuld be pushing it. And is $176 for just a family of two? What if you have a family of 4? Maybe I should just go read that website where all this info is and stop asking all the questions...