Year Two

September is here again and I'm back to the 100-mile diet for the month. Like last year, rather than drawing a 100-mile radius circle around our home, we'll eat food produced in New York and neighboring Vermont.

My husband John is joining me on the diet this year. His decision was not motivated by my experience last fall so much as by reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and watching the documentary film King Corn. Both book and movie highlight how twisted food production can get when done on a very large scale: how decisions for efficiency's sake trump making choices that are best for the food itself -- or the land on which it's produced. Which means perhaps, that our diet is not so much about local as it is about small and sustainable.

We officially begin today, although I've been preparing all week by visiting the farmers market, the food coop, and the farm store. I've got plenty of fruits, vegetables, and meat, I've stocked up on locally milled flour and corn meal, I've found some cheese and yogurt, and I've collected sweets such as honey, jam, and syrup. Still to source: butter.

Breakfast this morning? Toast (homemade bread) with gooseberry jam and coffee (one of my necessary exceptions).