“For 30 days of June: eat only food grown, caught or raised within 200 miles of New Orleans.”  This challenge, put together by NOLA Locavores, is right up my alley.  I’m still learning about what is in season here, and when to expect to find it at the markets.  And I’m a bit lazy about actually visiting the markets, even though I love them.  So.

We visited my grandparents a lot during the summers when I was a kid.  They had a huge garden, and canned or froze so much of what they grew, which they stashed in tidy rows on shelves in the coal cellar to be eaten throughout the winter months.  Sweet corn straight from the field, tomatoes warm from the sun, and little bitty new potatoes stuffed full of butter?  Doesn’t get any better.

I remember, too, piling into cars with the whole extended family to find wild blueberries ripening in the mountains, or pick sour cherries at a local orchard.  Summer?  That’s the smell of dill, and watching with my cousin, Michele, to see if a customer would pull up at “the stand” to buy a few dozen ears of corn, or a cantaloupe, or a half a bushel of potatoes.

I opted for the most lenient version of the challenge.   We’re on a pretty tight budget, and I usually feel like it’s too expensive to eat local (let alone organic) all the time.   But I’m willing to reconsider even small changes that I could make.

I went shopping at Hollygrove Market & Farm on Wednesday & picked up some wild boar sausage from Two Run Farm.  Let the challenge begin! (I know it technically started yesterday.  Yes indeed, the ultra-lenient version is the one for me.)