14 Days eating local

Trying to challenging myself eating just local food for two weeks

I’m a commuter student, and the train time takes me from one reality to another. I pass by waking up with the green in my eyes, in my country house located in a small city, to an extremely urbanized landscape made almost entirely of concrete.

For this challenge I notified all my family (we are five) about it but to convince them all it would have been too difficult. So everything I eat will be cooked by me. I am aware of having chosen this challenge among all, as I live in a place in close connection with nature. Everything seemed easy and feasible, until I started …

DAY 1

I was pretty quiet because my father cultivates the vegetable in our garden, next to my house. It’s not so small and it follows the seasonal vegetables. We also have few hens. And thanks to this I am used to eat fresh vegetables and fruit every day, always according to the season.

My first lunch: eggs with salad.

Mmm well, ok but do I feed myself just with vegetables and eggs? Who, me? noo.
So let’s go in search of food!
It’s Saturday afternoon, and I should get to the 3 known places to stock up on food.

First declaration to myself: without pasta I cannot live. So I go to the first of three places known. They sell different kinds of flours of their production. Closed. It’s not a clearly identifiable shop, it is located on the ground floor of a house. No signs, no timetables on google, no reviews. He lives of his own life. But he lives. But not on Saturday afternoon.
Discouraged, I pass by three times. I couldn’t believe it, I felt like I was on a desert island. I touched myself to see if I had enough flesh to resist the coming weeks.

Second place. Trusted farm where I found cheese, ricotta, yogurt, butter and milk. I heard the bellowing of the cows. It’s been a long time since I didn’t hear it, or was it that I never stoped to do so.

At home I made a list of things I can eat, and created plausible matches for when I won’t have time to think about it.
Two more places to find honey and the (still missing) flour. Now that I have “everything” I can produce the goods to keep me alive for the week.

Homemade pasta

Apple cake

I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I would say that It’s enough for today.

DAY 2
Fortunately I had to go out to eat at a nearby restaurant where simple cooking uses local ingredients. I skipped dinner because I ate too much for lunch.
After dinner I went out with friends. The intention was to go out for wine. But it started to rain, and the weather promised good for hot tea. Sit in a theria, I asked the owner if they offer some of their products at km 0 / local. Suddenly the frost. He looked at me like he was thinking: “Oh, this stupid girl thinks that someone wakes up and decides to grow black tea between Malpensa and Gallarate. He seemed offended. I have not given explanations. If I was the owner I would ask myself why people have certain requests and what to do to please them. Except for those who ask for a cappuccino after dinner, obvs.
(Wine is always a good idea)

DAY 3
For breakfast I’m eating the apple pie (upper photo) and milk with honey. Who would think of making a cake without yeast and sugar because I didn’t find any Local alternative ? (Please don’t ask for the recipe, it’s secret).

It’s strange, but I associated “local” with an healthy lifestyle. The reality is that finding a local fish is not so easy. Fortunately I live in an area of ​​lakes.

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