The Barrie Farmers’ Market is challenging you!
TAKE THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE!
How do I start?
It’s easy – just check in at the Barrie Farmers’ Market!
Experiment with your 100 Mile Challenge
Make It Personal
Sign Up Today!
Pledge to eat locally grown food from within a 100 mile radius for 100 days.
The 100 Mile Challenge officially launches on July 17 and you must sign up by September 25, 2010 to qualify for entering the free draw
at the Barrie Farmers’ Market Autumn Fest on October 30, 2010.
You Could Win!
After completing the challenge, participants many enter the draw for a chance to win a professionally catered, four-course
100 Mile Dinner for Six in their home, and other prizes!
TAKE THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE at Barrie Farmers’ Market
Why Eat Local? Why Shop at Barrie Farmers’ Market?
1. Know what you're eating: Buying food today is complicated. What pesticides were used? Is that corn genetically modified? Is that chicken free range or did it grow up in a box? People who eat locally find it easier to get answers. Many build relationships with farmers whom they trust. When in doubt, they can drive out to the farms and see for themselves.
2. Taste the difference: At a Farmer's Market, most local produce has been picked in the last 24 hours. It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with it's full flavour, unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before. Close-to-home foods can also be bred for taste, rather than withstanding the abuse of shipping or industrial harvesting.
3. Meet your neighbours: Local eating is social. People shopping at Farmer's Markets have 10 times more conversations than their counterparts at the supermarket. Visiting local farms is a way to be a tourist on your own home turf, with plenty of stops for snacks!
4. Be healthy: When you eat locally, you eat what is in season. You'll eat more vegetables and far less processed products, sample a wider variety of foods and eat more fresh food at it's nutritional peak.
GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED
1. Explore your Farmer's Market
The easiest and most fun step toward eating locally. Make the market a weekly priority for your food shopping.
2. Surf the Internet
Many resources are specific to our area. A great resource is Simcoe County Farm Fresh where you can find nearby organic farmers, markets, local food friendly restaurants and farms.
3. Find your Farmers
Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which you support a specific farm by paying a lump sum at the beginning of the growing season and then sharing in that farm's food products through the harvest. Most CSA programs have websites or can be contacted through local farmers associations.
4. Start a garden- even a tiny one!
Self-sufficiency feels good and greens up our cities and towns. Even a small "salad garden" can be a rewarding family project.
5. Buy in bulk and preserve.
Buying bulk saves money. Canning and freezing jams, pickles, fruits and tomatoes can preserve local produce at it's seasonal peak.
FAQs ABOUT THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE
1. How difficult is the 100 Mile Diet?
The challenge is a way of getting people to think about the impact their decisions about food can have on the environment and local economy. A way of creating awareness and of learning by doing. Getting to know the seasons, understanding where our food comes from, and at what risk to our health and environment. The level of commitment to the challenge is an entirely personal one: 100 days of strict, 100 mile eating may pose an unrealistic and overwhelming feat for many, while one day/week, or even one meal per day of local eating might be more manageable. If you just can't live without your daily coffee fix, don't let it stop you from participating in the challenge......have your coffee, but be aware!!! Discover how many "food miles" those coffee beans travelled to you, and the social, environmental and economic impact of it's production.
2. What will the meals be like? Will they be repetitive and boring?
As you discover more and more local food sources, your meals can become more interesting than ever before. Local farmers and farmer's markets can introduce you to foods and flavours you have never tried before. What's available at the market is always changing.
3. Will it be expensive? Most of us pay a big premium for out-of-season foods like cherries in winter or prepared foods like spaghetti sauce, usually with a long list of ingredients we might prefer not to have in our bodies. Eating locally allows you to buy fresh ingredients in season and direct from the farmer. Most people eating a typical diet could save money by eating locally.
4. Will I lose weight on the 100 Mile Diet?
The world of weight loss diets is a weird and not-so-wonderful place. Let's put it this way: a local diet is likely to involve lots of fresh produce and homemade meals, and not a lot of junk food, processed fats, additives and sugar. You're also far more likely to know where your food came from, and what's in it.
