A San Francisco-based blog is hosting an Eat Local Challenge for this month.
This year, the challenge is in September with an emphasis on canning and preserving the bounty of September for the winter months. During this time, nationwide participants focus on what foods are available in our local foodshed and how we can support our local farmers.
The nice thing about the challenge: we get to decide what our personal challenge entails…
So here’s what I’m doing:
- Eat and/or prepare a local meal AT LEAST once a week.
- Local food is defined as anything grown/made in the state.
For the Labor Day Weekend, we visited the Irish Festival in Kansas City. We ended up sticking with a local brew for the festival, Boulevard Stout. It helped me get my feet wet with this month’s Eat Local Challenge. Boulevard Beer has been brewed in Kansas City since 1989. It’s a tasty specialty beer crafted with a wide range of flavors — from Pale Ale to Lunar Moon and points in between.
Last weekend, we stopped by the Freestate Brewery in Lawrence. Mark ordered the Wheatstate Golden and I had the Copperhead Pale Ale in the smaller glass. My Copperhead had a nice hoppy finish while Mark’s Golden tasted smooth and refreshing. I’m quite happy with all the local brews we’ve tried out in Kansas and KC, Missouri. And for lunch, I ordered the Brewery Burger. According to the menu, the burger meat is from locally raised cows.
Not bad for the first two weeks of the challenge.