Have you heard of this? I was watching late night TV with my husband after our P90X workout date, yes, we are silly like that working out at 8:30 PM after the kiddos are in bed…and stumbled upon this very intriguing show called The 100 Mile Challenge.

Basically in 2005, Canadian couple Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon decided to do an experiment and made a one year commitment to eat local. That is, to consume only foods grown within 100 miles of their home. This adventure became a book, and a media phenomenon, and now a TV show.

I thought, could I DO that? Think about it…no capers, no roaring 40s blue cheese, no coffee, no chocolate, no black pepper or Celtic sea salt. No tea, no oil, no juice (maybe apple juice), no pretzels, or virtually anything packaged. No spices like vanilla, or sugar, or even sweeteners like agave nectar or stevia. And nothing that made of items grown more than 100 miles from your home!

At first blush I was overconfident thinking, well, there is the farmers market just around the corner from us. There are plenty of farms near us that raise meats, cure them, and produce dairy products including yogurt, cheese, and butter. But then my mind started to reach a bit further…what about during the winter? What about when nothing is growing outside because the ground is frozen solid? Well, although I haven’t read the book, (I have been too fascinated by the show) I have read that this couple decided to do a lot of food preservation like canning and freezing. And they make a great point about this extra bit of work. Although food preservation is fairly time consuming, going on the 100 mile diet might make you think about what you are doing in place of enabling your family to be a bit more self-sufficient.

So am I taking this challenge? No. I feel it would be too difficult for our family to go cold-turkey. (No pun intended.) We are still struggling to get my son to eat a pork chop…that is raised within 100 miles. To fill in he simply needs those California grown apples to subsist. He’ll learn. But I am certainly going to think about where our foods do come from. It takes an awful lot of fossil fuel to fly that mustard to my table from France. Is that necessary? Can we do without? Is there a substitute that is a bit more sustainable?

Sometimes it amazes me to think about how out of touch we are with “eating local.” What about you? Are you a locavore? Do you eat seasonally? Do you think you deserve those peaches from Chile in March? (A confession: sometimes I do!)