Nov 22, 2007

The 100-mile rule

Area movement advocates buying locally-grown food

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

As with many diets, chocolate could ruin the best of laid plans.

But wine and butter are OK when the goal is sticking to ingredients grown or made within 100 miles of Palo Alto to make a stand for the environment.

On Wednesday afternoon, Susan Stansbury, founder of Palo Alto's 100-mile Thanksgiving, shopped at Country Sun grocery seeking locally produced ingredients for her own holiday meal.

Stansbury picked up leeks, red leaf lettuce, a bottle of red wine, sparkling cider and butter, all grown or made within 100 miles of the city. She paused over a carton of eggs.

Though advertised as free range, cage-free and organic, the eggs fell outside of the designated radius.

"I think I'll hold off because I don't need them desperately," she said.

Last week, a soldout crowd of 42 diners feasted on an early Thanksgiving meal featuring such locally sourced dishes as crostini with warm cannellini beans and wilted chard, whole wheat berry bread, persimmon and almond salad, rice pilaf and baked pears with plumped raisins.

This year's celebration was the second annual communal meal organized by Conexions, the Palo Alto nonprofit Stansbury founded and now runs as the executive director.

"We sold out a few weeks in advance, so next year we're going to look at how to make it bigger," Stansbury said. Next November, the organization may rent a facility and hire a chef to expand its popular event.

The goal of the 100-mile movement is to raise awareness about reducing the environmental impact of transporting food long distances, Stansbury said. She allows herself to stray from the 100-mile confines for certain hard-to-find food items.

"It's not all or nothing," she said. "It's not thou shalt never eat chocolate or spices again - I wouldn't survive on that diet!"

Stansbury, who described herself as "a kid that didn't really like vegetables," now tries to plan many of her meals around what she picks up at the farmer's market. This week, she bought a Kabocha squash, then Googled "squash" and "recipe" to find a new dish to try.

She conceded that living in Northern California makes the diet achievable.

"We certainly have it a lot easier than others," she said, but noted that only 60 to 100 years ago, no one could opt out of consuming locally.

Laura Stec, a Palo Alto resident and private chef whose co-written book "The Global Warming Diet" comes out in 2008, said eating closer to home is both safer and healthier.

"Food is a living, breathing entity, and the fresher the food, the more healthful it is," she said. Over the holidays, Stec said an easy festive dish to bring to parties is a local cheese plate with California dried fruit and nuts and honeycomb.

And at Yahoo, executive chef Bob Hart, as part of the Palo Alto-based Bon Appetit Management Co., tries to source all items from within 150 miles of the Internet giant's Sunnyvale campus. For his Thanksgiving menu, Hart served turkey roulade made with local Diestel turkeys from Sonora, honeyed yams and organic green beans.

"For us living in Northern California, it's relatively easy," he said. "Within 150 miles north and south, we really have a bounty."


E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.




On the Web

To locate local farms within 100 miles, visit http://www.100milediet.org or the Conexions local food guide at http://www.conexions.org/vhd/localfood.