SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

Jana Harrison

By Jana Harrison, of team ‘Jaanabananaa’, Beach Haven Auckland.

They are Kiwis eating food grown and produced within a 200 km radius for 30 days of April in the Happyzine Eat Local Challenge.

My first ever blog! Kia ora

I have just taken up the Happyzine Eat Local Challenge for April 2015.

My sons have most adamantly not signed up to the Eat Local Challenge. However I do the shopping and much of the cooking so they might just be taking part by default. Sorry guys.

The lovely people at Happyzine have made some rules. It is a competition after all and a challenge. The rules say local is a 200 km radius of where you live. Which is thankfully not Stewart Island. Not that Stewart Island would necessarily be a bad place to live but all that sea does reduces your land grown options somewhat. I did try and put a cool little map in for you but the technology was not compliant (so sorry no map). But for the record 200 km goes North to Whangarei and South to Rotorua. Heres hoping there are all sorts of great growers and producers to discover and share with you along the way.

At the moment my most pressing problem is trying to decide which food to to nominate for my one non-locally sourced extra ingredient, that can be consumed throughout the entire month

In the running are

Bananas
rice
chickpeas or
coffee
Bananas make green smoothies palatable. No banana makes for a naaasty drink. Rice and chickpeas useful, versatile. You know what I’m talking about risotto, hummus, falafel, chickpea and rice flour, I don’t imagine it would make a great bread but I might be trying it by the end of the month.

And then there is coffee. Coffee needs no case to be made. It is just the best, smells nice tastes great and the last time I stopped coffee I got really cranky with a killer headache that lasted days and days. I am not sure I have the strength or will to go through another coffee detox at the moment. Or ever again.

A difficult decision… or maybe an easy one

Perhaps the challenge is Eat Local not Drink Local ???? And yes I have thought of that. But with many many vineyards within a 200 km radius and a few breweries too. I wont be needing to make it a dry July April.

All is well in my world. Come back and check out how we go.

Tags: eat local, eat local challenge