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If you haven't heard of the 100-Mile Diet yet or the new book that goes along with it, Plenty...then definitely go snooping around. Here's the basic, important, piece: almost every ingredient on your plate has travelled at least 1500 miles to get there. So, it doesn't taste as fresh, and has a huge carbon footprint. And I'm not even going to talk about the pesticides.

There are other options, however. Down in the Redlands there are several groups of people that work very hard every day in order to be able to provide us with delicious, fresh, organic food. Not only do they sell at the farmers markets in late winter, but they have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

Through the Redland Organics CSA, you can order a subscription for an entire season of local veggies. You'll pick them up at a location near you each Saturday morning from mid-November until the beginning of April.

You can pay $600 for a full share for those 20 weeks of food ($30 a week and read: a TON of food) or $360 for a half share (also, lots of food). (Pictured: a typical March full share) Deposits for next year need to be in place by September 1, but move quickly as the shares can sell out before that. 

If you read my post from last year's experience (Read all of Tere's, too: Week 1, Week 2, & Week 4), you'll see that both Tere & I had some trouble getting accustomed to this way of eating. Six months later, however, I'm missing this fresh, delicious, and healthy local food.

I crave the Asian mix that I didn't know how to eat. A reader told me: simply eat it as a salad with some bleu cheese dressing. How I think about that delicious flavor - edible flowers & all. You may not know what every veggie is each week, but they'll tell you.

It's an experience, it's good for the environment, your body, and the local farmers. Give it a shot! 

Thursdays: Bayfront Park Farmer's Market

We love Bayfront Park. They have free yoga three times a week. How many cities can say that? Plus, they've been having a lunchtime Farmer's Market on Thursdays since last month, though we've been very tardy in spreading the word.

So go on, check out our Downtown Miami Farmer's Market at Bayfront Park, Thursdays 11am-3pm through April 5.

Real Life: Local Food

I have long wanted to try Miami's local CSA (community supported agriculture), and this month, I've finally got my chance. CSA's are a way to receive local produce and support local farmers. Subscribers pay upfront for a season of veggies, and the farmers use that money to get seeds, supplies and everything else they need for the season. As a member you will receive a box of fresh, locally grown, and usually organic vegetables each week. The catch is that you don't know what you'll receive until you open that box. CSA's typically also function as a "shared-risk" agreement...if there is a drought, a hurricane, or an insect infestation that affects the crops, as a member, you are sharing that risk with the farmers.

Miami's CSA is called Redland Organics. It is a network of farms, mostly in the Redlands, that have joined together to provide this service to the community. I did not sign up for the entire season, which runs from November through April, but decided to give the one month (January only) trial membership a shot. Since trial memberships are only offered in a full share (read: a LOT of food), Tere was kind enough to share it with me. And let me tell you, it's still a lot of food!

Eating locally is one of the biggest "green" things that you can do. We've talked about this before: most items on your plate have traveled 1500 miles to get there.

So, how goes the experience so far? Interesting, very interesting. I read a novel when I was younger about a couple who got married very young and poor. Their friends gave them a huge bag full of canned food, except that they took the labels off all of them. So, whenever the couple wanted to eat, they weren't sure what they were eating until they opened the can. That's kind of how I'm feeling on Saturday mornings. Not sure what we're having for dinner this week until we open the box.

What we've received so far (Every week we receive a newsletter with an itemized list of what you've got, a couple of recipes, and some notes from the farm.):

Week 1: heirloom chard mix, broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, kale, turnips, lettuce, avocado, parsley, and oranges. Bonus: green beans

Week 2: asian mix, beans, braising mix, eggplant, beets, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, carambolas.

I'm not used to cooking many of these items, so it was off to AllRecipes.com for me! A turnip/potato mash was awesome. My rice & shiitakes not so much. The parsley was great in a chick pea salad, and I'm still finishing off that gigantic avocado. I've read several books on CSA's, and one of the main reasons that people leave is that it's too much food. I'd have to agree that it is a lot of food. Or actually, let me correct that: a lot of food that I'm not used to. I could probably eat more lettuce and tomatoes than the farm could provide me, but some of these other veggies require some serious cooking. I've only got a household of 2 people, and one of them isn't very experimental or much of a veggie lover, really. I think that a full season 1/2 share will have to wait until I've got a couple more people in this house.

And like my honeymoon which was in this incredible place, but was in the middle of a natural preserve so there were insects and animals everywhere, this food also needs a warning to the faint of heart. You will receive your food with quite a bit of farm dirt still on it, so it all requires a good wash. Plus, so far I've found a spider, a little worm, and a snail that came along with the food. (I can't believe that they survived in the fridge several days, but they did.) And I don't think it's reasonable to expect that you won't occasionally find things. The thing is...these are creatures that live outside, with our food. We've become so detached from where our food comes from that we aren't used to it.

I'll continue to update the site over the next two weeks as our veggies continue to come in. Please read Tere's first account on her blog. Any other CSA-ers out there? We'd love to hear what you think!

By the way, the tomatoes were to DIE for! Incredible what real tomatoes taste like. Yum.

Soli Organic Ice Cream

This weekend after I had dinner in South Miami, we passed by Soli Organic Ice Cream. I remembered reading about these guys in the Herald, and we decided to check it out. I met one of the owners, Jorge, and he walked us through the options. All of their products are organic and sugar free. Instead, they are sweetened with agave nectar. Soli has lots of cool flavors like Dulce de Leche, Espresso, Lemon Basil (wow), and one we tried Raspberry Pomegranate Acai. Out of this world!

Plus, this is where it gets pretty interesting...the bowl they serve you in and the spoon you eat from are compostable and made of things like sugar cane fiber and corn & potato starch. (They get them from a company called World Centric. What I forgot to ask is if the products actually get composted...we tossed ours in the trash on the way out. Does it get separated from there?

In the end, Soli has a delicious product, and it seems to me that they are trying to do something good for this world. I recommend that next time you are walking around South Miami, you save room for dessert. Map to Soli.

Sign Up for a Season of Fresh, Organic Veggies!

The time is now to become part of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The basic set up of a CSA means that you pay up front for a season's worth of produce, grown locally and usually organically. CSA's allow you to know where your food is coming from. The money that you pay upfront for your share of the harvest helps the farmer cover the necessary costs. As a member of a CSA, you are sharing the risk with the farmer...you share the harvest, however if something damages the crops (disease, weather), you are agreeing to take the loss with the farmer.

Redland Organics is our local CSA. They are currently accepting applications for this coming season. The food is grown in Homestead, but they have various pick-up points in Miami-Dade & Broward counties. There are 20 pick-up dates in a season, usually on Saturday.

A full-share is $580 ($29/week) for the season, a half-share is $350 ($17.50/week). A 4-week January trial full-share is $150. You may also add an egg full-share (dozen/week) for $95 or half-share (1/2 dozen/week) for $53 (local eggs!!).

Find out much more: CSA Brochure, FAQs, Member Comments, Application

Located in SW Florida? You have a CSA, too! Worden Farm.

Update: Avocados are ready now! Order yours today.

Organic & Biodynamic Wines

A weekend video for you! TreehuggerTV looks at a wine shop in New York that focuses on organic and bio-dynamic wines.

Turns out we've got a similar shop in the Design District, which I have failed to visit so far. The W Wine Bistro (I've also seen it listed as the D'Vine District), 3622 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, 305-576-7775.

Take the Starbucks Challenge

A couple of green bloggers, CityHippy and green LA girl, have been running the Starbucks Challenge for a while, and they have just introduced Round 4. I hope Miami can participate...even me, the non-coffee drinker.

CityHippy tells us, the whole idea is based on the fact that "Starbucks says it'll French-press a cup of fair trade coffee for any customer who specifically asks for a fair trade cup."

The challenge works by going into any Starbucks and asking for a cup of fair-trade coffee. It didn't always work. Starbucks admitted they had a "break-down in service".

So now you need to put Starbucks to the test! CityHippy explains how the Starbucks Challenge works:

1. Visit your local Starbucks this month and ask: "Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?"
2. Tell us what happened next. Ideally, the barista should immediately offer you a French-pressed cup of Cafe Estima — Starbucks' only fair trade certified blend.
3. If your barista gives you a blank look, and you're feeling courageous, try asking specifically for a French-press of the Cafe Estima blend. If the barista says it'll cost you extra, say that HQ told you that you should be able to pay just for the size you asked for. And as always, be nice to the baristas :)
   
   BLOGGERS: simply blog about what happened and tag it with "starbuckschallenge" (all one word) on del.icio.us (put the Starbucks location in the "extended" description). We'll pull all articles into a feed. If you do not know about del.icio.us, then just email either City Hippy or green LA girl.
   
   NON-BLOGGERS: tell us what happened by writing a comment on either City Hippy or green LA girl, or send an email to City Hippy or green LA girl, and we'll do the rest. (Or email us/comment here at greenerMiami and we'll take care of it for you.)
   
   Win a prize!
   On June 1, City Hippy and green LA girl will award prizes:
   
   1 to the person who takes the most challenges and 1 to the person with the most interesting, entertaining, educational, insightful, or funny report.
   
   The prizes? An enviro-friendly, reusable, and chic workplace dish set (right, a $39 value!) will go to the person who takes the most challenges. A 2 lb bag of fair trade coffee from Just Coffee will go to the person with the most interesting report.
   
   Challenge results
   On June 1, City Hippy and green LA girl will contact Starbucks, either commending them on their progress on barista education efforts about fair trade, or asking them to, um, work on that.

The 100-mile diet from Miami

Every once in a while I write a post and I mention how important local food is to me. And then I never say another word. Well, here we go, starting the conversation. This has been a tough one for me to start writing about, because for me it is so big and complex, I didn't know where to start.

So today I'll start with the thing that inspired me to do more and more research on the topic, the 100 Mile Diet. This diet, started by two crazy Canadians last year, is based on the following:

When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles from farm to plate. That's a total disconnection from where our food is coming from. What would it be like to eat locally for one year? We drew a 100-mile circle around our home in Vancouver, Canada. The 100-Mile Diet was born.

These two people, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, started a blog to share their experiences, which became referenced all over the web. Still not convinced? They've got 13 Reasons to Eat Locally.

So, could one person, or a group of people, successfully eat on the 100 mile diet from Miami? That would get you to about Naples on the east coast, Stuart to the north, almost to Key West in the south, and touching the edge of Grand Bahama. Plus a whole lot of swamp and ocean.

I'd love to start a list soon of all of the food that you can buy or grow locally, seasons available, etc., in order to really find a way to make this feasible. Additionally, I'd like to add restaurants that utilize locally grown food in their menus. If anyone has information or resources, please let me know.

My gut tells me: Easier: local fish, fruit, veggies (depending on season), herbs. Harder: milk, chicken, eggs, meat, sugar. Much harder: flour, rice.

We live in an area without a winter, which means we should be better off...although from what I understand from reading about farming, we seem to have a short growing season, with crops from January-April. Farmers markets are many times full of products that come in from all over the country and the world, which doesn't make any sense at all to me.

In the future I want to use this as a stepping stone to talk about Community Supported Agriculture in Miami, Florida and also Community Gardens.

Could you do the 100-mile diet for a month, a week, a day? Could I? I hope someday, but I need to figure out where to start, first.