Time to Think About the Real Food Challenge

February 16, 2011 by chiotsrun

Here at Not Dabbling, we’ve been discussing whether or not we’re going to do the Real Food Challenge again this year, it seems like a lot of you are interested in it. If you’re interested in participating again this year, we’ll once again spend the Month of March once again focusing on Real Food.

No doubt you’ve all got some great stories and tips as some of you tried to incorporate the Real Food Challenge throughout the year. I’ve even spent some time this winter reading up on a few thing about pet food, and I might do a post or two about that during the challenge, after all, pets thrive on Real Food too!

Are there any specific things you’d like us to focus on during the Real Food Challenge this year? Do you want to join us again this year?

I can also be found at Chiot’s Run where I blog daily about gardening, cooking, local eating, beekeeping, and all kinds of stuff. You can also find me at Simple, Green, Frugal, Co-op, and you can follow me on Twitter.

Posted in Real Food Challenge | Tagged challenge, real food | 33 Comments

33 Responses

on February 16, 2011 at 10:42 am | Reply Toni's Treehouse

We would absolutely join you again this year. Our challenge is keeping our grocery budget low while still eating whole foods.
- on February 16, 2011 at 5:05 pm | Reply Unearthing This Life
  
  It’s definitely a challenge, Toni. I think once we started buying directly from the farmer instead of through a grocer we started seeing our budget go down. Now my trouble is not overeating all the nummy stuff we get!
on February 16, 2011 at 2:50 pm | Reply Xan

Anyway, trying this again– personal care products! Soaps, lotions, makeup, shampoo, bubble bath that are local, sustainable and earth-friendly. These are more challenging to find than you might think (especially because of the “local” part)
- on February 16, 2011 at 4:24 pm | Reply chiotsrun
  
  Great idea, I’ve been doing this for a few years as well. I have found some wonderful non-toxic beauty items that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. Not many are local though.
- on February 23, 2011 at 8:47 am | Reply mirandasoap
  
  Yay – I’ve switched all our toiletries to homemade. I make my shampoo, hair conditioning rinse, soap, lotion, tooth powder, deodorant, and after shave. It feels so amazing to toss out those hard-to-recycle, chemical-filled bottles and replace them with homemade!
  I’d love to send you some of mine to try, or just pass on the recipes!
on February 16, 2011 at 4:04 pm | Reply TeriPDX

Yes, I want to participate again. Last year I was in TX and my blog was 12813; over the summer we moved to Portland OR so I have a new “local” to explore!
- on February 16, 2011 at 4:21 pm | Reply chiotsrun
  
  That’s exciting, I hear the local food scene is great in Portland! I deleted your old blog and added the new one, thanks for letting us know!
- on February 16, 2011 at 5:02 pm | Reply Unearthing This Life
  
  We’ve daydreamed of moving to Northwest!
- on February 23, 2011 at 8:45 am | Reply mirandasoap
  
  Neato – I’m in Austin currently (An Austin Homestead .blogspot) but we’re about to put our house on the market to move back to Oregon, where i am from. We’re looking at the Yamhill valley, south of Forest Grove area to raise goats and such.
  - on February 27, 2011 at 10:12 am Konnie
    
    I live 35 miles south of portland in a beautiful little town called Silverton. You will love Oregon. For the most in Oregon you have Lefties and Righties, Christians, Pagans, And we get along with respect. I think urban homesteading is very common and welcomed in most towns in Oregon. Lots of Local food restaurants, great music scene. I guess in Oregon the only thing all of us have in common is that most of us march to a different drummer and we rarely feel the need to take on the rest of the country’s cultural norms. Ok I am done rambling about my love for Oregon.
on February 17, 2011 at 9:25 am | Reply Alayne

I would like to join you this year. We’ve been eating mainly whole organic foods for a while, but are striving for more local now. There are areas that I could do WAY better on. I still have a weakness for mac-n-cheese in a box! LOL. Can’t believe I’ve said that out loud!!!
on February 17, 2011 at 11:00 am | Reply karin

I will do it this year. I want to learn to make cheese this year, I also plan on trying a mushroom kit. I am registered for a wild foods class in the spring. We are also planning to grow some of our own fodder for out livestock.
on February 18, 2011 at 1:08 pm | Reply Robin Mullet

I want to try to make cheese this year too, karin. I’ll be trying to participate inthe RFC this year again, but I’ll be extending it with my “La Vida Local” goal of adding a new local food-one per month-for the next six months.
on February 18, 2011 at 3:50 pm | Reply What Do You Save For Later? « Not Dabbling In Normal

[…] Comments « Time to Think About the Real Food Challenge […]
on February 18, 2011 at 6:17 pm | Reply Just another day on the farm

I’m in, I am already eating quite local and try and use as much food that I have put away or have on the farm as possable, I alreay got alot of local food for the Dark Day Challange so will be able to continue on in that regards.

Looking forward to it.
on February 18, 2011 at 8:32 pm | Reply Zonnah

I would love to join this year! I followed along with the last one and really enjoyed it. I am thinking local, organic milk and meat and no processed sugar.
on February 18, 2011 at 8:45 pm | Reply Jess

Add me to the list! Could you guys have picked a harder month than March? 😀

I’ve been so lazy in the kitchen lately, a good challenge like this is what I need. I also want to look closer at how much of certain items we use, in order to properly plan the garden to get us through more of next year on our own.
on February 18, 2011 at 9:30 pm | Reply Jenny

I’d like to give this a try. I really want to find more homemade meals that my family enjoys. I’d also like to get more into bread making. I do have some canned goods- salsas, jams, honey, ect leftover from last season. Hoping to add to them this summer.
on February 20, 2011 at 6:10 am | Reply Cher

I’m going to give this a go. I do a lot of cooking on my blog and more than most of it is from-scratch cooking . . . from bread to sweets to full meals.
on February 21, 2011 at 1:24 pm | Reply Julie Bo

I’m in. I’m going to concentrate on making sure most of the girls’ snacks are homemade from scratch. I won’t toss out anything that we already have but I won’t buy anything new either.

And I personally want to limit myself to no more than 5 processed food products per day. If this goes well I’ll go down to 3 but I want to try 5 for the first week to see what happens.
on February 21, 2011 at 4:04 pm | Reply Julie Bo

oops.. I used the wrong blog above. I’ll be blogging about the RFC on THIS one instead.

http://juliebofamilyfood.blogspot.com/
on February 21, 2011 at 8:13 pm | Reply Little Homestead in the Village

Count me in. I have a good sized garden and I put away some of the harvest. I’m going to try to double what we do – enlarge the garden, maybe get a few chickens add another hive or two. I hope to double the canning ,,,- I’ve run out of salsa, apple butter, spiced peaches, roasted tomato garlic soup. I hope to live out of the garden (mostly) except for bulks rice, potato, flour, cornmeal, spices, sugar, coffee and meats.
on February 23, 2011 at 8:38 am | Reply mirandasoap

Woot.
Doin’ it this year:http://anaustinhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/02/wholesome-wednesdays-real-food.html

We pretty much eat only whole, “real” foods with the exception of some ‘veggie’ meat replacements that i buy frozen, and some boxed mac and cheese. I’ll do my best to make a real chicken nugget and freeze them for convenience, utilize more of the eggs that are finally being laid in the backyard after a long Winter’s nap, and will be happy to be harvesting more spring veg soon.
on February 23, 2011 at 11:40 am | Reply Unearthing This Life

So many joining this year! I can’t wait to begin. You should all be updated as participants, just be sure your links work properly. It’s hard to type and talk to a 7 year old at the same time!
on February 23, 2011 at 6:19 pm | Reply Julie

I’m in! I second that I would love to learn how to make cheese this year. We’re lucky enough to get raw milk from a local dairy. I would also love to learn how to make kefir, properly. Have tried it twice now with grains given to me by friends and I seem to mess it up?

Have been sourcing more local food this past year and I’m amazed at all that our state has to offer.
on February 25, 2011 at 1:58 am | Reply Real Food Challenge | Sincerely, Emily

[…] am joining the Real Food Challenge over at Not Dabbling in […]
on February 27, 2011 at 8:32 pm | Reply Peggy Marshall

I’m in..I garden and put most of it up by canning, freezing or dehydrating it..love to make fresh breads & rolls..have 18 hens so have my own fresh eggs more than I know what to do with sometimes but there is always someone I can give them to..I am hoping to get a flour mill shorly to be able to grind my our flour.. the hardest problem I have is finding fresh cows milk to make my butter & cheeses with ( just learning the cheese making )
on February 28, 2011 at 9:38 am | Reply Cyn

I’m excited I found you! I would love to participate in this challenge. My family and I (including our dog) have been slowly incorporating a real food approach to our lives and are eager to learn and do more.
on February 28, 2011 at 10:08 am | Reply Konnie

I’m in and about good to go tomorrow. Still have some labels to read and a little research on a new resource for dairy.
on February 28, 2011 at 2:05 pm | Reply Debbi vagablonde515

I’m in
on February 28, 2011 at 9:54 pm | Reply Aari

So glad I found you! I’ve been slowly moving myself & my family to Real Food here in New York City. Can’t grow it myself, but I can source it! I’ll be focusing on replacing some of the processed foods we still consume with homemade or less processed versions.
- on March 1, 2011 at 7:04 am | Reply Xan
  
  Aari, I will be especially interested to find another urban dweller managing this. I *do* have a large city garden and yet I found it very difficult to find real-food staples. I also imposed a ‘local’ mandate on myself which made it a little harder, but I defined local quite widely (200 miles-there and back in a day). Welcome to the Challenge!
on March 3, 2011 at 2:25 pm | Reply wendy

I try to make sure our food comes from Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical sources. Sometimes this is much harder than others. But we are trying.
This is a great challenge to help us along.
Hubby hasn’t been able to give up his processed snack foods. I need to figure out substitutes I can make for him that are Real Food.