Gearing up...

Well, here we go...this is the first blog entry for our latest Mix promotion, The Farmer and Michelle. This will be a more in-depth look at my September adventures at the Urbana Farmers Market. Starting this Saturday (9/6) and for the next three weeks, my goal is to eat primarily foods purchased LOCALLY and SEASONALLY. The journey will be chronicled here, and we'll talk about it on air as well.

SUMMARY: I will be given $100 a week to spend at the Urbana Farmers Market. We've agreed that the Common Ground Co-Op (in its new location at the Lincoln Square Mall) and Strawberry Fields are also acceptable shopping venues as they feature local foods and items I may be unable to find at the market. I plan to be as honest and disciplined as possible. When cooking, my primary ingredients must be from the market. Life happens, but I'm going to do all I can to stick to my plan. I love a challenge.

Let me just put a few things out there before Saturday:

1. This idea grew out of recent hype about "locavores" in the news. Someone suggested it as a radio promotion, and the question raised was, "who'd be most willing to try something like this?" Well, here I am. Why not??

What's a locavore? A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. We'll get more into that later. All I know is that starting Saturday, I'm a locavore.

2. I'm a beginner at what has become a fast-growing movement. I've done a lot of reading over the past few months about farmers markets, slow food, arguments for eating locally, CSAs, etc...things I'd never really understood or even heard of before. I've learned a lot and hope to pass along links, book suggestions, recipes, and whatever else may be of interest. Mostly, my goal is to bring awareness to our fabulous market and local resources.

3. When it comes to cooking, I'm a novice. All the reading and research has made me interested in cooking for the first time in my life, and I'm suddenly into it. That doesn't mean I can do very much at all, but I will try - and my assignment after launching this blog is to come up with a list of meals for the first week, so I'll know what to buy. Maybe creativity will come with time, but right now I need guidance.

4. I'm not a vegetarian. The market has many different kinds of meat as well as eggs and goat cheese, and I plan to buy some of each. They don't sell milk, but we've agreed that Oberweiss (bottled in North Aurora) is fine and can be purchased at any store.

5. I'll do live "commercials" each Saturday morning from the Urbana Farmers Market, sharing what's hot and happening that week at the market - for example, what produce may be new. I'd never really thought about the fact that fresh foods come and go. Peaches won't be around much longer, sadly.

6. I'm really wordy and I love to write. That's probably not a surprise since I'm in the communications field. Still, I'll try not to get carried away with long entries. In fact, I'll stop NOW after only one more thought...

I'd love your input and help. Feel free to make suggestions, email recipes, etc. My email address is michelle@mix945.com