Eat local for the month of June!  Be an official participant in the 3rd Annual New Orleans Eat Local Challenge!  Eat only foods that are grown, raised, or caught within 200 miles of New Orleans. There are four levels of participation from ultra-strict to super duper lenient. The point is to try it!

The benefits are bountiful, just like the local culinary offerings – bountiful.  So take up the challenge and register today.  You don’t want to miss a minute of the fun to be had as a locavore.

NOLA Locavore has gone to great lengths to make eating local simple, economical, educational, delicious, and fun. Other benefits include improving your health, the environment and the local economy.  The importance of which should not be overlooked.

There are so many exciting aspects of the month long event that I just don’t know where to get started…

So, let’s start at the very beginning, at the Kick-Off Party – Friday May 31, 2013 at Rouse’s Rooftop Gardens – the downtown store on Baronne Street.  Here you can pick up your challenge packets which include:

  • One “Eat Local Challenge 2013″ T-shirt & Tote Bag
  • 10% discount on locally grown produce at the Hollygrove Market & Farm
  • 10% discount on local beef, pork, chicken, rabbit and sausage at Cleaver & Co.
  • Full access to the Eat Local Challenge Recipe Forum
  • An invitation to the Kick Off Party and Finale Party
  • Participation in 2nd Annual NOLA Local Scavenger Hunt {$1,000 Prize!}
  • Coupons and Perks from all our Generous sponsors.

Worth the $30.00 registration fee right there.  Naturally, the opening reception will offer locally sourced culinary delights prepared by some of the areas top chefs.  AND local wine and spirits by N.O. Rum, dp Distillers, Atelier Vie, Pontchatrain Vinyards and Becnel Wines.

With these vendors and the bevy of local breweries, it will hardly be a challenge to  enjoy your cocktail hour at home or out and about.

Other exciting happenings during the Challenge include two “competitions” with excellent prizes of cash ($1,000.00 each) plus hotel stays and more.  First is the Scavenger Hunt.  Rules are posted on the website now, however, the clues do not get released until 12:01 AM June 1 – aka: this Friday night at midnight.  A glance at the info on-line, it looks like the hunt will take you to over 30 different places associated with locally sourced food / environmentally friendly services such as urban farms, bike shops, distillery tours.  Now this is an excellent way to get Out and About in New Orleans all month long.

I am excited about getting out and about to many of these places that I have only heard of. Actually, some that I haven’t heard of, too.  Plus, introducing the toddler to eating local. He can see where eggs, lettuce, milk, sugar, etc come from.  Which reminds me, I need to check with my neighbors about getting eggs from their chickens.  See. the challenge will also build community.

The second “competition” is for adults only.  You must be 21 or older to enter the Garden to Glass cocktail contest.  Recipe entries are due no later than June 5.  Final judging by audience and celebrity judge panel will be held on June 17.  Only in New Orleans.  We love our city!!!

Additional happenings and offerings include the Urban Farm Bike Tour, Food Expo, O.C. Haley Art and Local Food Market, Recipe Forum, special locavore dinners at a slew of restaurants around town, map of local farms (we’ll be blueberry picking this month as one of our outings), list of local food sources, agri-tourism opportunities, and on and on.

Let’s get started and eat local at home or out and about in New Orleans!

Every thing lovely,
Leslie

Out and About is a weekly blog by Leslie Compton of Every Thing Lovely, a special event and creative consulting team, and is sponsored by Key to NOLA Properties, a full service real estate brokerage firm specializing in furnished rental properties in New Orleans. Key to NOLA Properties and Every Thing Lovely have joined forces to provide a full array of services for travelers’ (and locals’) personal and professional needs while in the Crescent City
Out and About is a weekly blog by Leslie Compton of Every Thing Lovely, a special event and creative consulting team, and is sponsored by Key to NOLA Properties, a full service real estate brokerage firm specializing in furnished rental properties in New Orleans. Key to NOLA Properties and Every Thing Lovely have joined forces to provide a full array of services for travelers’ (and locals’) personal and professional needs while in the Crescent City