It's alive!

The new Eat Local Challenge blog is up and running, thanks to the mighty efforts of Jen Maiser. A whole bunch of bloggers--some of whom are no doubt familiar to you--will be pitching in, telling about their local eating experiences and offering their thoughts and ideas along the way.

And not to toot my own horn, but I've written a post offering a few tips for this May's challenge. I hope it'll be of help to anyone who's tackling the ELC for the first time.

May begins in mere hours, so here's a short summary of my goals for the Eat Local Challenge:

• I will attempt to source foods only from Georgia and its contiguous states (Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Whenever possible, I will limit myself to middle Georgia.

• Whenever possible, I will eat products produced on small farms.

• When it is impossible to source something locally, I will either leave it out of my diet or find a product that does some kind of social, environmental, or economic good in my own region.

• I recognize that there will be times I'll want to use foreign spices (e.g., cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, etc.). But I will use the Eat Local Challenge as an opportunity to emphasize the flavors that are native to the American South.

Now let's get eatin'!

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Addendum: I forgot to mention that this year, as last year, I'll be keeping an ELC diary on my old food blog, Manor Menu.