Eco Challenge winner tested to the limit

September 22nd, 2010

Katerina Seligman was the winner of the Top of the South Food Challenge, part of Eco Challenge 2010, being the best able to limit her food and drink intake for a month to products that had been grown, processed and baked only within the region.

But Katerina found it impossible to achieve the goal with perfection, discovering in the process how addicted she was to coffee and chocolate. "I can say that I failed in this idealistic goal. However I learned heaps and it has been a very worthwhile experience."

For the month prior to Ecofest (16th July to 20th August), Nelson and Tasman residents were challenged to eat and drink only local food. She sourced local gluten-free grain and a grinder so she could grind it herself. She sourced local milk to make yoghurt, but found that the biggest challenges were psychological.

As the Tasman winner, Katerina won several prizes to the totla value of $750 from the three major sponsors.

Here is Katerina's own account of her experience, as it was coming to a close, and the reasons she took up the challenge so seriously:

Katerina and her grandson Manaia grinding
locally grown maize

"During 2009 I spent every spare waking moment studying climate change. The more I learned the more my heart filled with grief about the pain and the losses that people and all living things on this planet face in the next decades. I decided I would not fly again, at the same time aware that some of the food I eat travels hundreds and sometimes thousands of km to reach me. The food challenge came at a perfect time and I decided to go all out and eat 100% local.

"Since I have celiac disease (ie. gluten intolerant) and the staple in my diet has been rice, my first big challenge was to access some local gluten-free grain. This took me on a very interesting journey during which I met some wonderfully generous local farmers who were very willing to help, but could not come up with what I was looking for.

"Finally I found Barry Wratten who gifted me a sack of his maize which he grows for animal feed. He also loaned me a large antique grinder (see photo). Unfortunately, due to old age, the grinder was not up to grind finely enough but my neighbour lent me a small hand grinder which does grind the maize, but takes a lot of muscle power. (Luckily my daughter's partner lent a hand!)

"The next thing was to access local milk (from Riverside Community Dairy) so I could make my own yogurt. In my search for a yogurt bug, I discovered keffir. Kris Kolf generously gave me some keffir grains (bugs) which have been grown on for the past 42 years from his mother's keffir. What a wonderful discovery! I love keffir and have made beautiful keffir cheese as well. Unfortunately my 2-year-old grandson is not keen on it and I have made a bit of Easy-yo yogurt for him.

"I grow all my own fruit and vegetables so there was no problem there.

"The biggest challenge by far was the psychological one of changing my diet and food preparation habits. I have become aware of how very attached I am to certain quick easy "comfort foods" (eg. rice pudding), how much more planning is required in preparing food for any outing (eg tramping, trip to the beach), and how addicted I am to coffee and chocolate.

"In saying that, I reduced my coffee intake from one cup a day to about 3 cups a week, and did not buy any chocolate. I did accept offers of chocolate from other people and have eaten Kapiti coast icecream (within the 200km limit) which includes chocolate and no doubt several other ingredients that are not local. My diet became more limited and sometimes boring because I didn't make time to think ahead and experiment with new recipes.

Foods I missed: coconut, almonds, coffee, chocolate, red lentils, Indian spices, pepper, rice-bread toast, RICE, sesame seeds, green tea, gluten free chocolate brownies (!), bananas.

New foods introduced into my diet: maize (polenta), keffir, local hazelnuts, local kumara, local olive oil (expensive!), local soybeans, local wine, tofu made with local soyabeans.

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