If you missed The 100 Mile Challenge on TV - or if you want to watch it again to reinvigorate your local-eating inspiration - you can watch the entire series online. We also have web-only extras and outtakes that never made it to TV:
Episode 1: The Purge
Extras & Outtakes
Episode 2: Back to Basics
Extras & Outtakes
Episode 3: New Rules
Extras & Outtakes
Episode 4: Half Way There
Extras & Outtakes
Episode 5: Pushing Limits
Extras & Outtakes
Episode 6: Final Stretch
Extras & Outtakes
Want to learn more about everything from foraging to yardsharing to guerrilla gardening? Go on a slow food bike ride? Watch people rise to the occasion with local feasts for weddings and holidays? Learn about CSAs, charcuterie and artisanal cheese? For these and more stories about local eating, be sure to check out our Local Food Videos.
The 100-milers dished out some great food in the series finale. Here are a few recipes:
Last night's episode may have marked the last 100-mile supper for the families of Mission, but the local eating journey isn't over. In the weeks and months to come, keep looking to this site for recipes, news, tips, tools, and more local food inspiration.
The theme of this week's episode was pushing limits, as several of the 100-milers went outside their comfort zones. Sherida Peters got a lesson in cooking without a recipe, while Angela St. Cyr took a lesson in cooking under pressure at Vancouver's Raincity Grill.
Elsewhere, 14-year-old Cassie Clark Vernon received some lessons of her own from tribal elders who taught her traditional cooking methods.
Some recipes from the show:
And one recipe that didn't quite make it into the episode but deserves mentioning:
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
Things got competitive this week as the 100-milers challenged themselves and each other to reach new culinary heights. Reluctant cooks Alma and Alisa spent five hours in the kitchen preparing a sumptuous feast for Randy and James.
Later, Steve Peters challenged James to a pizza throwdown. There may only have been one winner, but with so much fabulous local fare on the menu, there were definitely no losers.
The recipes are all here:
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
Things were heating up inside and outside the kitchen this week. Whether trying their hand at foraging or experimenting with new ingredients, the 100-milers proved that they're game to try anything... once.
Recipes from this episode
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
Share your love of The 100 Mile Challenge with your friends! The series will be rebroadcast from the very beginning, starting with the premiere - "The Purge" - on Sunday, June 7 at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET.
This time around, why not play along at home and take the Challenge yourself? Sign up here!
If you missed any episodes of The 100 Mile Challenge on TV, but you want to (pretty much) recreate the big-screen experience, every episode is now available for viewing in larger format on FoodTV.ca. Just click on the "Full Screen" icon in the bottom-right corner of the video to supersize the screen.
Not surprisingly, a lot of our viewers really identified with the Weremchuk Williams family: two busy working parents with two school-age children. At the start of the Challenge, Alex and Steve were self-professed convenience-food devotees, but they stepped gamely up to the plate and threw themselves into the Challenge. We checked in with them to find out how they're faring one year later.
How has local eating gone for your family in the months since the show wrapped last fall, especially through the winter?
Our goal with the challenge was primarily the health of our family. We still look to see where things come from and we still ask at the stores if something can be bought local. The only way we can effect change in the places we shop is to continually demand it. Our food choices now consist of things with no additives or preservatives. If we can’t pronounce it, we don't buy it, and if we can get organic that is within our budget, it is our first choice.
Alex, you all seemed so game and up for anything - such a natural for experimenting with food. In retrospect, does it seem odd to you that you weren't into food and cooking long before the Challenge?
Our main hurdle before the Challenge, like many families, was time. When the kids were babies, I did try to do more cooking, although I was never a marvelous cook. When my work schedule changed, combined with the fact that Steve does most of his work from home, it fell to Steve to prepare more of the meals, so we settled for what he was comfortable cooking.
I knew we needed to eat better and plan our meals better but never seemed to have enough time. It is tough for people to get out of the rut of cooking meals based on quick and easy and we end up cooking about ten basic meal choices over and over because we are comfortable. The Challenge really reinforced cooking as a team event. The most enjoyable meals are made when we are all in the kitchen. It makes it feel less like work and seemed to take the time issue out of the picture.
Keep reading for Alex's tips on sourcing local food quickly, some of the family's favourite 100-mile recipes, and an update on Steve's agoraphobia...
Randy and Alma Hawes brought some very real local-eating issues to the fore, such as how can a busy professional couple who need to travel and entertain a great deal stay true to 100 percent local eating?
In the final episode of the show, Randy and Alma were frank about their gratitude that the Challenge was over. Months later, we caught up with Randy to ask him if a summer of local eating has changed his eating habits... and if he's managed to get Alma back into the kitchen.
It's been about a year since you started the 100 Mile Challenge. How has it gone for you in the months since the show wrapped last fall? How much have you stuck to local eating over the winter?
Years ago Alma and I made a deal. I grocery shop and cook and she cleans up. Since finishing the challenge last year there have been a number of changes in my shopping habits. I now know where to access produce at the farmgate and have found some local products which I had not known previously. Hazelnut oil would be a good example. Since the challenge I find myself searching labels and feel far more cognizant of the ingredients on any prepared food products. I now know the proteins that are locally produced and steer to them in the grocery store. Buying local provides fresher products which are preservative free.
Alma on the other hand, continues to purchase the supermarket rotiserrie chicken and packaged spinach when I am away.
Keep reading for some of Randy's favourite 100-mile recipes, and to find out if he ever managed to convince Alma to get in the kitchen again...
The St. Cyr family really rose to the Challenge, fearlessly experimenting with everything from making their own salt and creating a 100-mile birthday feast for fifty people. Angela was the mastermind behind many of these endeavours. One year after the Challenge began, we caught up with her to find out how much their local-eating habits have stuck with her family.
How has it gone for you in the months since the show wrapped last fall? How much have you stuck to local eating over the winter?
We do really believe in this way of eating. For us it really has become a lifestyle change, so yes, even through those long cold winter months we really did still eat 100 mile. I can even recall the exact date (December 12) when I finally broke down and bought some fruit and veggies that were not local. I have no doubt though that this winter, with a little prep during the growing season, I'll be able to hold out even longer.
Although I have to admit I'm far from being militant about eating this way, to my mind the most important change we can make as a family is to be aware of the food purchases that we make and to understand that when we do purchase something that isn't local we realize how far it has travelled and that we view those purchases as "treats" and not as staple foods. Let's face it - it's not like we're never going to eat a mango or a pineapple again, but we really do respect and appreciate it when we do.
When you've tasted local food, you instantly realize how much better it tastes, so you really can never go back to the flavourless fruits and vegetables that we have all become accustomed to. It has nothing to do with being morally superior to other people that don't choose to eat locally - it just really does taste better. Purchasing non-local products that are available locally would be like choosing to eat cardboard instead of steak!
Keep reading to get some of Angela's favourite local-eating tips and recipes, and to find out if Mike still cooks.
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