Boston Orientation (It’s actually Watertown)

My fellow housemate Ashley, semates. We took a tour of Boston which was absolutely incredible. We had meals cooked for us by several different and awesome people. We hosted a dinner with several Board Members who all brought yummy food. We had all of our questions answered which was relieving. The food challenge was further explained to us as well as what we would be doing on our various sitesand I took a car, 4 trains, and a bus to get to our apartment in Watertown. I stupidly decided to pull an all-nighter beforehand and regretted it as soon as the car took off at 4 a.m. We arrived at our apartment and After lazily unpacking and talking for a little while our other housemate Taylor pulled up. We went downstairs to help her unload her car and made it to the front door only to realize all four keys to the apartment were locked inside. Luckily our site coordinators apartment was right around the corner. Unluckily it was also up a hill. There we waited until the landlord came by to let us in. We took the time to get to know each other and our site coordinator, Catherine, asked us a lot of questions about ourselves which helped me get to know a lot about my hou

The Food Challenge

So heres the deal with the first food challenge. Until February 1st we are only supposed to eat locally. That means local flour in bread, locally sourced fruits and veggies, for my housemates it means their beers have to not only be brewed locally but the hops have to be grown locally. It means we have to can and freeze a lot of produce in order to have something to eat during the winter. It’s a lot of blanching and boiling.

Exceptions!

We get to choose 4 exceptions as a group and share in each others. We have chosen quinoa, mushrooms, tofu, and nuts. Other exceptions include lemon for canning so we don’t get botulism and die, yeast, baking soda etc… Another exception is if someone makes something for us or buys something special for us we are free to eat it. After all “nothing should go to waste so better let it go to my waist.”

What is Local?

Local is anything in the New England area plus New York. That includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and of course New York.

Missing Food

So far my most missed foods are

-Avocados, Avocados, Avocados and more AVOCADOS!!!