If you're extremely addicted to sugar then maybe you'd have to think twice about doing this challenge. Not for Lisa Fingleton though.
After reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Fingleton, a grower and a filmmaker based in North Kerry who documents her family's year of eating locally in the U.S., have entertained the thought of having to live without delights like chocolate, pasta, rice and many more, to pave way for eating nothing else but Irish food for a whole 12 months.
Together with her partner, she acknowledges her passion for organic food production by growing most of their own on their garden and polytunnel in their home outside Ballybunion, Co Kerry. Fingleton added how priviledged they are for being able to know how it is to be able to consume fresh vegetables that are picked just right before it's time to eat.
The Irish cuisine is often associated with Irish stew; a variety of meat and root, bacon and cabbage; back bacon boiled with cabbage and potatoes, boxty; their so-called "potato pancake", colcannon; mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage and coddle; the dish that is often made to use up leftovers, therefore doesn't have a specific recipe.
Crops grown and animals farmed are the two main influences of the Irish cuisine. And since most crop growths are seasonal, Fingleton decided to do only a 30-day challenge on a September, as her garden offers an abundance of ingredients at that certain time.
She started off with Irish porridge and milk for her breakfast, and just munching on some peas later on when she would attend to her meetings. She also made soups and omelettes for dinner. Fingleton stated that it would've been easier if she was working from home because her garden is always filled with products, but since she has to work, she also managed to explore other organic gardens outside of her own.
Aside from her attachment to sugar, Fingleton stated that the biggest challenge would be when she has to go on the road, unprepared with no meals. All the food sold inside the convenience stores are usually imported and have sugar in them.
Over the course of this challenge, Fingleton learned that we need to take action if we really want to bring about change, for there is an evident difference with what we are eating from what we are growing.
