by Christina Richey
100 Mile Diet: I Think I Can, I Think I Can By canning and freezing foods from their garden and nearby farms, this Carmel couple eats local all year long. Here’s how they’ve adapted their grandparents’ ways to modern life. By Shawndra Miller
Karen Mangia and Thom England go the extra mile for year-round good eating. In fact, they’ll go a hundred miles for good, clean, fair food—but no more. Mangia, an executive at a technology center, and England, a chef and culinary instructor, adopted the 100-mile diet as a personal challenge three years ago after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The only items they consume from beyond that perimeter are staples like certain flours, olive oil, sugar and coffee (but the coffee beans are locally roasted by Bjava Coffee). What sets the Carmel couple apart is their commitment through the winter months, when many a local food enthusiast caves to the convenience of out-of-season supermarket produce. Mangia and England
34
edible indy
turn to the produce that they canned, pickled, froze or preserved otherwise earlier in the year. Their desire to eat only foods from within a 100-mile radius has given new depth to their relationship with Mangia’s grandparents, who offered lessons in “putting food by.” Along the way they’ve also cultivated a network of farmers and likeminded people, and occasionally share their culinary adventures on their blog, indychef.blogspot.com. The couple took the transition to the 100-mile diet in several stages. Before returning to his native Indiana, England owned an inn in upstate New York where a large garden supplied the produce for the restaurant. He’s definitely no stranger to the movement, but on a personal scale, he says, it didn’t happen overnight.
fall 2011
