The inaugural Local Harvest Challenge is a national initiative run by the website www.localharvest.org.au, designed to help people identify food producers in their area.

Lisa Lovick from A Slice of Orange says she hopes to only eat produce from her Anson Street store, supplemented by produce from Katie and Beau Baddock from The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co.

“We’re really lucky that we live in an area that has so much food,” she said.

Throughout the week-long challenge she expects to have to supplement items such as sugar for honey or olive oil for butter.

“I think I’ll miss hard cheese though, I love toasted cheese sandwiches,” Ms Lovick said.

Mrs Baddock said her challenge would come from restricting her intake of chocolate.

“We’re in the middle of harvest so we rely on sugary foods to keep us going during the harvest,” she said.

Ms Lovick said participants could take the challenge as seriously as they wanted to, with many people aiming for a 90 per cent locally-produced diet.

She admits, in some cases, sticking to a local diet can prove more expensive than buying product from other parts of Australia or the world.

“But when you buy local food you know it’s super fresh,” Ms Lovick said.

“It’s also important to keep money in the community. Local people would go out of business if people didn’t support them.”

Food grown or made within 100-miles of Orange includes products sourced from as far as Mudgee, Naromine, Cowra, Wellington and the Blue Mountains.

Other participants in this week’s challenge include Willa Arantz from Racine, Sophie Hansen, David Cumming, Julia Andrews from Hamiltons Bluff Wines and Kate Barclay from Bendy Street Emporium.

Participants will be plotting their progress via their own food blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

tracey.prisk@ruralpress.com