The Best Form Of The 100 Mile Diet

The Okanagan is well known for its farm to table experiences and takes great pride in their farmers and chefs working together to create an amazing dining experience that both supports the local economy and its farmers, as well as helping to keep our environment as healthy as possible.

The 100-mile diet advocates eating locally grown food to help reduce our ecological footprint. This is no easy feat for many of us. Eating locally often means spending more money and not having immediate access to the ingredients we need or want.

These two things are very important to students and those of us who just don’t have the time or energy to think about these things. However, while I was home for a few weeks after exams I decided to make a 100-mile diet recipe. It’s only ice cream, so it doesn’t require many ingredients but I thought it would be good to support local farmers.

The first stop on my list was Arlo’s Honey Farm. Here I was planning on picking up honeycomb, but I was informed that since the season is about a month late there is no honeycomb at the moment because it can only be harvested when the hive is in full motion, or else it stresses the bees out.

Instead, I just picked up their classic wildflower honey and wandered around the property making friends with their giant puppy named Bernie and taking photos of the bees.

Kelowna is fairly far behind in the season so there is not much in bloom that interests the bees. I was only able to hunt down a few that were out and about. Mostly I just took photos of Bernie because he was posing so nicely for me. 

Next up was farm fresh eggs. Luckily we were already close to a roadside stand so we meandered down the road a bit and found our next ingredient. We bought two dozen eggs because you can never have enough fresh eggs for breakfast, in our case to make French toast with a fresh baked cinnamon loaf.

Our last ingredients proved to be slightly more difficult to find because the BC milk marketing board regulates all dairy products sold in BC. So Mum and I decided to drive to Save-On-Foods to pick up some “D” Dutchman Dairy cream and whole milk made in Sicamous, BC.

Making Ice Cream

For this recipe you will need 3 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup honey (I added closer to a full cup because honey is great), and 4 large egg yolks. The next ingredient is optional because it does not abide by our 100-mile diet rule but if you would like you can add vanilla seeds and pod.

First, you separate your egg whites and yolks, placing your yolks in a tea cup for optimal pretentiousness.

Save your egg whites to make an egg white omelet if you’re one of those people… or you could make meringues, which is a way better use of them in my opinion.

Next, you want to measure your 3 cups of cream and 1 cup of whole milk into fancy glass containers to make as many dishes for yourself as possible.

Pour the cream, whole milk, honey, and vanilla into a saucepan and gently heat through but do NOT boil. While this mixture is heating up, whisk your egg yolks in yet another bowl and gradually add the heated cream mixture one cup at a time, whisking vigorously as you go. Pour the yolk and cream mixture back into the saucepan and place back on medium heat until it thickens to a custard-like consistency.

Once the mixture resembles custard, pour it through a strainer to remove any bits of egg that may have cooked, as well as the vanilla pods. This also ensures you have used every possible dish in your kitchen to make this ice cream. You can now cover your mixture with cling film and place it into the fridge for a few hours or even better overnight to chill.

From here you can follow the directions on your ice cream maker or simply place your mixture in a freezer safe container, put it in your freezer, and beat it every so often (about every half hour) as it freezes (do this three or four times). Once your ice cream is smooth and creamy you can place it in the freezer to freeze completely (about four or five hours).

Making meringues

Time to go back to the egg whites. If you want to make meringues, this is the only ratio you need to remember, 2:1. Use twice as much sugar as egg whites. The easiest way to determine this is to weigh your egg whites. Once you have done this, beat your egg whites into stiff peaks then add your sugar in a consistent stream and beat until your mixture is glossy and no longer feels grainy. Pipe your mixture onto a baking sheet and place in the oven at 200°. For mini ones it took about 35 mins.

Now you can sit back and look at all the dishes you just created… but now you have delicious local ingredient ice cream and meringues.

Bonus Bernie Photos