Is food still considered local if you have to drive 200 miles to bring it home?

We had a great weekend in Ithaca and did a significant amount of food shopping at the Farmer’s Market and the GreenStar co-op. Much of tonight’s dinner was made with ingredients local to Ithaca. Did you know the Ithaca Farmers Market is a "Zero Waste Zone?" Everything is compostable. Some of the other ingredients tonight were from the Hoboken Farmer’s Market (basil, eggplant, sweet potato).

Southwestern Corn and Potato Chowder (adapted from the Moosewood LF cookbook)
Sauté Onion and Garlic
Add crushed cumin
Diced Jalepeno (I remove the seeds)
Diced Purple Pepper
After about 10 minutes, stir in chopped sweet potato
Add Vegetable Broth (I threw the veggie trimmings including potato peel into the pressure cooker to make broth)
Cook for 10 minutes until veggies are tender
Add fresh Corn (if it’s really tender, cook for only a minute or two more)
Puree half the soup
Add Cilantro and serve

Tomato Galette – I found the most beautiful and delicious organic sunset colored heirloom tomato at the farmer’s market. It was perfect for this dish. Is it weird to be passionate about tomatoes? This is the first summer I really appreciated them.
Thaw a sheet of puff pastry (available at Shoprite)
Spread ricotta cheese in circular area of the pastry (I used the homemade ricotta that I had made before)
Lay out Basil leaves to cover the cheese
Arrange tomato slices to cover the basil
Fold excess pastry over to cover edges of tomato slices
Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper
Bake for about 35 minutes

Green Salad
Beautiful tender lettuce
Lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes - different shapes, sizes and colors
Shaved raw sheep’s milk cheese
Adapted Moosewood house dressing: local small farm organic milk curdled with lemon juice, canola oil, basil, salt, pepper, local maple syrup, garlic

Eggplant (Chris made this)
Pan fry the eggplant in olive oil
Put it in the baking pan with garlic, canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, dried oregano.
Top it with homemade ricotta and sliced mozzarella (from the bodega)
Bake for 45 minutes

I had a bottle of Ithaca brewed beer with my meal.

Some of the other local foods I bought in Ithaca were: maple sugar, molasses, yogurt, tofu, swiss chard, plums and apples.