Yesterday I had another great interview with Beth Loechler of the Grand Rapids Press. She wrote a follow-up story for the end of my $30 for 30 days project. It is another great piece. For those who don’t have time to read the article, I’m going to excerpt the awesome list she put together from my pictures and posts:

Spending only $30 for 30 days of food meant stretching dollars, foraging for plants and bartering for a few things. Here’s how Maria did it:

• Peanut butter 2.58
• Corn tortillas 1.19
• Evaporated milk 3.06
• Macaroni 1.19
• Brown rice 2.98
• Pinto beans 1.29
• Oatmeal 3.98
• Carrots 1.68
• Bread 1.49
• Cheese 1.89
• Salsa 1.49
• Tea bags 1.49
• Lentils 1.09
• Soybean oil 1.99
• Onions 1.09
• Apple .90
• Spices .45
Total $29.83

Bartered: Eggs, wine, maple syrup, peppers, home-canned pears, potatoes and black beans, all harvested and produced in Michigan.

Foraged: Dandelions, daylilies and wild garlic, onion and leeks.

Thanks, Beth for the great coverage and Lori for taking the photograph.

Hope to see you all at the Open House today!!!

The countdown is on – only 2 more days to go before the end of my $30 for 30 days experiment! The staff at Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens has been hard at work in the background coordinating a celebratory open house for Friday and you’re all invited.

 Where: The Blandford Farm Blandford Nature Center, 1715 Hillburn Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

When: Friday 4:00-6:00pm

Will There Be Food: Oh, my, yes! Thanks to my friend and co-worker Ashima Saigal’s help, we will have some tasty goodies from Marie Catrib’s. If you’ve ever had Marie’s food you know it’s worth an appearance :O

So, if you’ve wanted to meet the crazy person behind this project and the awesome staff supporting her, learn more about all the great programs at the farm, nature center and in the schools, make a donation in person, sign up to become more involved, or just spend a nice afternoon walking the nature trails and seeing the progress at the farm, come on out! It’s going to be lots of fun…

AND I GET TO EAT CAKE COOKIES!!!!

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I also have a couple more media appearances coming up. On Friday you can hear interviews with me and Sarah Erlewine of Blandford & Mixed Greens on WGVU 88.1 at 9:06 am (precisely!). You can listen live at their website.

Also on Friday, Sarah and I will be on Catalyst Radio on WYCE 88.5 at noon. They also have a listen live option.

There are a couple more possibilities. I’ll keep you posted as they happen.

This is short notice, but I just found out I’m going to be interviewed on Mitch Albom’s radio show tonight. Ahh!!!! The good news is, Mitch is a really nice guy (he wrote Tuesdays With Morrie) so I don’t think he’ll ask me any scary questions. He also is really involved in the Detroit nonprofit community, so he knows how this whole fundraising thing works.

If anyone would like to listen, I’ll be on at 5:58 Eastern time on WJR AM 760 from Detroit. You can listen on the Internet at their Listen Live page.

Wish me luck!

Update: People have asked if this interview is available online. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find it. If anyone else has better luck, please let me know in the comments.

The interview went well. Mitch seemed much more interested in what I could possibly be eating than the fundraising aspect of this, which was a little disappointing, but overall I was happy with the interview.

I’m excited and really happy to say that this little experiment was featured in the Grand Rapids press today. My thanks to Beth Loechler for interviewing me, and for Paul, the photographer who tromped through mud and rain to take the photo. Also, of course, thanks to Angela and Sarah for helping me find some wild leeks and for posing with me!

See the story here: Dollar-a-day dining shows difficulty of eating healthy on tight budget.