Usually on Saturday and Sunday morning we go out for breakfast. My wife would not give up her favorite place (which is not a local business), so we reached an agreement. We would go and buy something for me, and then we would go to the place she likes. The problem was that I am so used to going to this place that when I thought about some other coffee place to go around our house I couldn’t think about any. I went to my computer, did a few searches, and … the only local coffee place that I could find in the West side is Kinley’s House. Oops, that is 7 miles away from home, and the non-local place is less than a mile away, or there is another one just 1.5 miles away.

Yes I succeeded going local, however I had to drive 5 more miles, back and forth, which meant 15-20 minutes driving, which obviously translates into pollution, and more ga$ consumed.

What is the real cost of going local in some cases? Is polluting more really more important than leaving more money in town? Don’t get me wrong, if I had to drive the same amount, or even a little bit more to go to a local place I would do it in a blink, but driving (polluting) that much… I don’t know.

Sunday I decided to break our tradition and stay at home.

Does anyone knows where to get a decent cup of coffee on the West side?

I can see there’s a step from MY behavior to HOUSEHOLD behavior.  

Today, my first purchase came when I found I wouldn’t have time to get home for lunch and, as I drive by a “forbidden monster”, Sunland Park Mall, I decided to grab something to eat.  There’s actually lots of local in there, but it’s hard to see past the big, national anchors (who are all struggling).  I parked outside and enjoyed the air conditioned interior of Sears on my way to the Greenery Market.  I picked up a turkey and swiss sandwich and a bag of chips and headed for the office.  Even on Sunland Park Drive, in the land of the big box, I succeeded in Going Local!

That was my only purchase of the day, BUT we were short a few things for dinner and my daughter picked them up on her way home… at the neighborhood Albertson’s.  I can see that menu planning is going to be important if we don’t want to travel too far from home at the last minute to eat.

Today was a pretty simple buying day.  I was on the east side at lunch and wanted to check out a new restaurant as a possible client. I went to Delaney’s at 1545 N. Lee Trevino. It’s an upscale restaurant specializing in steaks.  No locally grown items on the menu, but it is a local restaurant and the food was very good.  They’d be an excellent edition to our magazine.

Tonight it’s off to a party. We’re taking a side dish and it’s BYOB.  I’m doing a tomato salad with real HOMEGROWN tomatoes from my own garden.  For the BYOB part I stopped at Barrel House – a locally owned liquor store and picked up some ice cold Shiner – not local, but at least brewed in Texas!

Today is the first day that I’m writing about my attempts to Go Local as we head into the Go Local Challenge. I always try to buy locally. Or at least I think I do. Now that I’m going to see how close I can get to 100% local we’ll see how well I really walk the talk.

Two outside purchases were made today. I needed to have my car serviced so I went to Balboa Quick Lube in the parking lot of Sunland Park Mall. I actually stopped in a few days ago and made the appointment and told them what I wanted done. I wasn’t surprised when Carlos at the counter said they’d call me when it was ready – I’ve heard that before at lots of places. I WAS surprised when he actually did call. And, he called an hour before the promised time.

I worked from the office today since I didn’t have a car. My wife came by and picked me up for lunch. Her car was in need of a wash so we went to H & H Car Wash 701 E. Yandell. We sat at the counter and talked to Maynard Haddad, who owns the place along with his brother Kenny, and a few of the regulars. The food was good and so was the conversation. Maynard filled me in on the story behind all the pictures of Andy Reid, the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, behind the register. Reid used to be an assistant coach at UTEP back in the Bob Stull era and he became a good customer and friend of Maynard’s. Now he’s one of the football and basketball coaches who have moved on to bigger stages but still come back to say hi and tell how much they love El Paso and its local flavor.

Two good choices for my first day of the warm up challenge!

Join us during Independent's Week!

If you know what Homegrown El Paso is, you probably know that for every dollar you spend in a locally owned and independent business about 67 cents stay in El Paso, as opposed to  13 when you buy from a chain store. During our event, Independent’s Week, and in conjunction with AMIBA’s Independet’s Week with we are inviting people to take the Go Local Challenge.

What is the Homegrown Go Local Challenge?

Well, we are trying to get people from El Paso to buy everything locally for a week, and by everything we really mean everything, from groceries to tires. We are inviting people to do all of their day-to-day purchases on a locally owned business and help the economy of El Paso thrive along with its unique flavor. We know it is not going to be easy, and it may actually be way harder than we think, but lets give it a try.

We will have different people who are taking this challenge write about this; their experiences, stories and how much are they willing to go out of their way to accomplish this, and hopefully you will leave comments about this experience.