For the past year or so, my husband and I have been making an effort to choose locally-grown and raised produce and meats when doing our shopping. Fortunately, the Manitoba government has been doing a great job promoting local foods, and even has a source list on their website (which makes shopping locally easier than trying to track down the foods yourself).

Last month, 100 Mile Manitoba was launched. The participants have agreed to only eat local foods from September 1 to December 9. We decided to accept a partial challenge, and began planning a 100 Mile Thanksgiving.

The first thing we realised is that we would have to make some concessions; salt and pepper were going to be a problem. My husband makes a fantastic from-scratch pumpkin pie, but most of the ingredients in his pie would be missing. Granulated sugar could be replaced with honey (with some additional modifications to the recipe to make the crust work), but where would we get locally-grown cinnamon or nutmeg? Aren't those tropical? Additionally, my attempts to coax yeast to come live in my homemade sourdough starter were less than successful.

After some discussion, we modified our "rules." Everything (save for the salt and pepper) would be locally grown, raised or made. This way we could still serve the pumpkin pie that we all love, without having to convince a cinnamon tree that it wanted to live in our small Winnipeg backyard. Once that compromise was made, the menu fell into place with amazing ease.

Our main course was a bevy of prairie chickens, graciously supplied to me by a co-worker who hunts. They were roasted (topped with pats of local butter), with a melange of local produce: sage, red potatoes, garlic, sweet onions and parsnips from the St. Norbert Farmers Market, and baby zucchini from our garden. Served alongside was a stuffing made with bread from Tall Grass Prairie Bakery, mushrooms from Loveday Mushroom Farms (a Winnipeg food producer not far from our house), onion, sage, thyme and celery from the farmers' market, butter, homemade chicken broth, and homemade oven-dried tomatoes from our garden. Corn from Anola, which had been picked in August, blanched and frozen, rounded out the vegetables, and we served rolls from Tall Grass Prairie.

The beloved pumpkin pie was purchased at the farmers' market from a St. Anne's vendor, and was topped with whipped cream made from local cream and local honey (the pie was great, but the whipped cream didn't work out well). And finally, to drink there was apple cider from Landmark, and strawberry-rhubarb wine from the D.D. Leobard winery in Winnipeg. Even the flower arrangement and centerpiece on the table were grown locally.

Overall, it was a success. It was surprising to us how much of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner could be purchased locally, and our guests were equally impressed. With the exception of the homemade whipped cream (which we should have test-driven before the main event) and the one last chicken breast which appeared to have vanished into one of our cat's stomachs, everything went off without a hitch.

Sarah Braun, office worker and sushi aficionado, lives and eats in Winnipeg, home to her  Winnipeg Eats blog.