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Mark your calendar for September 17 and bring your appetite to the Highland Center at Crawford Notch for a "Go Local" dinner, with a social gathering, appetizers, and a dinner buffet featuring a full menu of items grown or produced in New England. For more information, call 603-278-4453.

The "eat local" movement is taking hold at AMC, with Camp Dodge in New Hampshire and Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins in Maine leading the charge with gardens at their doorsteps.

Diners at these and other AMC locations can partake in the "locavore" phenomenon sweeping the nation as Americans seek to consume food that's grown or produced locally. In addition to food grown onsite at some locations, much of the food AMC buys is from New England.

The practice provides fresher meals and supports local economies, while reducing air pollution from fuel burned when food is transported long distances.

AMC trail volunteers lodging at Camp Dodge can enjoy some especially proximate offerings, since nearly half of the camp's vegetables and salad greens are grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides onsite in a large, 50-foot-by-70-foot, staff-tended garden overseen by Camp Dodge Manager Christopher "Goose" Grosjean. All seeds were donated by Johnny's Selected Seeds of Winslow, Maine. Produce from a community supported agriculture farm augments that bounty.

"Running conservation-based programming at Camp Dodge, I try to focus on all aspects of our programming, including the food we eat, and set an example for our participants," says Alex DeLucia, AMC's North Country trails volunteer programs supervisor. "As a rule, we try to order in bulk, which limits packaging and is also less expensive. Through the Storehouse at Pinkham, we are able to find the food and products that we need and are able to make conscious decisions about quality, packaging, and cost," he adds, echoing long-standing organizational practice and philosophy.

In a related effort, a staff Food Service Committee helps coordinate purchases of bulk foodstuffs across locations, including backcountry huts and front country lodges. Flavor, cost, and quality are considered as well as point of origin.

Nathan Dusoe, head chef for AMC's Maine Wilderness Lodges, is using local vendors for most food purchases, including pork and beef from Maine farms and fresh seafood from Maine waters.

"We have quite a large garden at Little Lyford this year," he says, "and all cooks are being trained in how to maintain and utilize what comes out of it. Once in full effect, the summer's produce for both Gorman Chairback and Little Lyford will be coming out of this garden," supplemented with fresh vegetables from local farmers' markets.

At the Highland Center at Crawford Notch, Executive Chef Matt Houghton orders much of the food from a nearby Vermont supplier that procures produce, meats, and cheeses from local farms and delivers it the next day. Some of the beef he purchases comes from a supplier that sources the meat from small- and medium-sized family farms throughout the Northeast.

On the other side of Mount Washington, Pinkham Notch Visitor Center Executive Chef Paul Santos and Purchasing and Logistics Manager Frank Jost deal extensively with a food service company that works with more than five dozen New England-based suppliers, as well as farms and orchards offering fresh Maine produce.

Also in New Hampshire, Cardigan Lodge procures produce from a local farm as well as a local farmers' market.

Jost notes that, due to backcountry logistics, hut menus have less seasonal flexibility than those at other locations. Just the same, the huts boast such New England favorites as Maine blueberries and apple butter, cheese from Maine and New Hampshire, gorp blended by a small, local business, and organic granola from western Maine. Purchases for the huts and elsewhere include other organic items when available and practical.

At AMC's volunteer-managed camps, Echo Lake, Three-Mile Island, and Cold River also feature fresh, local food. Taking the local focus a step further, Dusoe says he also plans to highlight locally produced honey, jams, and jellies at AMC Maine Wilderness Lodges "to put a spotlight on local Greenville artisans."