You are cordially invited to cook, serve, attend or applaud an Eat Local! Thanksgiving dinner. If you are the cook, it will be easier than you think. After all, most of the traditional dishes associated with the feast are harvest crops here in Western Pennsylvania. But how local is local?

When planning this dinner, or any local meal, I make decisions based on my own preferences using the following as a model. When you toss a stone into a pool of still water, you see ripples emanate from the center. Make the innermost ring local and seasonal with perhaps a 100-mile radius. If that is not available, go the next ring, organic and seasonal. Third ring, conventional and seasonal. Fourth ring, artisanal from anywhere (although this could probably be in the first ring, too). Fifth ring, ethnic specialties. Sixth ring, pantry staples. These might include seasonings, spices, flour, sugar, extra virgin olive oil, coffee, chocolate, citrus, nuts and whatever is important to you and your family. Food that is sustainably raised is an overlay on all the rings.

There's no ring at all for out-of-season, out-of-hemisphere food such as strawberries or asparagus. And when reading labels, I will always choose a product with the smallest number of additives and preservatives. Your "rings" will vary from mine.

		The cranberry question In getting together an Eat Local! Thanksgiving feast, I was really worried about the cranberry dilemma. Sure, I could suggest a chutney or relish as a gobbler condiment, but cranberries are burned into our brain pans as the ideal dish for the Big Day. Besides, the red color is fabulous. My friend and colleague Virginia Phillips has found a local source for cranberries. It was the PG food section's Fresh Find of the week for Oct. 11. I already got mine and froze them. You'd better do that, too. Here's the gist of the Fresh Find: Rick Zang, longtime farm-market vendor and owner of Zang's Greenhouse in Butler, looking for "something new and fresh to handle for fall," and looking for nearby sources of cranberries, couldn't find local berries but chanced upon Glacial Lakes Cranberries in Wisconsin. The berries Rick sells are harvested by "dry raking" within days of shipping. You can get yours for $4 a quart through Nov. 17 at the East Liberty farmers markets. Mr. Zang sells at the Monday East Liberty market (3:30 to 7:30 p.m.) and the Saturday East Liberty year-round market (5 a.m. to noon), as well as the Thursday West End market (3:30 to 7:30 p.m). -- Marlene Parrish

If you are a guest on Thanksgiving Day and will be bringing a dish to someone's house, make your dish from local food. And if you are in a restaurant, choose seasonal foods even though they may have been driven here from the Midwest in the back of a truck.

You will need to choose up sides on the subject of cranberries. Die-hards might say, "Cranberries aren't local enough for me. I'll serve homemade chutney. Or pickles." Fine. But cranberries are fresh, seasonal, delicious, can be organic and are loaded with healthful nutrients. Besides, they are part of Thanksgiving's sacred trifecta of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. I'll be serving cranberries.

Many farmers markets will stay open until the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We've found that the best of the other vendors of local goods are the smaller specialty shops and grocers such as The East End Co-op, McGinnis Sisters, Uncommon Market and John McGinnis and Co., as well as Frankferd Farms. The usual advice prevails: Buy what you can in advance, make some dishes ahead if you like and stash them in the freezer.

To have fun as well as take the Eat Local! challenge, keep things in proportion. Try to keep local the big items such as the turkey, most vegetables, dairy products and bread. Sweeten with local maple syrup and honey where you can.

But please, respect your traditions. Not everyone will want to go along with eating local if it means, say, missing the green bean casserole. You might update that dish with organic green beans topped with fried shallots or even bits of frizzled prosciutto ham. As for the marshmallow topping on the sweet potatoes -- yum, just save a second helping for me.

While you are shopping for pantry items or paper goods in a supermarket, tell the general manager you want that store to stock more local foods and label them as such. Then tell him what local foods you are buying elsewhere and name the stores. That usually gets them.

Stars on a local menu

Before you finalize a menu, mentally squint your eyes and notice the colors on the table. Brown, white, orange, light and dark greens, yellow and bright and dark reds: Multicolor means variety and balance.

• Turkey. Fresh turkeys abound. Some are local, some organic, some conventional. See our turkey source box. But order as soon as you can. Supplies are limited.

		Good morning! If anyone would like to make a special breakfast on the Big Day, try this menu of all-local foods: Hot spiced cider, peppered bacon or breakfast sausage, buckwheat pancakes or waffles, butter and maple syrup, sauteed apple rings and Fair Trade coffee.

• Pumpkin. For extra credit, bake your own pumpkin. Look for local French Pie or Sugar Pie pumpkins which are about as big as a large cantaloupe. Cut the pumpkin in half across its equator and scoop out the seeds. Place the halves cut-side down on a baking tray and bake at 400 degrees until the flesh is soft. (Since the pumpkins are hard to cut, I give it a good stab or two and bake it whole until it's soft. Deal with the seeds later.) When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin.

A melon-sized pumpkin will yield almost four cups of pulp, enough for two nine-inch pies. Mash the pulp with a fork or potato masher. Two cups is just right for a 9-inch pie. Use the extra to make soup, quick bread, cheesecake or a side dish (just add butter and seasonings). Fresh pumpkin can stand in for yams or sweet potatoes in baked dishes, too. It freezes well, making it a good staple to make in advance.

• Classic side dishes hardly ever change because everyone loves them, even if an annual appearance is their only role. But a new take on vegetables might include new combinations of them, salads, souffles, soups and even desserts. Potatoes, onions, beets, chestnuts and green vegetables, such as chard and brussels sprouts, are all nominated for a re-think.

• Apples. Glorious choices are in the markets these autumn weeks: Stayman, Winesap, Empire, Jonathan, Jonagold, Rome, Macintosh and Honey Crisp.

For a list of vendors, grocers and other local sources, go to The modern food message is eat local, a food feature published Aug. 2.