Sunday's harvest

I haven't had a lot of time to write on the blog lately. We didn't end the local eats month on a strong note, due to illness, lack of sleep and pulled muscles. But, I think moving forward we are going to dedicate one day a week to eating local. Perhaps Sunday? The above photo was my harvest from my garden on Sunday. I made beet risotto and baked golden carrots.

Gotta love PCC

The Dog-Days of Eating Local

I've certainly noticed a, shall we say, "drop-off" in blogging the last week as we muddle through mid-August here in Seattle. Perhaps we're all now accustomed to what it's going to take to get through the month eating locally. Perhaps we're backsliding a bit (moi?) and are not taking it as seriously as we were in the first few weeks. Perhaps the Stumbling Goat represented the zenith of the experiment?

For me it's been a combination of all three. And while I've had my fill of tomato sandwiches for the month, I'm getting comfortable with where I can find local products, which is definitely a revelation, and something that I'll take beyond this month.

I'm also backsliding just a little--and some days more than a little. As I realized right at the outset of this experiment, eating local can be really hard, and takes a LOT more advance planning. I definitely realize how much I've prioritzed "easy" food.

And as we're all still talking about that dinner at the "Goat," I keep thinking that maybe we should have saved it for the end of the month, it really was THAT good--and I don't think we'll get that good for the rest of the month.

We're giving ourselves a day "off" tomorrow as we spend the day on a plane heading to Hawaii, but are going to pick up the cause with a ton of great fruit, Maui onions, Kauai grass fed cattle, and anything else we can scrounge up for the next week until September 1st, when we break-out the Ben and Jerry's!

Aloha and Mahalo!

Local Eating Done Right--A Night at The Stumbling Goat

Jill, Tim, Barb, and I had a chance to join our friends Jess, Nate, Megan, Paul, and Maria on Friday night for some local wine tasting at South Lake Union, followed by dinner at The Stumbling Goat, known for its local cuisine. Aside from the great company and general merriment, we were all blown away by how great the food was from top to bottom.

From the list of over 15 websites listing where the ingredients from our dishes came from, to the variety of the menu, to the surprising affordability of the bill at the end of the night, it was one of those meals that I'm sure we'll be talking about for quite some time.

As I become more grumpy and older I'm generally a bit dubious of menu's where the server tells you that "everything is good" and doesn't have a super keen insight into which dish of the 2-3 you're down to really shine. However, this place was the exception to that rule, and after tasting many of the dishes on the table, I can see why. The butter lettuce and hazlenuts in the salad complemented each other perfectly, and while I somewhat of a chance on the duck, since it wasn't the first thing our server recommended, the combination of the fennel bulbs, apples, and berries with the demi glace sauce was fantastic. Finally, for dessert the tabls shared several ice cream sandwiches, which contained the most berry-tasting ice cream I've ever had--it was like they'd just scooped it out of the churner.

All in all a great evening with friends, and a place that we're sure to visit again long after our August experiment is complete!

Local Gelato!!!

Enjoying Salted Caramel & Vanilla right now. Heaven.

Changing the rules

I need to give myself a break with eating 100% locally grown and sourced food from WA or OR. I was starving myself last week (because I didn't have time to fix myself a lunch and figured I could go to Safeway and get something...all I could find was cheese & kettle chips, sad really). This expirement isn't about eating 100% locally sourced and grown foods, but about learning where the food that I put in my body comes from and trying new eats that are grown locally.

 I'm a working mom of two and trying to juggle work and kids is a lot to manage. When you throw in only eating local foods, it gets complicated very fast. Last week all I was doing was working and cooking. It's not sustainable. So, I'm telling myself that it is okay if I have to have the occasionally cracker that was made in WA, but don't have confirmation on the source of the ingredients or the cucmber grown in British Columbia.

Also, it's summertime and there are a lot of events outside the house (play dates, work events, book clubs, friends cabin's, etc.). It's just not possible to bring a cooler with you whereever you go. Plain and simple, I just don't have the time to do it. I was talking to a friend this morning about it and she said, well remember in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle she said when they went over to friends house they didn't have to eat local. I wish I would have remember that on August 1, because I wouldn't have starved myself last week and stressed about packing lunches for the whole family.  I feel better already.

Why local meat is frozen . . .

Thanks to Diana for researching this for me! Turns out, Washington State has a ton of regulations for meat suppliers/retailers. It's almost impossible for a local farmer to jump through all the hoops necessary to supply fresh meat at a farmer's market. Most of the larger retailers/meat stores are able to jump through all the hoops because it's their business.

So, blame your regulatory authority for the frozen local meat!

BTW, Diana's farmer did mention that there is ONE farmer who supplies fresh meat at farmer's markets, but he thought the quality wasn't great. Competition? Or truth? Maybe a little of both? If I ever find this guy, I'll be sure to cook my meat to the recommended temperature!

Finding Great Foods Made Locally

One of the side benefits of this project--and honestly maybe it's going to be my big takeaway now that we're 1/3 of the way through--is having a much broader understanding and knowledge of what food actually *is* local, and being somewhat surprised when I find a local producer or manufacturer of my food where I least expect it.

For instance, seeing that there's local honey in my store doesn't exactly bowl me over given all the bees we attract in the lavender plants that grow everywhere around here. But local flour and sugar and coffee? That was news to me.

I've become a different kind of label reader already in this project. I currently care far less about the nutritional value in the products I'm eating, and moreso about where the products are being made. I guess I assume with all the fruits and vegetables on our plates right now that my diet is inherently a lot better (although the Iben's BBQ for Seafair on Sunday was a step backward, albeit an allowed one in our household).

Still, finding local colas and chips, breads and cheeses, wines and even salami's for the picnic in the arboretum is keeping me motivated right now. I've always appreciated the local bounty of fruits and vegetables around here--but it's the other staples of my diet that are the most ripe for a permanent change in branding come September.

We're Done Here; I've just had the best locally made sandwich EVAH!

I was thumbing through the recipes I've accumulated over the years looking for something I could make with some local foods today at lunch, when I stumbled upon the most simple, absolutely best sandwich I've had in--well I can't remember when. I now have my lunch done through the rest of the month, it's that awesome, AND it's amazingly simple:

1. Toast some locally bought wheat bread
2. IMMEDIATELY after it's done, slather on some mayo so that it melts into the bread
3. Put 3 slices of heirloom tomatoes on each slice of the bread--about 1/4 inch thick
4. Sprinkle some sea salt and black pepper on top of the tomatoes
5. Enter food nirvana

Now the recipe also called for basil on top, and I *was* going to try it but I literally ate the first slice so fast that I forgot to add it AND take a picture--so next time for sure. The epitome of summer in a sandwich!

Ask the farmers...

I hit the Kirkland Farmers Market last night. I had a work event on the Argosy boat and the farmers market was conveniently located right next door to the dock. I was able to talk with a couple vendors and get some good local information. Grand Central Bakery uses all local ingredients (with the exception of a few things). The bread maker that I spoke with said that they get their wheat from Eastern Washington and the eggs are local. This is a great find, because bread is a staple in our house, we go through a couple loafs a week. As a side note, I also ordered a bread maker which should be here next week. I also stopped at Full Circle Farm and picked up some locally grown tomatillos. I can't wait to make some home made salsa. FCF said they have a really small crop of tomatillos so they aren't available in the CSA boxes. I also asked her about dried beans and they will have them in the fall (she thinks). Next stop was Smith Brothers Farm. They deliver milk to your doorstep! Remember those days? The milk comes from diary cows in Kent and they aren't certified organic (yet), but they follow all the same organic guidelines. If you want an organic milk, they do carry one but the cows are from Oregon. One disappointing note, is that La Pasta does not use local ingredients. We are still on the hunt for locally made pasta. Please let us know if you know of a vendor that uses all local ingredients for pasta.

Day 25 and I'm food exhausted

Low carb tortillas? Low-fat sour cream? Carb-control yogurt? Just a few of the things that you can't get locally. And yes, they are franken-foods!

A few of you know that I've been following a 30-day program that includes a meal plan and a workout regimen. Basically, I needed to shake things up, since my workout plan hasn't been doing anything for me lately. Besides the hardest workouts I've ever done, I am cooking every morsal of food that enters my mouth -- and it's a different, highly involved recipe for every meal. I've had amazing results so far, but all the cooking and shopping has exhausted me, and I'm having trouble finding the energy to cook my special meals AND find local foods.

For lunch today, I'm supposed to have an asparagus and walnut salad -- not exactly the time of year for fresh asparagus! Deviled eggs for a snack (local eggs, but I'm NOT making mayo just for two deviled eggs), and Braised pork with lemon and sage for dinner (lemon isn't local, and I'm going to have to search for pork shoulder -- which sounds so unappetizing to me). So, I've decided to eat local if I can, and not worry about it until after this crazy program is over. There is absolutely no way to eat local and follow someone else's meal plan!

It's pretty ironic, actually, that I normally don't eat all these types of franken-foods, but my "healthy eating" plan includes them. For breakfast this morning, it's Dannon Carb Control Yogurt (which I can't find anywhere, so I've already had to substitue Greek Yogurt). I'll put local cherries in my non-local Greek Yogurt this morning and be happy with that.

Ramblings

I was running around doing errands last night and I couldn't figure out where to eat. I stopped by the eat local store on Queen Anne. I bought squash lasagna for $13.98, about 12 flax crackers for $5.98 and the glass container for $5.98. I guess I just bring back the pan and either get store credit or keeping buying food in glass containers. It's like a milk bottle, she said. Whatever. From it, I did get dinner last night, lunch today and crackers as a snack yesterday and today. Still over 10 bucks a meal for one person. As someone trying to start a business, I won't be eating food from there very often. The dilemma is that it's really friggin good.

For tonight's dinner Tim cooked black bean burgers with root vegetables - beets, carrots - and string beans.It was delicious and earthly.



I am cooking tomorrow's dinner. I don't cook so the success of tomorrow's dinner will be dicey. There may be a lot of snacking after dinner. The menu includes

Spinach pasta (from that high price store on Queen Anne)
House Made Cinnamon Tomato Sauce
House Salad
Peasant Bread
Perhaps dessert.

Keep eating local. The tribal society is on it's way.

Whole Foods Does Not Equal Local Foods

I thought I had found a great loophole in the eating plan yesterday for lunch as after my dentist appointment I stopped by the Whole Foods right up the street from my office. I was sure that it would be super easy to find local greens and veggies that would make for an easy salad or something that would not take up too much time--again, I'm trying to keep my same routine and do this project, not stop and forage for grass clippings for an hour everyday to make a meal. So needless to say I was feeling pretty confident.

What I was not prepared for was how quickly my view changed of the Whole Foods experience in light of our project this month. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Whole Foods, love shopping there, and have spent many a pleasant hour sampling cheeses, wine tasting, and choosing the perfect tuna steak for dinner. Absolutley no arguments or complains on that account--the selection of organics and natural foods is unbeatable, well presented, and of generally good quality.

What changed was the veneer that dropped when I saw how few local products were actually on display in the store. Now I'll freely admit that I didn't take the time to go up and back every aisle, but in all the fresh food areas--which is where I concentrated my search--there were no labels on any of the salad bar food, desserts, mixed salads, prepared meals, etc. And as I started wandering the produce aisles I saw a lot of California produce, lots of Texas, but virtually nothing from the northwest. I saw packaged organic products from Georgia, Florida, and Illinois; meat from Colorado, fish from Maine and Massachusetts--you get the picture.

What became apparent is that although I have always associated Whole Foods with fresh and local, it has the exact same supply chain optimization that exists within my local Safeway, just with the word "organic" slapped on the front of the labels. There's almost no difference for me to buy anything at Whole Foods if the point is to eat locally and shorten the time from production to me.

Now again, not an indictment of Whole Foods, they are who they are, and I love the store--but as a marketer, I felt a bit foolish as I foraged for some trail mix and Kettle Chips that I found from Oregon how hard I had fallen for the image they are trying to portray. They may have great food, great lighting, and great displays, but that doesn't mean their food is any fresher than what I can get at the farmer's market every Thursday by my house.

Another adavantage to going local...upgraded lunch bag

Take a look at that ghetto lunch bag I brought to the office today. I mean, what kind of self respecting mid level manager stuck doing meaningless tasks most of the day would use a bag for lunch that many people use to pick up their dogs poop while walking around Greenlake.






Now take a look at the lunch bag below that I just ordered. Very subtle, I know, but everyone will know it belongs to me.

For lunch today I had an incredible Field Roast sandwich. Cooking black bean burgers with a side of fried carrots and beets (yuppie fried by the way, lightly cooked in olive oil) for dinner tonight.

What does "Certified Organic" really mean?

As I was standing in line this morning to get my much needed americano (shade grown & organic) from Ladro I noticed this label "Certified Organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture" on the coffee packaging . This isn't the first time I've noticed this label, I saw it a lot of the weekend while on my hunt for local foods, but I don't remember seeing it before this weekend. Is this something new? I'm curious What does "Certified Organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture" actually mean. If we see can we determine that it is local? I guess not if Ladro has it on their packaging. Is the government finally getting on board and setting some guidelines around what is organic? I think back to the days of when the big food companies, used to slap "lite" on their packaging so people would think that the food was low in fat or sugar or something, but turns out that it wasn't the case and it was all a big marketing hoax. Hence why we need to be cautious when we see "organic" on packaging. Here is some information on Washington's Organic certification process. I'll do some more research and report back.

Is eating "San Juan Granola" for 30 days really the point?

OK so I'm on my 3rd day of breakfast for our project, and once again I headed right for the cupboard and the local granola that I snagged over the weekend. Now admittedly I'm a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast, as I usually eat it standing at the kitchen sink listening to sports radio and can actually perform a maneuver where I scoop the cereal into my mouth, swallow it while I'm moving the bowl down to the sink, and rinse it out in one fluid motion as I run for the door and my first call of the day at work. It's impressive, trust me.

So I could literally eat granola every day for the rest of my life I love it so much, and with a ready supply of flavors and local availability, one could say that I easily have 1/3 of my daily challenge this month licked and crossed off my list.

But as I ate my oats this morning it occurred to me that being lazy about my breakfast choices and availability is kind of what gets us ingrained in a rut around not caring where our food comes from in the first place. As long as it fits into our routine and our time schedule, we grow to tolerate it, and that's not really the point of this exercise.

I'm already seeing that our food supply chain--even locally--is too easy and well honed to really make this a challenge if all I do is eat the same cereal, the same salad, and the same frozen dinner from the "Eat Local" store every day for this month. Now on one hand this is good news--if we can make it easier for people to eat locally and reduce the cycle time between grower and eater that's ideal and what we're ultimately out to prove is possible. But like my culinary hero Anthony Bourdain, I fear I will need a bigger challenge to make this worth my while for the next 4 weeks than frozen dinners from grass fed beef on the Spokane plains.

So I will now limit myself to granola 2 times a week, and find something else for the other 5 days--AND promise to actually eat breakfast, and not just drink my shade-grown-picked-by-fairies approved latte's every morning. And after today, no more frozen dinners as well--not only are they frozen and come out mushy (I am still struggling with the whole concept of frozen and local--shouldn't local mean fresh? See Barb's post yesterday), they are boring. And this project shouldn't be about boring.

Although homemade peanut butter grosses me out, so I don't think I'll be eating lunch with Tim anytime soon...

Hmmm...I really Backed Myself into a Corner

I've found trying to go local while being vegan really puts the handcuffs on the old diet. If you see a guy eating dandelions and blackberrys (the eating kind, not the emailing kind) on the side of the road that would be me. "Brother, can you spare a piece of bread made from grains grown in the nortwest and egg replacer instead of real eggs?"

I'm up for the challenge though. I really like how going local will force us to eat almost every meal at the house. I love to cook while Tatum runs around behind me and Piper crawls at my feet trying to get into whatever is in the cabinets under the sink. I also like variety when cooking (just ask Jill, she has to constantly remind me to keep it simple and cook something I've already done when in a hurry). Going loco...l mean local will force us to get creative with the dinner time menu.

The biggest difference for me will be not eating out for lunch. Just ask Guy, my friends and I get around town for lunch. I usually need the social break so I'm going to have to figure out some other way to get my daily laughing sessions in. Today I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made from Randall picked blackberrys and homemade peanut butter. On the side I had the best cherries of the season with a fresh peach. For a snack I had some of our homemade blackberry oat bars. Not bad.

I'm hungry

Day 2 of eating local and I have to admit I felt hungry all day. I think I'll have to pack more snacks tomorrow. I was excited to try this recipe tonight for dinner, Farro Radicchio and Roasted Beet Salad. To heavy on the radicchio and not enough beets...good thing we had bread and cheese to go with our meal.

I've had a request to track the amount of money this little endevour is costing us. I don't have an exact amount at the moment, but we spent $35 on flour & rice and $18 on tomatos at the Farmers Market on Saturday. Like Guy said, really! Seriously? No wonder people don't eat healthy.

Tim's on tap for making dinner tomorrow night, he must really be starving as he doesn't eat cheese.

Why are all local meats frozen???

Okay, I'm at the end (day 21) of a 30 day workout program that is heavy on the meat. I'm trying to find good local meats, but they all seem to be frozen -- even the local meats at the QA farmer's market. Why is this? I tried a frozen lamb and it sucked. Royally. It was just so dry -- and on my program, I can't use a ton of fats to moisten it up. Anyone know a good local (Queen Anne area) supplier of local, non-frozen meats? I should check A&J meats, but I don't remember if they focus on local or not. I feel like I'm going to be going to the store every day!

Eating Local is $#%#@ Expensive!

This is the first roadblock that Barb and I immediately encountered as we stocked up for our project. What becomes immediately apparent as you search labels for locally sourced products is how distributed our food supply chain has become. Now, sometimes that's OK--I love Bordeaux wine, parmasean cheese, and Argentinean beef and don't seem to have any issues with the distance THAT food has traveled to my plate. But I also don't have any issues with the *quality* of that food and to be fair, that food is also single ingredient food, not a melange of 31 ingredients like that of the BBQ sauce in my fridge (to be fair, the onion salt in the recipe is apparently organic--who knew this was an option?).

So we're finding quickly that the fewer ingredients in foods, the more expensive they seem to be--isn't that perverse? You pay less for a sceptic cocktail of chemicals that approximate the taste of the real thing. What an upside down world we've come to live in.

In any case, finding local replacements for the things I like to eat is already driving me to the edge. I paid $88.65 at the "Eat Local" store yesterday afternoon for a single plastic bag of food that just a day earlier at the local Fred Meyer yielded 4 similar sized bags. At this rate we're going to use our 2010 food budget by Labor Day.

Must find another path to make this work...thank goodness for the abundance of Walla Walla wines and Pyramid Summer Ale beer!

Does it Matter "Why" I'm Going Local?

Barb and I were excited to get started on this month-long initiative on eating local. Truthfully I'm as much into this for the challenge of seeing if I can do it vs. the virtues of shortening my food supply chain. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for freshness, organic food, humane treatment of animals, and all related and associated causes. I truly do believe there are health benefits to fresher produce that doesn't have chemicals all over them, and I like the idea of looking the grower of my pepper or green bean in the eye vs. seeing a sticker on a piece of unripened fruit that says "product of Chile."

Having said that, I just have to admit at the outset of this project that I'm approaching this much more to understand how eating local can be incorporated into the routine of a person who works outside of the house and travels around the world. And I think eating local initiatives should have room for this viewpoint and approach as well, given that we end up in the same place.

So off we go!

Preperation

One really needs to be prepared to "go local". We probably weren't as prepared as we should have been. I don't think we quite knew what were getting into. This is going to take a lot of work, but we are up to the task. We packed the kids up Saturday morning and hit the University Farmers Market with not much of a list. We knew we needed the staples, but wasn't sure what we would find. We found this great vendo Bluebird Grain Farms, that grows grains in Eastern Washington. We also picked up some local tomatoes & vegetables. I then ventured to PCC & Eat Local and picked up some more eats. Tim and I made peanut butter this evening along with some Emmer Farro. Looking forward to tomorrow's eats.

Day One - 8/1/10

This is day one of eating local. Tim made blackberry oat bars with oats from the Northwest and hand picked blackberries from the neighborhood. Jill made a blackberry and blueberry crumble using more of the blackberries and locally grown blueberries.

This is prime blackberry picking time. You can find blackberries everywhere. Most of the time people work very hard to rid them from the garden. I think the best place to find them are in areas that are not well tended. Look for them in the nearest vacant lot or even along the side of the road. Remember to wash them. Tim said there are many along the Burke Gilman trail in Fremont.

Blackberry and Blueberry Crumble


Blackberry Oat Bars

Meeting Time

The Randall's and I hope to meet tonight to discuss our eating local effort. I need to start eating fewer carbohydrates and more protein. However, I know nothing about food. This will be a great education for me.

Finger Snacks - Kale Chips

Tatum and I were munching on some yummy veggie bootie today (puffed rice snacks) and I realized that I have to find a good "local" replacement for finger snacks. I had a lot of Kale in the fridge that needed to be used asap. So I decided to make "Kale Chips".

They turned out pretty good. Here is a picture of Tatum's reaction to the kale chips...she said they were good, but then didn't want any more. Maybe she was just being nice. I didn't think they were half bad. Give it a try.

Brown Bag?

I like to venture out at lunch, get some fresh air and pick up some eats. I think lunch is going to be my biggest challenge in August. I hear a brown bag calling my name (maybe I'll get a cute bag to help entice me). It might be peanut butter sandwiches and carrot sticks for me. Perhaps I can tag along with my lunch buddies and salivate over their food, or maybe I'll feel really good because I am helping this earth one meal at a time. At least my pocket book will thank me.

For those of you who work in Seattle homegrown has some good local eats.

Farsi?

This isn't Farsi. This is the result of a lot of digging in the dirt.

We can change anything

Just thought I would get us going.