CityMama™

Food, no-so glorious, food

Recently J. and I have been having passing conversations about food, what it costs, and how we want to feed our family. It started because I notice that every time we go to the farmer's market together, he's a total grump (yes, you are @theJB, don't EVEN try to front) when he sees his 60 fresh-from-the ATM machine dollars whittled down to zero dollars in a matter of 20 minutes. It is startling, but since I am the one that normally does the shopping, it doesn't phase me as much. I know what we are buying is exactly what we need and that it's things that my girls will eat. They help to choose our produce and I'm teaching them to support their local food growers, their local community. J. and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye on this subject. In fact, I'm realizing we have two divergent opinions on the matter.

Me:
I like to shop at farmer's markets for organic, locally grown produce. I do the cooking so I should have the most say. I read Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver and don't want to feed my kids genetically modified foods or tainted beef. Plus, rainbow chard makes a pretty picture in the morning sun. See?

Him:
"Giant packs of frozen burritos are BOGO at Safeway! That's 20 burritos for five bucks! That's lunch for, like, two weeks! Michael who?"

"But I like shopping at the farmer's market because everything is fresh and organic,"  I'll say.

"And I like Safeway because it's cheap," he'll counter.

The thing is, he's right. He is. But I want to be right, too. Though, when I find myself noticing the "pretty chard," I have to stop my visual-learning-self and say, "You sound like an idiot."  Shopping at farmer's markets is expensive, hell, it's a luxury, and we live in one of the most expensive communities in the entire country. You can make six figures here and still never feel "wealthy." So how do we strike a balance?

Eat local, but more importantly—shop local

Reflecting back on last week's "Eat Local Challenge," my main take-away from the experience is to try to be more aware of where all of my food comes from. As I mentioned before—and as many Family Food commenters concurred—it's easy to eat local in Northern California where we have an abundance of fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat, poultry, dairy products, wine right in our backyard. Because of that, I realized that most of the time, I am shopping local, intentionally or not.

Since I was doing the penny-wise challenge—spending no more than $144 to feed my family for the week—I was also trying to be budget-conscious. I realize that a lot of people spend far less than that to feed their families of four, but one of the arguments against eating local is that it's expensive. I took a few exceptions (pasta, coffee, condiments, etc.), but for the most part, eating local wasn't more expensive than the way we normally eat (a mixture of organic and non-organic local and non-local foods). Shopping took a bit longer as I carefully considered each purchase, but that is a learning curve that I know will shorten over time.

Speaking of shopping, eating local is one thing, but shopping local is another. For those of us that live in Silicon Valley, I'd love for you to consider where the grocery store you shop at is based. Is it part of our local community or are they just telling us what we want to hear?

One of my favorite local grocers, Country Sun, has been in the same location since I was a kid. When I worked at the language school next door, that's where I had breakfast or lunch. When Whole Foods opened up nearby, I steeled my resolve to shop Country Sun. And did. And all the while I worried that the small store would be shuttered by the competition.

All these years later, Country Sun still survives and thrives. Now that we are back in Silicon Valley, I try to shop there whenever I can. After doing the Eat Local challenge, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and making that my primary grocery store. One thing I love about Country Sun is that every local product in the store is clearly labeled. Items in the fridge and freezer cases are labeled, items on the shelves are labeled. Produce, of course, is labeled. Eating local is a no-brainer when you shop local.

Is it more expensive than Trader Joe's? Sure. But if we all resolved to eat local and shop local, perhaps the prices will come down. I challenge everyone reading this who lives in Silicon Valley to not just eat local, but to shop local, too. No matter where you live, seek out the local grocers in your community. Because they aren't just talking the talk, they are walking the walk in the face of some stiff competition.

Eat Local Challenge: Pasta with Meyer Lemon, Spinach and Walnuts

Towards the end of the week we were ready for some pasta. The lemons, spinach and walnuts were local, and when added to the pasta and cheese, gave this dish a substantial bite. The slight bitterness of the toasted walnuts (which I toast in my toaster oven) was offset by the creamyness of the feta.  And the addition of fresh spinach leaves made it seemed like you were getting a salad along with!

Toss the ingredients below (feta, chopped, toasted walnuts, spinach) with hot pasta, the juice of two Meyer lemons, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roasted Cauliflower, Fennel, and Garlic Soup

Soup is the favorite way my husband likes to eat cauliflower, with roasted running a close second. That inspired me to create this soup for dinner last night. The normally pungent fennel goes all sweet and creamy in this soup.  Roasting mellows its flavor just as it does garlic. I served it with warm, whole grain bread and local butter.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, FENNEL, AND GARLIC SOUP

1 head cauliflower, remove core, break into florets
1 fennel bulb, white part only, trimmed and cut into chunks
6 unpeeled cloves of garlic
olive oil
unsalted butter
6 cups of water or broth
2 waxy potatoes scrubbed and chunked (I never peel them for soup)
heavy cream, milk, half n half or unsweetened soy milk (about a cup)
salt and pepper

Place cauliflower, fennel, and garlic in roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 375º for about 45 minutes until fragrant and lightly browned.

Peel garlic and then transfer squeezed garlic and veggies to soup pot and saute in olive oil and a little butter for about 10 minutes.

Add water or broth and potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are soft skimming any foam as needed. Puree with a stick blender (see side bar) then add cream to taste until soup is silky. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Eat Local Challenge Weekly Menu (Finally)

A little late, but this morning I took the girls to the park, sat in the sun, and made my menu. 

Note: breakfasts have been mainly cereal (an exception) and local milk or toast with jam and butter. I did pick up some local bacon and eggs but haven't made those yet.

Tuesday

Lunch: Pesto and provolone sandwiches, Raw English Shelling peas, apples (exceptions: provolone, bread*)
Dinner: Roasted Cauliflower, Fennel, and Garlic Soup, Crusty whole grain bread + butter (exceptions: bread*)

Wednesday

Lunch: Pasta with Spinach, lemon, and feta (exceptions: pasta, feta)
Dinner: Chicken Paillard (California, may not be within 100 mi), roasted asparagus, fennel/orange salad

Thursday

Lunch:  Zucchine frittata or cous cous (an exception)
Dinner: Either Gypsy Soup or Local Sausage and Yam soup, sauteed English peas, crusty bread

Friday

Lunch: leftovers of some sort.

My mom is coming into town for the weekend so the challenge for us will have to end on Friday. Since we are staying with her in San Francisco for the weekend, I'm hoping it won't be too hard to find locally grown/made ingredients  in our restaurant meals.

P.S. Saturday night's dinner is at a super-fancy and yummy restaurant and I am too too excited.  I will report back, for sure!

*bread is locally made though not sure where flour is from

Eat Local Challenge: Monday Lunch—Potato Salad Two Ways

Today I did potato salad two ways.  One with a basil-raw walnut-garlic-olive oil pesto. The other was a tangy German-style potato salad with local vinegar (Sebastopol, CA), dill, onions yellow carrots, and salt and pepper.  I served this with local navel orange wedges.  Even Bunny who isn't wild about potatoes but is wild about pesto ate it. Wallie, of course, ate everything.

All the ingredients in this meal were local except for the salt (from Hawaii) and pepper.

Making the pesto. Bunny "helped" and took the photos:

Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge: I'm doing it

More and more I've been thinking about the notion that it's not so much eating organic that is the best, most healthful way to feed my family, but to "eat local" (within a 100-miles radius of where I live). Or try to, anyway, at least for fresh produce, fish, meat, and poultry. I've been a long-time supporter of CSA's and have always received produce from local farms are part of our grocery intake, but when money is tight, it seems that expense is always the first to be cut.

We stopped our CSA deliveries about 8 months ago when we moved from one San Francisco house to another. I love farmer's markets as well, but negotiating the crowded SF markets with two children under the age of 5 is no fun. Produce deliveries offered us a way to bring the farmer's market to our door. Since we just moved again and now are settled, I've been thinking of starting up deliveries again. I've just heard word that perhaps a year-round weekly farmer's market will open a five minute walk away from our house and if that happens, that's how we'll get our fruit, veg, and flowers. Finger's crossed!

Today's San Francisco Chronicle had a great article about eating locally on a budget and highlighted next week's Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness about reducing the energy used to transport and process foods but also to try to debunk the notion that eating locally is expensive. Of course, to eat everything locally is more expensive, but I'm going to take the locavore challenge to see if it can't be done. Since I am a bargain shopping, coupon-clipper, I love the fact that this challenge will require us to spend no more than $144 for the week on groceries for all our meals. This is roughly what we spend now on a mixture of groceries purchased at farmer's markets, Trader Joe's, and Costco, the places where I normally shop.

The bare-bones details (check the website linked about for more details):

• April 23-29
• Eat only foods from within a 100-mile radius from where you live. This includes the ingredients that go into the food. (For this reason I'm lucky to live in California. Hello Sonoma County wines!)
• Spend about $10 per person per day.
• You can have some exemptions like coffee, tea, or salt.

This Sunday you'll find us at our local farmer's market. I usually go alone, but I'll need to bring my husband to help carry all the things I'm planning on buying. Our little market has everything from produce to eggs to fish so this should be fun!

Why don't you join me in the challenge, and we can compare notes and share recipes along the way?  If you think you might do it, let me know in the comments!  Go locavores!

P.S.  I found my camera.  Guess I'll have to hold off on that DX2 a little while longer...