Thursday, August 9, 2007

Wanted local: Do you know where I can find...

I've been doing pretty well at eating full time local foods (I'm at about 80% local), but there are a few things I've had a hard time locating. We live practically in Eden and most everything I could need (besides coffee, spices, chocolate, sugar, and tropical fruits) is here if I look hard enough. I don't know if these are grown or produced locally, but it's worth a shot! If you know where I can find these, please let me know!

Soy sauce
Sesame oil/sesame seeds
Rice wine vinegar
White wine vinegar
Red wine vinegar (being so close to wine country, I'd expect this to be here, but I'm not sure where to look)
Peanut butter (it's a long shot!)
Ginger
Cornmeal
Quinoa
Couscous
Barley
Bulgur
Steel cut oats
Whole wheat pasta
Lentils

Some foods I've wanted simply don't grow locally. I've made exceptions to the local rule for spices and condiments, the occasional chocolate, and coffee (mostly for Mr.M - I rarely drink coffee.) I'm buying them organic and fair trade when I do buy them. Bananas, coconuts, pineapples, mangoes, and other tropical fruits don't grow in California so I have to buy imported if I want these treats, but as you can see from the previous daily menus, they're not on my table frequently. I do miss Thai recipes with their coconut milk goodness, though!

I've come upon local sources for apple cider, olive oil, sunflower seeds recently, but haven't sampled them yet.

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Kamut puffs, milk
Plums

Lunch
Black beans and bulgur
zucchini from neighbor's yard
Orange from neighbor's tree

Dinner
Pot roast with carrots and fingerling potatoes - beef from Chileno Valley Ranch, carrots and potatoes from Full Belly Farm
Green beans from Full Belly Farm

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 0
WPA points available: 0
Activity points today: 8 (The Firm video)
Activity points this week: 27 (4 yesterday)

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - Kamut, rice
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes (beans, beef)
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I'm introducing myself--I followed you over here from the Core board (I'm Leaseachef). I don't post a whole lot, and I'm new to Core, but . . .

Sounds like we're in the same foodshed, gal! My partner and I belong to Eatwell CSA (and sometimes work for them at the Ferry Plaza FM), and we've been buying beef for the last two years from Chileno. I don't really spend a lot of time worrying about sourcing local ingredients, I confess, but I suspect we eat about 80% locally grown stuff. I can't imagine eating any other way anymore. I see people talking about cooking with tomatoes in December, and it's like wtf?

Anyway, blah blah blah. Just wanted to say high to a fellow csa/local foodie doing Core!

Anonymous said...

You can do a mock coconut milk with regular milk and coconut extract. It's more of a low fat/cholesterol solution than a local/organic solution, I think.

Momaste said...

lisa, I feel you on the tomatoes in January! Why bother? We bought our beef from Chileno as well. Good stuff! I hope you stick around and keep reading.

andi, extracts fall into the spices exception in our house, so I'll give that a shot. Thanks!