Food Tracking: Day One

For more information on this project, see my introductory post.

Breakfast

Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee Company (Roaster in Oakland, beans from all over)
English Muffin, Sconehenge Bakery (Berkeley)
Almond Butter, Full Belly Farm (Capay Valley)
Pomegranate Jelly, courtesy of Elise (Sacramento area)
Soy Milk, Silk Soy (national brand)

We have Sconehenge english muffins in our house all the time ... mostly because Jason loves them.  I like them because they are made by a local producer, and they are fluffy and taste good.  I don't know anything else about the ingredients they use. 

Almond butter is another thing I stock because of J.  He is addicted to it.  As anyone who knows about almond butter will tell you, it ain't cheap.  And then organic almond butter is even more expensive.  I bought a large jar from Lagier Ranch (organic) yesterday at the farmer's market for a whopping $13!  I was really happy to find Full Belly's a couple of months ago at the Marin Farmer's Market (Thursdays) because it is $8, I believe.  The price difference is because they are transitioning to organic.  No matter - Full Belly is a local farm that I know and love, and I will buy anything from them - organic or not.  And who can resist that happy Buddha logo?

I had a surprise this winter when the famous Elise dropped off a care package for me that included apple butter and pomegranate jelly.  I didn't open the jelly until a couple weeks ago and it is delicious.  Check out the recipe on her site if you want to re-create.  Extra bonus points on this one, as Elise was the grower, the harvester and the jelly maker!

My real downfall this meal was with the Silk Soy Milk.  To me, Silk / White Wave is like the Coca-cola of the soy milk industry.  They are ubiquitous and owned by the ginormous Dean Foods.  I did a soy milk tasting about a year ago to find a local source that I like, but nothing won out over Silk's unsweetened soy milk.  On the plus side, they're organic.

Lunch

Bento Box, Super Mira (San Francisco)
Strawberry popsicle, FrutStix (Santa Barbara)

I don't know much about what was in the bento box, or where it came from.  The bento boxes are made fresh in the store, but nothing gave me information about the ingredients.  As a side note, the Japanese stores in town are a good, random place to find organic items.  They seem to have quite a few usually.

In looking at the FrutStix box, I think that I need to find a better source of popsicles.  Popsicles are a must in this household.  The FrutStix popsicles are okay as they don't have many added ingredients and are mostly fruit.  But I don't know anything about their ingredients.  On the plus side, it seems to be a fairly small company and is local-ish.

Dinner

Rancho Gordo Beans - Ojo de Cabra (Sacramento Delta) prepared with onion (plain ol' non-organic onion) and carrot (Heirloom Organics, Panoche).
Lamb Chops (Golden Gate Meat Company, origin unknown)
Salad with greens from Heirloom Organics, herbs from Eatwell Farm (Winters), cucumbers from Happy Quail (E. Palo Alto), red onion from Balkanian Farm.
Crisps made with stale Acme bread (San Francisco).

Overall, dinner was pretty good.  The lamb chops I know are antibiotic-free, but I bought them in a hurry the other day and am not sure of their origin.  I can count on one hand the number of times I have bought lamb at Golden Gate Meat Company, and this was one of them.  I think it's about the equivalent of purchasing from Whole Foods -- fairly good, but not as good as, say Highland Hills.

Comments

[elise]

Hi Jen,
Oh I'm so glad you liked it! I just ate the last of our stock this morning. The apple butter ran out last week too. The Gravensteins won't be ripe until July for a new batch and the pomegranates will come again in November. Mom thought the pomegranate jelly lacked some tartness so the next time we make it I'm going to add some lemon juice.

[Jen's Mom]

2 Things.
1. Regarding the seemingly outrageous cost of the almond butter: we cook for a vegetarian in our home and always remind ourselves when making such a purchase that we don't think twice about spending that much for a steak...

2. I guess you've given up those little Gerber meat sticks in a jar that you wrapped your fists around when you were a baby :)

[sarah]

i must say - i most certainly have to agree that life begins at 30!

anyway...what a wonderful project! i kind of did something similar - tried to visit a different farmers market in la every day, and it was tough to make sure i ate some kind of produce from them each day. now i am inspired by you to do it for every meal!

[Rachael]

What an excellent project!
And speaking of projects, now is the perfect time of year to make your own popsicles. Mmmm.
:-)

[farmgroupie]

I have just found your site, and I think that this project is a great idea. Have you read 'Coming Home to Eat' by Gary Paul Nabhan? He does a similar project where he tried to ensure that I believe 80% of his food for one year was produced withing 150 miles of his home. It's a great book.

I will be checking back to see what you're eating. Your farmers' markets are producing different foods than ours here in Virginia and it's great to see the differences. It's also great to see your committment to support your local farmers!

Christine

[McAuliflower]

Your mom cracks me up! Ewwwwww, those gelatinous meat sticks- yeeuuuch!

i sense that you have a lot on your plate right now... (ha ha- not! I can see that I snack more than you do...) but how about this challenge: thought about making your own soy milk*?

I have Chinese coworkers who find it amusing that I like to cook so much, and with that in mind they press recipes into my hands every once in awhile. They threw the make-my-own-tofu challenge at me awhile back and I still haven't taken them up on it. They say the easy way is if you don't grind your own soy beans but just buy the soy flour instead. Yesh!

* http://www.soymilkmaker.com/making_tofu.html