Food Tracking: Day Two

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

Breakfast

Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee Company (Roaster in Oakland, beans from all over)

Smoothie made from:
Soy Milk, Silk Soy (national brand)
Straus Plain Yogurt (Marin County)
Marshall's Honey (Buzz-erkely, made in Berkeley)
Cascadian Farm Organic Frozen Strawberries (national brand, farms all over)

The only thing that really bugs me about this breakfast is the fact that I use Cascadian Farm Strawberries.  Last summer, we went to a U-Pick at Swanton Berry Farm, and I was able to freeze quite a few berries in order to avoid using a brand like Cascadian.  I am going to have to make a point of getting down there soon ... If I freeze them myself, they are from a farm I know and they taste SO much better.  And in doing research on this, I just checked out their site and noticed that the featured strawberry grower that they have is someone who I just saw speak ... this guy is not an organic farmer in the sense of the word that I like.  He is someone who grows conventional, GMO, and organic crops (He spoke on the pro-GMO side of a panel I attended) and basically said that he grows organic crops because it is a niche market and because of the profit.  Ok ... no more Cascadian Farms products for me!

Lunch

Marin Sun Farms Cheeseburger (Pt. Reyes Station) on Acme roll (Berkeley)
Cherries (Everything Under the Sun, Winters)

Had a chance to run to the Ferry Building for today's farmer's market.  I hadn't been there in several months, and it's nice to see so many booths at the Tuesday Market.  Marin Sun Farms is there now - serving up lunch.  Their beef is grass-fed and local.  And delicious.  I never really eat mayo on something like a burger, but they had a choice of several types that were homemade from their farm eggs.  I couldn't resist.

I am addicted to cherries - have you guessed?  I feel like I talk about them a lot.  The cherries arrived in the market about three weeks ago, but I didn't buy any until this weekend - finally deeming them sweet enough to eat.  No one is very happy with the California cherry season thus far.  The fruit is very susceptible to damage and the rain last week came at the wrong time.  So you'll see a lot of bruised, water-logged fruit.  I picked through and found 2 pounds of pretty good cherries -- if you are super picky, though, wait for the Bings.  Bill, the farmer from Everything Under the Sun, believes that the Bing crop will be better than what's out now -- just due to weather factors.  Never heard of Everything Under the Sun?  They are at the market on Saturdays and Tuesdays, they sell a lot of dried fruit, and a guy who works there usually yells "Sampling is mandatory ... if you haven't tried our dried organic cherry tomatoes then you haven't had the full market experience". 

Overall a successful lunch - local and sustainable on all fronts.

Dinner

Sushi, Ten-Ichi.
Milk Duds at the movie theater.

Dinner was a bust.  Ten-Ichi is our default sushi place ... it's close by, and they make great sushi.  But it has nothing to do with serving local or sustainable food.  It's an independent business, so that kind of counts.  I don't want to talk about the Milk Duds.  It was a temporary moment of weakness.

Read Food Tracking, Day One

Comments

[rache]

i agree with you about the strawberries. i'm currently a smoothie addict and i wasn't able to get to the market last weekend because of some *police* barricade (hello?) so, in desperation, i had to deign to using frozen tj's (not organic, btw) strawberries. the taste was less than ideal, so today, i bought *six* pints ($8 total in torrance). i froze three of them. i think i'm going to have to buy a truckload for using after the season is over.

ps i love this series.

[Dr. Biggles]

Dang, sorry to hear that about the Cascadian Farms. I've enjoyed their frozen peas and juice (for the kids) infrequently over the years.

And it looks as though you've found your stride again Jen, good going. Take care and have fun!

Biggles

[jen]

Biggles - I still think that Cascadian Farms is better than some things. They are organic, so there's that. But I personally would choose locally grown from a single source over and organic national brand.

[tanvi]

i also picked strawberries at the swanton berry farm but at the time i didnt realize i could freeze them...we were eating massive amount of strawberries in a week's time. im going to try to do that this year though. im really fascinated by this series- looking forward to the rest of the week!

[jen]

tanvi -

There is a trick to freezing them that I have never been able to follow through with -- you can freeze on a cookie sheet all separated out, and that way when you bag them they don't turn into a big clump. I just never have enough room in my freezer to do that.

I froze them in the smallest ziploc freezer bags I could find so that the portions were pretty much single-serving. While they are perfect for smooothies (you don't have to use ice), they don't stand up well enough to be served by themselves.

[molly]

Marshalls Honey is a food of the gods.