Farmer's Market

Last night I discovered that the Troy Farmer's Market I've visited during the summer runs an indoor winter market as well. Apparently my husband has been aware of this, but kept it from me because he was afraid it would "cost us too much money."

To digress for a minute - I haven't gone into this aspect of my new food concerns yet, but I might just as well put it out there because it's going to play a large part in how I shop and cook. As a young family just starting out we need to live "conservatively." This means each week I try to budget myself $50-75 dollars at the grocery store - I am rarely successful at sticking to the lower end of the budget. So, the struggle to replace all of our old processed foods with better, more sustainable products is complicated by the fact that I have to be as thrifty as I can.

In the end, I convinced my husband that we should at least check out the market this morning when I got home from work. We slowly lapped the atrium trying an occasional sample of organic cheese or produce while I carefully calculated which products I'd like to try for $15 or less. In the end, I ended up with a jar of homemade Strawberry Pear jam ($4), three hydroponic tomatoes ($2), a few organic mint springs ($2), and a quarter pound of mild mesculin mix ($3.50).

When I got home I couldn't wait to come up with something yummy to make for lunch with the tomatoes and mint. The simple recipe I came up with will follow shortly

My Food Revolution

I love food. If I were to estimate, I'd say greater than 50% of my day is spent thinking about, preparing, and eating food. In all the hours that I spend thinking about what my family will be eating, I spend mere minutes a week thinking about where our food is coming from. I fear I've been going about this all wrong.

Maybe this will make me sound like an idiot. Or a yuppie. Or a yuppie idiot. I don't know, but here's the truth - I watched the movie Food, Inc. I'm smart enough to know that the filmmakers had an agenda in producing the film and that there is clearly a bias; but still. I feel like this movie forced me to acknowledge the things I already knew in the back of my head. The big food companies are out there producing mass quantities of sub-standard food under less than ideal conditions because the consumer is too tired, too busy, too poor, and too lazy to think enough about it to raise their voices in protest.

Especially now, with a beautiful little girl dependent on my choices to fuel her little body and brain, I need to think about food in a whole new way. I want our food to be the best it can be, produced in an honest way, and supportive of a greater cause.

And so, this begins my journey away from Little Debbie Snack Cakes and the drive-thru at Taco Bell towards the greener pastures of organic farmers and the warmth of my own oven.