Category Archives: Food

Now reading

Everything I Want to do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin (courtesy of my local public library)

I’m not very far into it yet, but it is already quite enlightening and reinforces our decision to support local farmers.

No bananas for me

I stopped buying bananas over 7 months ago.  I have always loved banana bread (especially chocolate chip banana bread) but bananas do not grow here.  They do not grow anywhere near here, and thus have a large carbon footprint.  In fact, Barabara Kingsolver referred to bananas as “the Hummers” of the food world.  And I do not like Hummers one bit — shocker, I know.

In addition to the banana bread, I used to eat a banana pretty much every morning on my oatmeal.  Now I eat other fruit on my oatmeal, ideally local (like apples when in season).  For quick bread options, I have zucchini and pumpkin, which are both delicious.  Surprisingly, I miss bananas very little.

I know there are other foods I eat that also come from far away (ahem, chocolate), but this was my starting point, something glaringly obvious that I consumed every day.  Being green is a work in progress.

Taters

"Blue" potatoes
"Blue" potatoes

In real life, they are purple, but the seed company called them blue.  I’m not complaining — they are gorgeous, delicious, AND healthy.  These little taters have the same antioxidant profile as blueberries (which are often listed as a “superfood” because of all the antioxidant goodness).

However, that information is not doing much for my quads, which are still upset over their part in harvesting 200 pounds of potatoes on Saturday.  They hurt when walking, which is not an optional activity.  If those muscles could talk, they would have said, “Woman, what are you doing?  Are you trying to kill us?”  when I got on my bike this morning.  I think the movement will help them feel better faster.