Emily’s Eat Local Challenge – San Francisco

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

This year we spent Thanksgiving here in SF, at my cousin’s who I am proud to say served a local bird (which I can appreciate even though I don’t eat turkey) and a delicious array of mostly local veggies in accompaniment.  We made my favorite spinach recipe as well as some local Dungeness crab and corn fritters (recipe from Ray’s Boathouse: Seafood Secrets of the Pacific Northwest) which were seriously delicious.  It was a wonderful feast with some local wine and beer and lots of local friends.  It felt great to eat local for the holiday, it’s a small thing we can do to minimize the impact of what can be a very indulgent tradition.

And now for a mostly unrelated but always enjoyable pic for this post…

Turkey 1, Bush 0

thanks to Defne for the heads up!

Avedano’s is such a great resource, they deserve their very own post.

http://www.avedanos.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/avedanos-holly-park-market-san-francisco

It’s in my neighborhood which is of course an immediate plus.  But there are plenty of great things about Avedano’s: They concentrate on local, humanely raised and slaughtered meats and locally caught and sustainable seafood.  Also, it’s woman-owned.  You will pay a little more, but isn’t it worth it to feel confident in where your meat is coming from?  And it’s great to support a small, local, woman-owned business.

On Monday 11.24 afternoon from 3-4pm out front of CCA’s SF campus, I’ll be participating in an Alternative Food Fair.  I’m banding together with four other students who are working on food-related Personal Sustainability Projects this semester.

We’ll have one bringing vegan food, one bringing corn-free food, one bringing food incorporating sea vegetables, one incorporating mini livestock (aka insects), and I’ll be bringing local treats. The food will be FREE and we’ll all have information relating to our projects, along with the recipes for our culinary creations.

Hope you’ll stop by if you’re around, to sample some tasty alternative foods!

Localharvest.org is a wonderful resource for finding local foods, farms, restaurants, etc no matter where in the US you live.  It’s also pretty interesting to see how many more resources there are in the middle to eastern parts of the country versus the west – there are few scattered resources listed in the central to western parts of the country, and then a heavy listing along the west coast. The creators of the website are in Santa Cruz, CA, so it’s not them being biased towards the east – most likely an actual reflection of more resources available in that part of the country.

Local Foods Resource Map from localharvest.org

Mega stir fry today with the veggies from the box: carrots, green and red peppers, green beans, mixed leafy greens, and leeks in ginger, olive oil and a splash of soy sauce, served with wild rice blend.  All local but the soy sauce.  Made a huge batch so we’ll have lots of leftovers.

New box today, boyf was singing a little chant as we cleaned out the fridge of old gone-bad food and put the nice new fresh veggies in.

Old goes out, new goes in, only what we need!

I think that last bit was a jab at me and my newfound tendency to collect excessive amounts of local produce.  I’m still kinda new to this cooking local from scratch thing, and getting the boxes delivered, and frankly, it’s a little overwhelming trying to find time to cook it all, let alone figure out what to make with it.  Some of the stuff that arrives I’m not even sure what it is!

Because we often end up going to the farmer’s market anyway, we’ve decided not to continue the CSA boxes after the 4-box trial.  The farmer’s market does require us getting up early on Saturdays but it’s cheap and at least we only get what we want.

OBAMAAAAA!!
Sorry… I know this isn’t a political blog, I’m just so unbelievably proud of my country today.

Returned from Monterey and Yosemite this afternoon with a new appreciation of the incredible value of California’s wild spaces.  Both places are just bursting with life and awe-inspiring beauty.  It’s just another reason why we should eat local as a step to protect our environment.

Monterey

Yosemite Falls

Monterey!

Brekkie today, local granola and milk, tea with local honey and milk.  Easy to bring that stuff along.

Lunch, went out with the extended family, unfortunately not local food.

Dinner, Rehearsal Dinner for sister’s wedding.  Yes, on Halloween.  Awesome.  Out to eat at a planned group meal, it’s just not do-able to be a locavore.  Though at least the salmon was Pacific caught.  Had some local wine with dinner, that’s certainly an easy one to do here in the Bay Area.

So, my last official day of the challenge was a bit of a wash, but in all fairness who is gonna be a pain-in-the-neck picky eater at their own sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner?

This is sort of the same approach I take with my pesca-tarianism.  I’m not the sort of veggie who’s going to demand you make a Tofurkey if I’m coming for Thanksgiving, and I’m not going to tell you not to order a steak when we go out to eat.  I’ll just sit there quietly judging you.  (kidding!)

Moving forward into the next phase of my Eat Local project, I will incorporate local fare into my diet where possible and practical, applying what I learned over the last month.  Starting after my sister’s wedding  :)

Brekkie today, yet more local granola and tea with local milk and honey.

Went to Rainbow for a little food for today and for the trip.  Lunch, spinach/feta pocket, and picked up some local cheese, bread (locally baked), granola, milk, butter, and a couple veggies for the trip.  Mostly we will be eating out though, so not too much food for the house.

Dinner, a very sad road sandwich made in the car from the cooler: local Monterey Jack cheese on local bread.  Hungry but happy to get to Monterey and see everyone!