Food

I took this photo a month or two ago at Union Square. I happened to be there on an errand the same day as their Farmer's Market. Something I love about NYC--all the Farmer's Markets; they make eating more local and seasonal food so much easier.  Today I visited one a few blocks from my apartment, right in front of Columbia's campus on Broadway.  I bought some winter squash, kale, and about $7 worth of apples, which should hopefully last Derrick until tomorrow. The man is crazy for apples. I cut into one of them today for lunch. Not very sweet, but the crunch was amazing, the pied skin gorgeous sunrise colors. I was also tempted to buy a small square of fresh honeycomb but didn't succumb. Not sure I'll have the same resolve next time.

Laughter

Tonight I was getting ready to make some mashed potatoes for dinner when I found this heart-shaped potato at the bottom of the bag. Mistakenly, I showed it to Lissie ('cause it looked awesome!) who said "a heart! My heart! I love my heart!!!" Suddenly I realized what I'd done. But then, just for my own callous amusement, I said in my adult voice "we're going to eat it". This was her reaction. It looks awful and sad, but really, it's just very funny. I finally convinced her to let me cut it up by promising to take a picture of it.

So I guess today I'm grateful for this child who makes me laugh by being the easy target of my dark humor; for idiosyncratic food; and for my phone that made the passage of his potato much easier on everyone.

pass the chevre!

I recently finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, a book about eating locally. Although Kingsolver can be incredibly sanctimonious at times, especially at the beginning of this book, her arguments (one of which is learning to celebrate your local food culture and food offerings. buenisima!) for eating locally were sufficiently convincing. And while, yes, I like to eat cheaply most of the time, I would also like to eat more conscientously.

It is impossible to eat really locally in the Utah wintertime, so I'll have to wait for summer to garden and frequent farmer's markets, but I knew at least one thing: dairies are a year-round thing! So I poked around online. Winder Farms is a well-known peddler of local milk, but my eye was also drawn to Drake Family Farms, a goat dairy that sells goat-based wares. For whatever reason, I got a real hankering for some chevre, so I surprised Derrick on our date last Saturday and we drove to this little family farm about 7 minutes away from us.




The "store" is a tool shed. And a locked box with a place to insert your money is the cash register. Isn't that so charming? Here is the store to scale:

Now, I've actually had goat milk before, so I wasn't tempted in the slightest to buy any.

But that doesn't mean we bought nothing. Our selection: Two 32 oz. containers of goat yogurt ($12) and two 4 0z containers of chevre-one plain and one herbs de provence-($8).

We filled out our form, slipped in a $20, and went on our merry way.

Lissie and I love the goat yogurt with some maple syrup (definitely not local) and we both like the plain chevre. Derrick likes neither, but agreed to eat some herbs de provence chevre sprinkled over our green salad (also not local) last night and actually liked it.

And just to document the rest of our animal adventures, I thought I'd insert a photo of what greeted me outside our door the other morning:


Our upstairs neighbors (and landlords) have a small chicken coop and one very intelligent chicken somehow frequently escapes. She is friendly and likes to follow me around whenever I venture up to the backyard. Maybe she also likes me because I save all our compostable materials and feed them to her and her sisters?

So what do you think about eating locally? Have you or would you ever try it?