Thursday, May 04, 2006

breakfast is the cruelest meal



That is, if you're trying to eat local. Eating local takes thought, care, consideration, perhaps some prep time, unless you've found a local cereal, which I haven't. I'm not a morning person, and to have to think about breakfast has been deeply upsetting to the walking coma where I like to spend the morning hours.
Toast (local bakery) and egg (from Amish farm) are fine; orange juice is fine (one of my exceptions). But cereal, no. And yogurt with fruit, another no. I haven't found a local yogurt, and although I thought I'd like to try making my own, I haven't done it yet.
On the bright side, I went on a shopping trip to three local stores yesterday, and got a plethora of local items. At one, Nature's Bin, I expected to do well, because it's a store with a commitment to local and organic food--I got apples, salsa, hummus, bread, and a number of other things--almost everything in my cart except for the chocolate (Dagoba and Lindt) was the localest of local.
The 2nd place, the Sausage Shoppe, also has great local credentials--they smoke and prepare their own sausage, kielbasi, and other meat products--their smokehouse is out back, I believe, a grandfathered-in holdover in this urban neighborhood. Here I got leberwurst, kielbasi, and horseradish: local, local, local.
But the third place surprised me: Giant Eagle. True, I bought a number of nonlocal things, including the orange juice. But I found some local black walnuts, and an Ohio wine from Grand River (only about 40 minutes away).
D is not used to seeing me so excited when I come home from grocery shopping--but maybe he'll have to get used to it.

4 comments:

holly_44109 said...

I really like going to the Sausage Shoppe, their products are wonderful!

Jamie said...

Any chance of making your own granola? I've been meaning to do that. We can get a really wonderful porridge made in Athens, Ga., but some mornings I am just not up to cooking a hot cereal.

Your blog makes me homesick for Ohio.

So what did you end up doing with those nettles? I've seen nettle gnocchi (try saying that three times fast), and my Greek cookbook uses a lot of them in spanakopita and things like that. But I have never tried any of them myself.

mary grimm said...

Definitely interested in the yogurt recipe. I hear it's not too hard.
Jamie--hadn't thought of making granola; but what about the oatmeal? I wonder if it's hard to find local oatmeal.
I made nettle soup, which was pretty good; I was thinking of nettle pesto, or maybe nettle-and-cheese-filled ravoli, if I find them again.

Liz said...

Check my blog under "How-To" for my yogurt instructions. So very easy. Even though my oats aren't local, I make my own granola with honey as a sweetener, and my own dried fruit. I figure it's better than nothing (ironically, there is a Maine granola, but at $4/lb, is pretty expensive!)