Bay Area Folks: Locally Grown Produce?
I've got a question for those of you who live in the Bay Area. I'm looking for a produce delivery service that delivers locally grown produce. Right now, I get weekly produce from West Side Organics, which I thought was all locally grown, since they send me stories about apple farmers in fremont. But last week my tomatos came from Mexico. That's crushing. Worse yet, their web site doesn't indicate which stuff is locally grown and what comes from elsewhere.
I used to get my produce from the Mountain View's farmers market, which I am considering switching back to, but the convenience of home delivery is hard to give up.
Anybody got any recommendations? Living in California, it seems ridiculous and completely irresponsible to eat fruit shipped from Mexico when there are plenty of options grown within 15 minutes of my home.
Whoops! I admit that after stepping out for the evening I was too hungry to brew my own soup so I slapped a bunch of greens and hummus into a pita instead.
Once I perfect the ETL pho I'll have that up. But, uhhh, don't hold your breath waiting for it because my kitchen experiments have a pretty poor success rate. :uhoh
Teresa that salad sounds awesome! I admit that I use balsamic vinegar as a base to damn near everything because it's got such a robust flavor. Still have to try Bethy's garbanzo gravy, but I have a ton of veggies I want to roast this week so that's on the list. Anyway, got to put different wine vinegars on the shopping list, thanks for the reminder!
I think I might try the Pho. I've had some other thoughts on what it could
consist of.
What I like about Pho is the various textures. In the end, the flavor could be
mushroomy and that would be good too. I'll give it a twirl this weekend.
Teresa, I would go back to either Sunnyvale or Mt. View Farmer's Markets.
Both seem to have a great selection of reasonably local stuff. Sunnyvale is
Saturday and usually goes until about 1 or 2PM.
Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
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BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
I sometimes think of how humans evolved and what they ate - like the earlier talk of us not being anatomically built as omnivores. We are designed to eat...what exactly? I am having trouble reconciling these WHO recommendations with thoughts of early humans.
Our poor early ancestors couldn't really have foraged for 12lbs of fruits and plants per person per day, could they? Seems like a tall order. Obviously (or maybe not) they were opportunistic feeders and would have eaten anything they could find but it's still hard to wrap my head around it.
Not to mention that there likely wouldn't have been the variety of foods available like what is recommended today. Think of all the different regions of the world that are represented in your meals these days - probably South America, Florida, California, and Europe at least. Early humans would have had none of this variety. How did they thrive? WOuldn't they have been missing key nutrients not found in their local food sources?
I'm probably not articulating these thoughts well (due to infant-induced sleep depravation), but maybe you see what I'm getting at?
I've thought about this a lot too...
I think the answer is it varied tremendously by climate. We seemed to originate in the equatorial climates of Africa and I'm amazed by how much variety of plant foods grow naturally there. If you believe evolutionists, we evolved from veggie-eating primates (chimps now eat a little meat).
It's one of the things that makes The China Study so fascinating. A large percentage of the population has similar genetics, but their diets vary tremendously depending on whether they live in the cold north and herd cattle, or eat pickled & dried food during less frigid but still cold winters, or live on the coast and eat fish, or live in warm areas and eat fresh plants.
I was in Britain maybe 20 years ago and flipped on the BBC. They announced that Scotland and taken over the lowest life expectancy of Western European nations at 59 for men. It was Finland a few years before at 58, but the government was running ads warning of the negative health affects of dairy so they got to 60.
The Italians had the highest, at 70.
The explanation was the Italians get fresh produce year round, eat fish. The more northern Europeans don't eat much produce in the winter and depend on farm animals.
I suspect that's the way it always has been for native people. Where they could find enough plants, they did.
Oh, I was in Hawaii and our guide said it's thought that the native people were ravaged by disease from Europeans, and they were. But she said they were also ravaged by the introduction of pigs on the island, which brought epidemics of heart disease and cancer.
I hosted a "girl's night in" event at my place last night and made a recipe that would/can fit the guildelines.
Photo is just a quick snapshot right before everyone started eating.
Sweet Potato Hash...
olive oil -- can leave it out
2 cups yams, peeled and diced
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/2 cup red pepper, diced
1/2 cup green pepper, diced (I had orange/red/yellow... green would made it look nicer)
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh sage, chiffinade (important!)
lot fresh ground black pepper
salt (if you can use it)
1/4 cup vegetable stock (water if you don't have it)
In a heated pan (large saute pan or chicken fryer) add the olive oil, yams, squash, peppers and onions. Saute until vegetables begin to soften and brown. Add the garlic, sage, salt and pepper. Continue to saute for about 1 more minute so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the vegetable stock and place in a preheated 350 degree oven until all vegetables are soft but still maintain most of the shape and texture (~20 minutes). The finished hash should have some moisture to it and you might need a bit more stock.
I would call this a trader's joe's dish since you can get pre-cut squash and sweet potatoes there, along with everything else.
Not quite pho ...
I had a mushroom udon soup at Cha-Ya (a vegetarian Japanese restaurant in San Francisco), that I tried to duplicate at home. It turned out pretty well.
I used the following:
- vegetable broth
- onions, garlic, ginger sauted
- a vietnamese garlic chili sauce (although any hot sauce or going without would be fine)
- udon noodles (whole wheat, of course)
- tons of mushrooms (I used woodear, oyster, shitake and portabella)
- cilantro, fresh ground pepper and chives
It was great. Sorry, I rarely measure anything and make stuff up as I go. So this "recipe" is kind of sloppy. But I really enjoy tryinig to recreate dishes I discover in restaurants.
Teresa
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BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
I saw the segment. Entertaining, but ultimately useless as far as drawing any meaningful conclusions, isn't it?
The thing that jumped out at me is how fast their blood pressure dropped to normal: 12 days.
I've been faced with this scenario several times:
- Someone who knows me loves teasing about my diet of twigs (Hi Gus! ). S'okay, I have some fun with it too.
- They get chest pain and think it's bronchitis. They see doc. Doc says they discovered 90% blockage of an artery and they need emergency bypass or angioplasty tomorrow.
- They call the twig dude (me). Which to get?
- I say neither. Eat whole plants for 30 days and your angina (chest pain) will go away, your blood pressure will return to normal, your heart disease will continue reversing, and you'll become low risk.
You can guess their reaction: "No, my cardiologist says it's in the genes. We're out of time. This is life or death."
We need more coverage of how quickly and simply your blood pressure drops to normal and angina goes away if you eat whole plants. Drs. Fuhrman and Esselstyn have 100s of examples, but who are they? Do they have a TV show?
I have two very close friends who were patients of a well-known cardiologist at our local hospital, who has a commanding presence. One, early 60s, had several bypass ops, some stents, and just passed away a few months ago.
Another, mid 50s (?) has had several bypasses, angioplasties, stents, etc., and he's fading. Every time we visit, he spends an hour describing the latest thing his cardiologist has tried and how it went with his most recent heart attack (collapsing in the YMCA shower after a swim) and his latest drug coctail. He loves his steaks on the grill and pie after a motorcycle ride.
And when I mention twigs? Rolling eyes. "Doc says I'm way beyond help from that. You can't run or eat your way out of heart disease."
All I'm saying is that the few segments I watched are really just entertaining, non-scientific non-studies that don't prove anything. In this one, there is no way to know if there diet is healthy or sustainable.
I'm with you on the diet. I'm loving my Eat To Live lifestyle. And I find the show entertaining. It's just not got any useful facts in it, IMO. Or at least, very few. For instance, Dr. Fuhrman would say that a raw diet would not be healthy for most of us, as we could not get enough nutrition from raw food. I'm not sure if he's right (and I don't much care, since a raw diet doesn't interest me), but the program does not demonstrate as to whether this is actually healthy for anyone or not.
BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
edited January 9, 2008
By the way, my neighbor, who owns 4 world records in swimming and has been battling blood pressure above 150 for years, slender, in shape, knocked on my door this morning with a big smile. Her blood pressure dropped to 115 in a few weeks. No drugs. Whole plants.
Anyone that may be thinking about dropping some $$$ for a VitaMix, I found this. You get the commercial version (more horsepower) for $409. Looks like a good deal. Anyone know anything more about this option? Looks good to me! (Just wish I'd seen it before I bought mine.)
I have procured a Vita-Mix. For the second time in two months, I am a changed woman! :ivar
(Although I uhhh, had an accident with my smoothie this morning.) :uhoh
Yesterday I updated the Tastebook with Teresa's and April's recipes. I love that Fatfreevegan.com site and I hope to experiment with some of her recipes in the coming weeks.
Thanks for continuing to pop in here to contribute your success stories, Baldy!
I put in the same proportions of fruit/veggies/water I always have with my old Black & Decker and the VitaMix just slurped 'em up. I poured them into my travel containers, no problem. I failed to realize how much thicker the VM made them so while drinking it I, uh, got smacked in the face from falling purple sludge trying to take a sip.
Add more water next time, because the office is going to be a LOT busier come Monday.
I put in the same proportions of fruit/veggies/water I always have with my old Black & Decker and the VitaMix just slurped 'em up. I poured them into my travel containers, no problem. I failed to realize how much thicker the VM made them so while drinking it I, uh, got smacked in the face from falling purple sludge trying to take a sip.
Add more water next time, because the office is going to be a LOT busier come Monday.
also try blending for longer. The frozen fruit makes it really thick, and then some more blending will bust through the thickness stage and it'll get smoother.
Man, my $75 philips blender works like a charm. I'd really have to have some serious convincing to get a vitamix. My fav smoothie is this:
250ml OJ
175 to 200ml CranGrape juice (100% juice for both of course)
1 whole apple
1 whole kiwi
1 peeled banana
handful of frozen blackberries
handfull of frozen raspberries
3 to 4 whole frozen strawberries
1.5 to 2 handfuls frozen blueberries
heaping handful of frozen collard greens, turnip greens, kale or spinach
a tablespoon of milled flax (or milled flax & goji berries if you can find it)
My blender works this up like a charm and it's crazy delicious, though, there is a lot of it. The baby has some and loves it. Whenever he sees it he says "moomeee! moooomeeee!" Beth has a little glass of it and I have the rest.
Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.
Mike, it sounds very similar to what I blend in the morning. I use fresh greens, though, because my $40 blender couldn't handle the frozen kind. It was quite gross actually, and it wouldn't chop them up no matter how high/long I let it go.
I don't know about the $75 price range, but my B&D absolutely could not handle warm/hot foods. Or thick ones, either. I am going to try both in the VM (I have a very exciting Friday night planned, ha) but given that Dr Fuhrman makes his soup in it and David's lentil pate exists, that is worth quite a bit to me.
Oh, and the B&D never managed to break up the flax seeds. And I found out the hard way that I'm a bit allergic to kiwi.
Is that UK only? The website isn't showing any blenders when I select USA.
I can get to a picture of that blender from the US site, but the only info that it leads me to is that blender that is 220/240 volts 50hz. So it must be UK (or at least non-US) only. But I'm not really that sure to be honest.
Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.
I've been mulling this around in my head, since I've been wanting to make almond butter in my VitaMix. And I've got some dates. And raw cocoa powder. And some Maple Syrup. Yah, I know, not exactly Eat To Live material, but not too far off, eh?
So, inspired by those ingredients and Nutella, I'm working on finalizing this recipe (still a work in progress, and I'm not sure on the proportions yet)
1 lb. raw almonds
1/2 cup water
3 Tbs. raw cocoa powder
3 Tbs. Maple Syrup
2-4 Dates
It makes a creamy/chewy nearly frosting-like concoction.
I first blended the almonds, but ended up with a very, very dry butter (the peanuts made great butter, the almonds, not so much). I set it aside and thought about it, then added the remaining ingredients, and it was transformed into a really decadent treat.
I'll work on it some more.
BTW, I also have ideas for much healthier recipes that I'll be playing with in the near future.
I've been mulling this around in my head, since I've been wanting to make almond butter in my VitaMix. And I've got some dates. And raw cocoa powder. And some Maple Syrup. Yah, I know, not exactly Eat To Live material, but not too far off, eh?
So, inspired by those ingredients and Nutella, I'm working on finalizing this recipe (still a work in progress, and I'm not sure on the proportions yet)
Good to see this stuff is a reality! I'm sure it does taste great
I was unsure about the legality of maple syrup. Its sugar, sure, but it's fairly close to its natural state just being boiled, correct?
Comments
I've got a question for those of you who live in the Bay Area. I'm looking for a produce delivery service that delivers locally grown produce. Right now, I get weekly produce from West Side Organics, which I thought was all locally grown, since they send me stories about apple farmers in fremont. But last week my tomatos came from Mexico. That's crushing. Worse yet, their web site doesn't indicate which stuff is locally grown and what comes from elsewhere.
I used to get my produce from the Mountain View's farmers market, which I am considering switching back to, but the convenience of home delivery is hard to give up.
Anybody got any recommendations? Living in California, it seems ridiculous and completely irresponsible to eat fruit shipped from Mexico when there are plenty of options grown within 15 minutes of my home.
Teresa
Once I perfect the ETL pho I'll have that up. But, uhhh, don't hold your breath waiting for it because my kitchen experiments have a pretty poor success rate. :uhoh
Teresa that salad sounds awesome! I admit that I use balsamic vinegar as a base to damn near everything because it's got such a robust flavor. Still have to try Bethy's garbanzo gravy, but I have a ton of veggies I want to roast this week so that's on the list. Anyway, got to put different wine vinegars on the shopping list, thanks for the reminder!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
consist of.
What I like about Pho is the various textures. In the end, the flavor could be
mushroomy and that would be good too. I'll give it a twirl this weekend.
Teresa, I would go back to either Sunnyvale or Mt. View Farmer's Markets.
Both seem to have a great selection of reasonably local stuff. Sunnyvale is
Saturday and usually goes until about 1 or 2PM.
I think the answer is it varied tremendously by climate. We seemed to originate in the equatorial climates of Africa and I'm amazed by how much variety of plant foods grow naturally there. If you believe evolutionists, we evolved from veggie-eating primates (chimps now eat a little meat).
It's one of the things that makes The China Study so fascinating. A large percentage of the population has similar genetics, but their diets vary tremendously depending on whether they live in the cold north and herd cattle, or eat pickled & dried food during less frigid but still cold winters, or live on the coast and eat fish, or live in warm areas and eat fresh plants.
I was in Britain maybe 20 years ago and flipped on the BBC. They announced that Scotland and taken over the lowest life expectancy of Western European nations at 59 for men. It was Finland a few years before at 58, but the government was running ads warning of the negative health affects of dairy so they got to 60.
The Italians had the highest, at 70.
The explanation was the Italians get fresh produce year round, eat fish. The more northern Europeans don't eat much produce in the winter and depend on farm animals.
I suspect that's the way it always has been for native people. Where they could find enough plants, they did.
Oh, I was in Hawaii and our guide said it's thought that the native people were ravaged by disease from Europeans, and they were. But she said they were also ravaged by the introduction of pigs on the island, which brought epidemics of heart disease and cancer.
I know! I miss her around here.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Soooooo, Anne!? Howz about posting some yumminess with pics?
You must have some!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Photo is just a quick snapshot right before everyone started eating.
Sweet Potato Hash...
olive oil -- can leave it out
2 cups yams, peeled and diced
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/2 cup red pepper, diced
1/2 cup green pepper, diced (I had orange/red/yellow... green would made it look nicer)
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh sage, chiffinade (important!)
lot fresh ground black pepper
salt (if you can use it)
1/4 cup vegetable stock (water if you don't have it)
In a heated pan (large saute pan or chicken fryer) add the olive oil, yams, squash, peppers and onions. Saute until vegetables begin to soften and brown. Add the garlic, sage, salt and pepper. Continue to saute for about 1 more minute so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the vegetable stock and place in a preheated 350 degree oven until all vegetables are soft but still maintain most of the shape and texture (~20 minutes). The finished hash should have some moisture to it and you might need a bit more stock.
I would call this a trader's joe's dish since you can get pre-cut squash and sweet potatoes there, along with everything else.
I had a mushroom udon soup at Cha-Ya (a vegetarian Japanese restaurant in San Francisco), that I tried to duplicate at home. It turned out pretty well.
I used the following:
- vegetable broth
- onions, garlic, ginger sauted
- a vietnamese garlic chili sauce (although any hot sauce or going without would be fine)
- udon noodles (whole wheat, of course)
- tons of mushrooms (I used woodear, oyster, shitake and portabella)
- cilantro, fresh ground pepper and chives
It was great. Sorry, I rarely measure anything and make stuff up as I go. So this "recipe" is kind of sloppy. But I really enjoy tryinig to recreate dishes I discover in restaurants.
Teresa
I've been faced with this scenario several times:
- Someone who knows me loves teasing about my diet of twigs (Hi Gus!
- They get chest pain and think it's bronchitis. They see doc. Doc says they discovered 90% blockage of an artery and they need emergency bypass or angioplasty tomorrow.
- They call the twig dude (me). Which to get?
- I say neither. Eat whole plants for 30 days and your angina (chest pain) will go away, your blood pressure will return to normal, your heart disease will continue reversing, and you'll become low risk.
You can guess their reaction: "No, my cardiologist says it's in the genes. We're out of time. This is life or death."
We need more coverage of how quickly and simply your blood pressure drops to normal and angina goes away if you eat whole plants. Drs. Fuhrman and Esselstyn have 100s of examples, but who are they? Do they have a TV show?
I have two very close friends who were patients of a well-known cardiologist at our local hospital, who has a commanding presence. One, early 60s, had several bypass ops, some stents, and just passed away a few months ago.
Another, mid 50s (?) has had several bypasses, angioplasties, stents, etc., and he's fading. Every time we visit, he spends an hour describing the latest thing his cardiologist has tried and how it went with his most recent heart attack (collapsing in the YMCA shower after a swim) and his latest drug coctail. He loves his steaks on the grill and pie after a motorcycle ride.
And when I mention twigs? Rolling eyes. "Doc says I'm way beyond help from that. You can't run or eat your way out of heart disease."
I'm with you on the diet. I'm loving my Eat To Live lifestyle. And I find the show entertaining. It's just not got any useful facts in it, IMO. Or at least, very few. For instance, Dr. Fuhrman would say that a raw diet would not be healthy for most of us, as we could not get enough nutrition from raw food. I'm not sure if he's right (and I don't much care, since a raw diet doesn't interest me), but the program does not demonstrate as to whether this is actually healthy for anyone or not.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/01/creole-black-eyed-peas.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/stormy-black-bean-soup.html
I saw that one, but haven't tried it. Good to know you liked it!
We'll have to contact her and get permission to reprint some of her recipes.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
(Although I uhhh, had an accident with my smoothie this morning.) :uhoh
Yesterday I updated the Tastebook with Teresa's and April's recipes. I love that Fatfreevegan.com site and I hope to experiment with some of her recipes in the coming weeks.
Thanks for continuing to pop in here to contribute your success stories, Baldy!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
What was the accident?
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Um.
I put in the same proportions of fruit/veggies/water I always have with my old Black & Decker and the VitaMix just slurped 'em up. I poured them into my travel containers, no problem. I failed to realize how much thicker the VM made them so while drinking it I, uh, got smacked in the face from falling purple sludge trying to take a sip.
Add more water next time, because the office is going to be a LOT busier come Monday.
(This is another reason why I don't wear white.)
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
HAH! BTDT.
A spoon or straw might be just the ticket!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
also try blending for longer. The frozen fruit makes it really thick, and then some more blending will bust through the thickness stage and it'll get smoother.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
250ml OJ
175 to 200ml CranGrape juice (100% juice for both of course)
1 whole apple
1 whole kiwi
1 peeled banana
handful of frozen blackberries
handfull of frozen raspberries
3 to 4 whole frozen strawberries
1.5 to 2 handfuls frozen blueberries
heaping handful of frozen collard greens, turnip greens, kale or spinach
a tablespoon of milled flax (or milled flax & goji berries if you can find it)
My blender works this up like a charm and it's crazy delicious, though, there is a lot of it. The baby has some and loves it. Whenever he sees it he says "moomeee! moooomeeee!" Beth has a little glass of it and I have the rest.
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
I don't know about the $75 price range, but my B&D absolutely could not handle warm/hot foods. Or thick ones, either. I am going to try both in the VM (I have a very exciting Friday night planned, ha) but given that Dr Fuhrman makes his soup in it and David's lentil pate exists, that is worth quite a bit to me.
Oh, and the B&D never managed to break up the flax seeds. And I found out the hard way that I'm a bit allergic to kiwi.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
:slosh
-Fleetwood Mac
I've been mulling this around in my head, since I've been wanting to make almond butter in my VitaMix. And I've got some dates. And raw cocoa powder. And some Maple Syrup. Yah, I know, not exactly Eat To Live material, but not too far off, eh?
So, inspired by those ingredients and Nutella, I'm working on finalizing this recipe (still a work in progress, and I'm not sure on the proportions yet)
1 lb. raw almonds
1/2 cup water
3 Tbs. raw cocoa powder
3 Tbs. Maple Syrup
2-4 Dates
It makes a creamy/chewy nearly frosting-like concoction.
I first blended the almonds, but ended up with a very, very dry butter (the peanuts made great butter, the almonds, not so much). I set it aside and thought about it, then added the remaining ingredients, and it was transformed into a really decadent treat.
I'll work on it some more.
BTW, I also have ideas for much healthier recipes that I'll be playing with in the near future.
Here's a shot of it on crackers:
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Good to see this stuff is a reality! I'm sure it does taste great
I was unsure about the legality of maple syrup. Its sugar, sure, but it's fairly close to its natural state just being boiled, correct?
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
It's definitely cheating. It makes a pint of the stuff, and it's got 3T of syrup.
(Maybe a little more, like I said, still working on it! Plus, I may try it with more dates and no syrup.)
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops