Local Food Challenge - Day 2

Some of the food today was the same as yesterday. I guess we all eat left-overs quite a bit. That's local... just go to the 'fridge... AND it's recycling, ya?

• I had more of my cut-up (leftover) french toast from Great Harvest bread in Duluth.
• My bottles were 1/2-formula & 1/2 local milk. I think we're going to keep this change from now on and try to always use this local milk. Cool, huh?
• For lunch, I had more left-over pasta with the CSA steamed zucchini and carrots in it.
• For dinner, I had something new: steamed potatoes from our CSA that were "smashed" and mixed with some milk.... sort of like mashed potatoes! AND there was some (previously steamed & frozen) broccoli in it too which came from our CSA last month. It was soooooo YUMMY. "mmmmmmmmm......"


• Mommy did something this morning that she tries not to do. She just had a piece of toast and a Coca-Cola. She was running late and stopped on her way to work to buy a Coke. She tries not to drink the stuff, but occasionally feels like she "has" to have caffeine. (It's from Atlanta, though)
• For Lunch, she had the left over pork chop with Balsamic Peach Glaze (from local farms) and the Rosemary Roasted potatoes (from the CSA).
• Daddy had his yogurt again with the granola - which was made here in Marietta.
• And after I finished my food - they both had their dinner which was some left-over home-made pizza from the weekend... it had tomatoes and basil from our back yard garden. I sort of begged them for some while they were eating. I got little bits of crust and cheese and also little bits of tomatoes.
  
  Tomorrow... I'm hoping we'll get to try some new things. I like my french toast and my steamed zucchini, but... variety is the spice of life - right?

Local Food Challenge - Day 1

This is an accounting of the local food that we all ate today. I'm a baby, but am pretty savvy on the web, apparently, and was able to list resources for some of the foods that we're using in our house. So, for any locals who are reading this can check out some of these vendors. It sure makes me feel good to support the local farmers and local economy... almost as good as a nice clean diaper! ahhhhh.

• Breakfast for me: A cut-up piece of French Toast (Daddy made it Sunday - yum!). The bread came from the Great Harvest bread store in Duluth. http://greatharvest.com/ (They had a booth at a festival we were at and they gave us yummy samples and then we got a whole loaf because I liked it so much.
• my Lunch was some left-over pasta with broccoli mixed in. The broccoli came from our CSA and was previously chopped, steamed, and frozen. Mom will sometimes make my baby food -- especially if we have a lot of veggies on-hand.
• my Bottles today were filled half-way with formula and the rest was local milk. This is new for us! Mommy sought out the local milk because of the local food challenge. She didn't know that it was even available at our Whole Foods store. She even got to meet the man from Sparkman's Dairy because he came all the way from Moultrie, Georgia to give away samples of drinkable yogurt. http://www.sparkmanscreamvalley.com/
• for Dinner, i dug into the CSA bag and pulled out a zucchini. I threw it on the floor, but Mommy washed it, cut it up, steamed it, and i ate it with applesauce
  
• Mommy's breakfast: left over french toast from Great Harvest Bread (mentioned above)
• at Lunch she ate some left-overs from the weekend which was made 90% from our CSA (veggie chorizo from Trader Joe's braised with cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes)
• she had yogurt as a Snack and dropped in a handful of local blueberries from Byne Blueberry Farm in Waynesboro, Georgia
• Daddy went out to Lunch with his co-workers, but he ate yogurt as a Snack too - he put Pure Bliss "Acai Blues" granola (made right here in Marietta) in his yogurt. pureblissorganic@bellsouth.net
  
• for Dinner, mommy & daddy had a nice meal after I went to sleep. Mommy had bought pork chops from the Whole Foods butcher that were raised at Thompson Farms Pork in Dixie, Georgia. There was some sort of grading scale on the meat from this farm. It was labelled as a Level 4 meat on the "humane" treatment level -- 5+ being the best. <.... oh yeah.... i have a short attention span... > back to the meal: They made Pork Chops with Balsamic Peach Sauce. (Georgia Peaches and Vidalia Onions were in it, of course!) They also had rosemary dusted potatoes. The rosemary came from a rosemary bush at our own house. The potatoes came from our CSA. Mommy had a rye beer from Terrapin brewery in Athens, Georgia. I've never had beer, but I see mommy & daddy drinking it sometimes. funny. I drink from a bottle. Sometimes they drink from a bottle. http://www.terrapinbeer.com/

Not too bad for our first day, huh?

Local Food Challenge - Intro

Hi. My name is Mercer.

My mommy signed up for a Local Food Challenge at Whole Foods last weekend. She's stressed out a lot, so I'm not sure why she's taking this on -- except she said that it's a good thing to do. We do eat SOME local foods, but she'd like to try to incorporate MORE local foods into our meals.

I am only 16 months old. I am sort-of in between baby food and table food. I eat mostly fruits, vegetables, yogurt, and whole grains. Oh yeah - and a mix of formula and whole milk. It's a pretty well-rounded diet, I guess. What do I know, though? I'm still a baby.

I think what inspired my mommy (her name is Candice - by the way - but I call her "ma" "maaaaaaa" or "maaaamaaaa")... what inspired her... was that we belong to this thing called a CSA "Community Supported Agriculture" program. The CSA comes from a farmer named Craig. He works at Two Mule Farm in Resaca, Georgia.
http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M18203

Mommy & Daddy (everyone calls him Todd - but to me he's "da" "daaaaa" or "daddeeee")... Mommy & Daddy walk up to Marietta Square on Saturday mornings. I get to cruise in my stroller. They take a big empty bag up there and visit farmer's market booths. By the time we get home, the bag is full of vegetables and stuff. They try not to throw food away, so it's a challenge to find ways to use it all.

Also, in my back yard is a killer pond with koi and gold fish. Oh yeah - there's a little garden back there too. We used to have lettuce in it (I didn't like the lettuce). Mommy & daddy were eating a lot of salads last month, but now it's too hot for the lettuce. The garden is full of tomatoes and herbs right now.

That's all I can think of. I have a short attention span, so this is really long for me.

Good night! Wish mommy & daddy luck on making it through this "challenge" this week.

~ kisses from mercer