This morning, I drank some of Odwalla's Superfood drink; it's a favorite store-bought smoothie of mine, but expensive to buy the whole 1/2 gallon at over $8. It's all natural, and the plastic bottle is made of 100% plant material.
The challenge is extending to span two weekends, and thus 9 days total. Yesterday, the 7th day, I started off with a local peach on top of peach greek yogurt.
As a pick-me-up, I bought a mocha latte from Atwater's. Like the many others that I've pointed this week, here's yet another obvious local food oxymoron: coffee can not be local. The shop, however, is local; Atwater's makes their own breads and foods using local ingredients. In addition, the latte was counter culture coffee. Counter Culture Coffee ensures that the coffee beans used in creating your drink were sustainably sourced. I don't drink much coffee, so I don't have much to say about Counter Culture and Atwater's. Prior to today's experience, most of the coffee I drank was made at home, using Baltimore Coffee and Tea blends and beans. Baltimore Coffee and Tea is another local seller of coffee products and offers Fair Trade coffees.
For lunch I ate yogurt with blackberries again, with granola on top. And I had some cereal to snack on.
I left for the beach after work, so I snacked on the way down. I ate a walnut brownie that I bought from Atwater's earlier. When I got to the beach I ate some musk melon and some almonds.
- and local eggs- which were used to make the pancake I ate this morning.
For lunch, we ate at a local pizzeria, and for dinner, my aunt made spaghetti. I don't think much or any of that meal was local. But it was family made, and delicious!
Murals are a wonderful opportunity to bring communities together; to express creativity and brighten the neighborhood; and also, as can be seen with this project, a traffic calming technique! Traffic calming is what cities use to slow the traffic through neighborhoods and other areas. Ideally, traffic would never get so fast to begin with, if only roads were narrow and followed the contour of the Earth, if parked cars lined the street and if trees were added to the planting strips, but that's not the case. Instead, traffic engineers add speed bumps and speed cushions, bump outs, colored and textured pavers, raised intersections, curb extensions, chicanes, diverters, speed cameras, etc. This list seems to grow everyday, with new solutions created every day.
For lunch I ate the rest of the ceasar salad from One World, and the rest of my fiance's meatless meatball sub. I still can't believe I ordered enough food to supply me with three meals!
And for a late dinner, I ate the rest of my nachos, chili, and guac from One World Cafe. Nachos never look appetizing after being reheated, but they were delicious!
If only I had some local ice cream for dessert!!
Today began as the least interesting local eating day of them all. I kicked it off with the 2nd Saw Mill Bread Co. bagel I bought from MOM's, topped with non-local cream cheese and with a glass of Trickling Springs local milk.
For lunch, I scrounged together a sandwich from some non-local cheese (muenster and swiss), non-local mayonnaise, local tomato, and vegetarian "pepperoni" slices; all on two slices of my honey whole wheat loaf, also from Saw Mill Bread Co. It was a huge sandwich, but mock pepperoni does not make for good sandwich filler. I also ate one of the juicy and really delicious peaches from the Burton Farm produce stand. Last week the peaches were good; this week the peaches were amazing!!
After work, I was going to stop by the Timonium Fair Grounds Farmers Market- but realized I have enough local food to finish the week, and not the money to afford excess produce. So to avoid the temptation, I didn't even drive by for a photo of it. When I got home, I finished off the Salazon chocolate bar (didn't last me nearly as long as I had hoped), at a few of the blackberries I bought from Three Springs Farm at yesterday's farmers market, and had another glass of Trickling Springs Creamery milk- the 1/2 gallon is almost gone. So alone, I would probably drink 2+ bottles a week. That's $7.98 a week on milk for just myself. In my opinion, it's worth it. As long as I can afford to buy this milk over a California organic milk, I will do so.
I am stuffed but somehow still could have eaten dessert!!! What is wrong with me! This local food has me wanting more!!
As found on their website, the family owners of Soup'R Natural pride themselves on being "a community restaurant featuring fresh and natural foods, like the herbs and vegetables growing outside our restaurant and the local eggs, meats, and ice creams selected from farms just a few miles away."
How appropriate was his choice!? I arrived earlier than I expected, so while I waited, I snapped some shots of the outside and their garden. For our meal, I had some homemade lemonade (delicious!!!) and I ordered their Feta Melt Pita- a large portabella mushroom stuffed with tangy feta cheese, in a whole wheat pita. It was served with tri-color potato chips and a mini pickle. It was fantastic, I will definitely be going back for their local fountain milkshakes!
Before all of this local eatery fabulousness, I began my day with breakfast: a peach/pineapple smoothie. It was made from 1 whole fresh, local peach; 1 c pineapple chunks (not local); 1 Tbsp Flax seeds; 1/2 cup cottage cheese (not local); 1/4 granola; 3/4 cup yogurt...ugh, I'm stuffed just thinking about how much food I put in there! It was yummy, though; a great start to the day
After work, I made a quick stop at the farmers market before heading out to dinner. I didn't plan on it, but I bought a Graham Pecan Toffee Goodness bar- or called something to that liking- from Rare Opportunity Farm, a farm from Westminister, MD. It was only $1 and it was amazing! I ate it before I could get a photo! Atwater's, a local restaurant that cooks with local foods, sells Rare Opportunity jams.
I then proceeded to the stand of Three Springs Fruit Farm, from whom I frequently buy produce. Today, I bought a zucchini (for my zucchini mock crab cakes), and a small basket of blackberries. These two totaled $4.75. The zucchini will be used for one meal, though I can maybe I can stretch it into two; the blackberries will provide snacks and small additions to meals for a few days.
Yummy Salazon Organic Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt!
