<p>You haven’t lived till you’ve had polenta or cornbread made from just-ground corn meal. Corn has so much oil in it that in gets semi-rancid pretty fast after being ground. Even the cornmeal in food coops and Natural food stores isnt fresh. It took some looking to find an email source of human food grade corn kernals. </p>
<p>I use hard white winter wheat for bread, and you don’t know you are eating whole wheat bread. </p>
<p>I should have added pasta making to my list.</p>
<p>Bela, your bread pudding was even better than the recipe sounded! Mushrooms and Gruyere are and amazing pair. Thanks!</p>
<p>Shrinkrap, I love the Ferry Building and the market. They are always my first stop in SF! Right before I head to Yank Sing, are you a dim sum fan too? That’s one thing I’d hate to give up in my new healthy eating phase!</p>
<p>I will check out the other suggestions. We officially move to CA in August but I get to hang out here while recovering from back surgery until Spring–I need to get out and walk which is hard in NYC during this brutal winter there.</p>
<p>This approach has always appealed to me, and I happily went through my “Earth Mother”/food co-op/make all our bread peanut butter and yogurt when son was young and I was not working outside the home. I have been vegetarian off and on for 40 years. (Discovered that the people who live around here were, no matter what I said, are too uncomfortable to invite me to dinner. My social life trumped my vegetarianism.)</p>
<p>But: we live in Michigan (no avocados or olive oil locally grown or any veg/fruits all winter) and I now work 50 hr/wk and have a 45 minute commute each way on top of that everyday. Any suggestions as to how to adopt some variant of this approach to food? “Slow” food might mean that we never ate, because I leave so early and get home so late.</p>
<p>I don’t have any answers; it seems impossible. But I know that the local/whole food way is the right way to live. I’ll need to compromise, of course. Anyone tried this?</p>
<p>Mafool–I totally get where you are coming from. I made breads and broths from scratch when I worked part time; since I went full time ( and more) about ten years ago, it’s gotten harder. OTOH, back then, I didn’t have the CSA, and less of our garden. </p>
<p>I try to cook more from scratch on the weekends. A lot of things, also, can be done from quality ingredients in a short time–like stir fries, for instance.</p>
<p>My long term solution, though, is to figure out how not to work full time. That is my fervently wished for goal. (Maybe when H gets tenure, I’ll make the plunge.)</p>
<p>I’m just the opposite Garland. I’ve always worked very long days and never had much time to cook although I love to. I’ve had several months off and will soon move to a far less demanding job, so eating healthily through my own efforts is a new hobby.</p>
<p>We’ve never used canned, bottled or frozen foods except for a very few staples like canned tomatoes. And in NYC it’s even possible to get very healthy, low everything take out.</p>
<p>I’ll have a quarter acre garden at my new home and would love any thoughts. As we’ll be in southern CA, there are things we can grow year round. We’re in the process of adding to a fruit orchard and hoping to grow most of the fruit we’ll eat.</p>
<p>Good luck with that, Garland!</p>
<p>I’m the breadwinner these days, so the not-full-time option isn’t in play for me. Husband has been doing the majority of shopping and cooking, bless his heart. He pretty much cooks the stuff his mom cooked as he was growing up and shops pretty randomly. This is not likely to change. I nibble at the edges, cook here and there, make suggestions that aren’t always understood, etc. Sigh. Mustn’t grumble!</p>
<p>I was thinking about this as I shopped today. I bought local apples (the joys of living in Washington!) because they were cheapest. Local cream was the cheapest (no national advertising). Ditto local yogurt. </p>
<p>I try not to be obsessive about buying local stuff, but it often turns out that the local businesses sell the cheapest stuff; I think it’s because I’m not paying for a lot of shipping and a lot of advertising. </p>
<p>I find that relatively unprocessed foods are cheaper and more likely to come from nearby. Thus, by focusing on cooking for myself rather than buying packaged stuff, I end up with local products. </p>
<p>That said, my current favorite beer is from Louisiana. But I like it because it’s named Turbo Dog, which amuses me, and I don’t drink it that often.</p>
<p>We get a lot of local organic meats, dairy products, and produce here in the Twin Cities, mainly through our local food coops–a very strong network of them, with collectively enough market share and buying power to make organic an attractive option to local producers. Given the climate we can’t go totally local; bananas, avocados, and mangos just don’t grow in these parts. But we can get pretty much 100% of our meats and dairy products (apart from occasional splurges on imported cheese) from local organic producers, and for at least half the year probably 70% of our produce. In the winter it’s pretty much down to root crops and local hothouse lettuce and spinach. But it won’t be long until we start to get local rhubarb, then strawberries, and before long the local growing season is in full swing.</p>
<p>I can’t say that it’s cheaper. It is definitely healthier, and tastier. When I grill a burger made from local organic 100% pasture-fed beef, it comes out with a deep, rich beefy flavor that speaks to me of my long-ago childhood, and I think, “That’s how beef is supposed to taste, and how it used to taste.” Same with locally produced organic free-range chicken. My family really won’t go back to the chemical-laden, force-fed stuff anymore; it looks nice but it tastes like cardboard compared to what we’ve gotten used to. Produce the same. We mostly grow our own tomatoes in the backyard, or buy them right off the truck from a couple of local producers down at the St. Paul farmer’s market. Short season, just a couple of months, but the cardboard tomatoes at the local supermarket don’t taste like real tomatoes anyway so we don’t miss them one bit.</p>
<p>hmom, so glad you like “my” bread pudding recipe!</p>
<p>I so envy everyone out in California. My fond wish is to someday have my own vegetable garden. My mouth actually waters when I get a glimpse of someone’s lettuce patch.</p>
<p>The effort to really eat locally produced foods is so much bigger than I imagined. I can only be on my feet a couple of hours per day right now so the challenge is getting away from me. Just the discussions–OK fish guy on a local pier, which fish came out of local waters. He gets the boss who gets the owner and 40 minutes later I walk out with a pound of local Black Cod.</p>
<p>The thought of a sandwich, a simple sandwich…the advance effort would probably take 2 days.</p>
<p>So I’m learning and eating very differently than I did a few weeks ago. Local eggs with local vegetables for breakfast. Fish for lunch on a bed of greens. A vegetable casserole with local cheese for dinner.</p>
<p>An unintended result has been weight loss and I’m one of those people who works not to look anorexic, so I need to find a way to add calories.</p>
<p>Has anyone read the press Michelle Obama has gotten about banning processed foods from the White House?</p>
<p>Hmom5: there is probably a good quality locally produced whole milk. A few glasses of that every day would add calories, calcium, and fat. You could cook those veggies in a bit of local butter. </p>
<p>I envy you the weight loss!</p>
<p>Love this thread.
We live on a high desert, so very hot, dry summers and lots of snow in the winter. I can’t really have a garden as the soil around my house is hard and rocky.
I used to have a patch of tomatoes a few years back, but the effort was too much compared to the fruit it produced. We later moved tomatoes to pots, but since we are gone so frequently…you can imagine.
Anyway, this year I am determined to have pots upon pots of herbs. Will see what comes out of this determination 
I love fish but living here can never get good fish, unfortunately. Some people rave about Costco salmon, but our Costco does only sell the farmed one 
We are eating locally as much as possible. It is very, very easy in the summer, right now a little more difficult. Our Costco does sell eggs that are produced locally though!
Like hmom5 said, it takes a lot of effort to eat well and healthy. For one, you have to shop frequently if you want to serve fruits and veggies that are as fresh as possible. I shop daily most of the time. I am not a big meat eater but have a husband and a 14 year old who seem to live for meat!
My biggest problem seems to be feeding my kids in the hurry. Like yesterday: I worked 10 hours and then had to run pick son from school and drive him an hour away to his activity. We did not get back home till after 7 P.M. I had to feed him on the road. We chose Betos (mexican) since they have freshly made fajitas. On the days that I do not work I can prepare home meal and he eats in the car, but I have to make something he really enjoys otherwise he is not happy and wants to eat out. My daughter is less of a problem since she can satisfy herself on fresh fruits, son has oral allergy syndrome so he can’t even have an apple! And I can’t afford to feed him blueberries every time He is not a picky eater, but loves good food and seems to eat ALL THE TIME!</p>
<p>Kelowna–what about a raised bed? If you add alot of peat moss to the soil, it will hold moisture well, and you should be able to grow tomatoes and herbs.</p>
<p>I was thinking about it. My house is sorrounded by brush oak trees and we do not want to cut any of them as they provide us with much needed privacy. There is a strip of soil to the side of the house - there are some ornamental apples there (little ones) - I might remove those bushes and have small vegetable garden in it’s place.</p>
<p>There is a contraption with which you can grow a tomato plant inside that I always see in the Sky Mall catalog. It comes complete with it’s own grow light. There’s another that grows the plant upside down and hangs. All things I was considering to grow tomatoes indoors or on my balcony in NYC! Never quite found the time.</p>
<p>I have long had a vegetable garden at our summer house. One thing I learned is to order very specific varieties of tomatoes that do particularly well in our area and have a large yield. When I did that I had an unbelievable explosion of fruit compared to when I went to the nursery and just bought what they had. My family can never get enough summer tomatoes!</p>
<p>^^how do you find out which tomatoes will do well in your area?
I thought that local nursery would be an answer…</p>
<p>Just get back from a trip to Whole Foods looking for quality corned beef. Found some that’s “natural” but not labeled grassfed, will have to do. However, i was happy to see more meat being labeled “local” and especially happy to find wild caught, American shrimp, as I’d recently realized I’ll have to stop eating as the vast majority comes from shrimp farms with the same issues as factory farmed meats. So yay, I can eat shrimp again!</p>
<p>Dmd, thanks, I went and found some fresh from the cow milk this AM (time it took: 1 hour!) and will try that.</p>
<p>Kelowna, here is one of a number of Forums where I get advice:</p>
<p>[Tomato</a> - Growing Tomatoes Forum](<a href=“http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=15]Tomato”>http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=15)</p>
<p>Kelowna–Don’t know where you live, but if you look on the internet, you will probably find that the Ag. College at your flagship State U will have information for home gardeners. Also, look for Master Gardeners in your area (every state has a program–it’s usually run through a County Extension service). MG’s often have a hot line where you can call and ask questions. All of the information they provide is free and they are a great source of educational information on all aspects of gardening.</p>
<p>Tomatoes are extremely sensitive to their local microclimate. At my house, for example, I have only one spot where Brandywine does well–it’s in the hot dry spot next to my driveway where everything else fails. I have another spot where Sungold does incredibly well, but twenty feet away and a bit shadier and a bit wetter–I got very few tomatoes. </p>
<p>I find I have to read the catalogs very carefully. I like Territorial Seeds ([Territorial</a> Seed - Vegetable and Flower Seeds at Territorial Seed Company](<a href=“http://www.territorialseed.com/]Territorial”>http://www.territorialseed.com/)) which is an Oregon grower and therefore fairly local to me, so that their advice is much closer than some of the other catalogs which have an entirely different local economy. I also find their descriptions optimistic but basically honest.</p>