In the past few weeks I've spent almost every other waking minute I'm not at work either reading about food or listening to audio-books on my Iphone. Specifically I've become interested in our food supply and how unhealthy it really is thanks to big business. In the past few weeks I've spent almost every other waking minute I'm not at work either reading about food or listening to audio-books on my Iphone. Specifically I've become interested in our food supply and how unhealthy it really is thanks to big business.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan was the first one that I picked up. In it Mr. Pollan speaks of corn and ethanol gas. You get the idea that something is amiss in what we are eating. He has someone deconstruct a meal from McDonald's and it turns out that an incredible amount of it is corn. Do you want to eat a piece of chicken that is mostly corn and raised inhumanely? That's what we've been doing, definitely what I've been doing most of my life. I also listened on my Iphone to Mr. Pollan's other book,
In Defense of Food. And read a book by Mark Bittman,
Food Matters basically the theme of this book is to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat.
What it has all gotten me to think about is what I eat. Where does the food that I eat come from? What pesticides and antibiotics are used in making my food? I wish the answer to the last one was none but we all know that's not true. Unless you shop locally and trust and know who your getting your food from. Everytime I've gone to the grocery store recently to pick up a piece of meat I've gone into the
Publix Greenwise section of our grocery store. My next move was to search for more organic or local produce. So I did a search on the Internet. I couldn't find anything close to here but I did find a company that deliver's produce directly to your door once a week, or as often as you'd like. They are called
Off the Vine Produce. They travel around to a few southeastern states each week and deliver produce right to your house.
This week they delivered green peppers, red cabbage, two different kinds of apples, kiwi, carrots, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries, cherry tomatoes etc. It came exactly when promised and was actually delivered by the owner of the company herself. It was a little pricey, $80, but when you consider a trip to
Fresh Market I'm not convinced it was much more.
The reason it fascinated me is because I'm a chef. I love to create. If you order this box every week than you get something new in it because they get things that are local and in season. So it really makes you have to think about what you are going to cook. It reminds me of the chef basket concept when your in a cooking competition. So you can look forward to new recipes in the coming weeks from produce that we've gotten from
Off The Vine Produce. And if your in the south where they deliver give it a shot!
