almost 100%

almost 100%
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

Last week I got Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, which said everything I knew that it would and left me feeling both hopeless about our collective culture and hopeful for my own family, just as I knew it would. I try really hard to only serve whole food, at home or away, but it's difficult to explain to your 4.5 year old why even "organic" gogurts are bad- for health, the environment, the pocketbook. All he knows is that all of the other kids from playschool have gogurt, oreos, string cheese, boxed drinks (which I hate more than the gogurts, even).

On the whole, I think that we do pretty-to-really-well. I love shopping at the farmers market, buying amish-made butter at the local produce store, and cooking from scratch. I'm looking very forward to our fall and winter CSA subscription. Bread is one place where I have big problems. When I was single and newly married, I didn't buy bread. I made it. Somewhere along the line, I stopped baking regularly. Two years ago when I realized that high fructose corn syrup was in everything, I got really picky about the bread that I buy. But even this one single brand that I can reliably find (all bets are off when it comes to hot dog -soy or kosher, please- or hamburger buns), there are 19-odd ingredients. That is not a whole food. Hello, oven. I hear you calling me.

One good thing about the local summer challenge is that all of the local food is real food. These eggs- from grass-fed chickens. Goat cheese- grass-fed goats. Blackberries (oh, so precious and fleeting) picked by my mother and little boy. I do plan to start using this book soon, because it's always been the bread (I love my carbs) that's hit me hardest- in the pocketbook and in the conscience.