My new favorite grocery store

Yesterday I took an incredibly inefficient trip to a grocery store in the Mission. I rented a zipcar on my lunch break to head over to this grocery store that I had read about that sells local, organic groceries at cheaper prices. The grocery store was awesome and I love it and it's my new favorite store. However, it was not a wise choice to try and visit it on my lunch break. The Mission was a lot farther away than I thought it was, and my directions told me to go down Market Street, which is the main street through the city. So beyond the journey taking forever, I was so sure that I was going to hit another car, a bus, or one of the three million pedestrians trying to cross the street on their lunch hour. It was a stressful trip. Once I got to the grocery store, I found that it is so small that it doesn't have a parking lot. So I had to find street parking - not an easy task anywhere in San Francisco. Time taken to merely get to the grocery store - 1/2 hour. Considering I have an hour for lunch, that left me approximately 0 minutes for shopping. But shop I did... I was enchanted by the store - it was like a little slice of organic heaven. Of course you all know by now that I've been reading a lot of books lately about eating locally and organically and all the research that I had done so far lead to this store as excellent source of both local and organic items. It did not disappoint. There was the milk from the first organic dairy west of the missippi that is sold in the old-fashioned glass bottles (easier to recycle):

AND!! It was a $1.50 cheaper than at the organic grocery store near our house. YAY!

And then there was the locally produced yogurt sold in little ceramic pots:

This is kind of expensive, actually - but it comes in a ceramic pot, for goodness sake! :) There was the meat case, full of locally grown, grass-fed animals. Beef and pork from Marin Sun Farms - where the "cattle are fed grass for their entire lives, and are raised, slaughtered, and processed in the Bay Area". They had a really nice little produce section and a wonderful cheese selection, including Rogue cheese which I was excited to see. (I always like to see little hints that remind me of Oregon).

Nothing can be perfect, however, and I'm sure that not everything in the store was organic or locally grown. I saw green and red peppers from Mexico. But atleast there is an outlet where you have a better chance at getting good, whole food at fairly reasonable prices. I have been shopping at the Real Food Company which is about 8 blocks from my house. Very convenient but also very expensive. I bought some bulk unbleached all-purpose flour the other day without really realizing how much it was going to cost. When I got the cash register I saw it ring up 3 pounds for $8.50. WHAT!!??? Also, for a company that is supposed to be supporting local, organic foods, their olive oil selection was all imported from either Italy or Spain!! For those of you who don't understand why I'm so indignant about that, two hours north on I-5 is the olive oil mecca of the U.S. There are olive trees as far as the eye can see and billboards touting the California olive oil at every exit. So if I can get good olive oil from two hours north, why bring it from thousands of miles away!? Sorry, just a quick little rant is ok every now and then, right! :)

So we go to church in the Mission now, and I figure I'll just swing on by after church from now on. I'm already making the trip, so that makes it convenient.

So, I was glad to find my new discovery, but by the time I had finished gawking at all the wonderful sights and buying some yummy fresh mozzarella and parmigiana reggiano cheese, I realized that I only had 10 minutes to make it back before my zipcar reservation expired. Completely irrationally, I thought I would be able to make it back. When I had two minutes left and I was still basically in the Mission, I conceded and realized that I would have to extend my reservation. Since you're not supposed to talk on cell phones in CA while driving a vehicle, I had to put the cell phone on speaker phone, dial the zipcar number and extend the reservation all with the cell phone in my lap. Hmm... Which was probably the kind of activites that the law was supposed to prevent. Anyways... I got the reservation extended and was able to relax a little.

Later, reflecting on the day, I realized that I had just spent $15 to spend $13 at the grocery store. Not really coming out in my favor, there. But, it was more than just the purchase - it was the experience, the adventure, the possibilities that made the cost and the trip totally worthwhile. Even though I was 20 minutes late back to work. Oops.

On this same note, I have been getting further into Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemna" and it has just been an absolute joy to read. I have been enjoying every page. Not just because I feel like I have just opened my eyes for the very first time, no. Becuase the writing is fabulous as well - there is humor and poignancy and beauty in his writing that makes this book just fantastic. But the knowledge that I feel like I am gaining is wonderful as well. I feel like I want to quit everything and go start farming somewhere!

The whole point of this post was that I read a beautiful paragraph in the book today and just wanted to share it with anyone who might still be reading this blog from time to time. To set the scene, Pollan is visiting a farmer who maintains a complete ecological system on his farm. He raises cows, chickens, pigs, vegetables, the whole works. But he consider himself first and foremost a grass farmer, because the grass is what sustains everything - the cows, the chickens, the pigs and the vegetables. It all starts with the grass. He rotates his crops and animals to take full advantage of this and all the animals and plants on his farm work together in perfect harmony. In this excerpt, Pollan is describing the farmer's practice of rotational grazing, or letting his cattle eat in one area of the field, and then moving them, every night, to a new patch of grass. He does the same thing with the chickens:

"These intense but brief stays completely change the animal's interactions with the grass and the soil. They eat down just about everything in the paddock, and then move on, giving the grasses a chance to recover. Native grasses evolved to thrive under precisely such grazing patterns; indeed, they depend on them for reproductive success. Not only do ruminants spread and fertilize seed with their manure, but their hoofprints create shady little pockets of exposed soil where water collects - ideal conditions for germinating a grass seed."

I just thought that was exquisite and it just made me feel so satisfied when I read it. How perfect - the cows hoofs provide little places where baby seeds can grow. The grass feeds the cows and, in return, the cows feed the grass. The grass and the animals were made - meant - to be together in so many ways that we cannot even begin to fathom. God has made such a perfect system, with so many tiny unseeable variables - how can we ever hope or believe that we could improve on this? He has provided us with food - real food - and all we can do is re-engineer it in an attempt to somehow make it better!? That we can do a better job? Hm.....

The book goes on in more detail, and the chapter about this farmer and his completely symbiotic farm is amazing. If you don't want to read a whole book, just read this chapter. You will learn so much about the way our agriculture system is supposed to work in just this chapter alone...
Well, I guess that is enough proselytizing for one night. I just thought I would share what's been on my mind lately.

Oh yeah - with all this new yummy whole food in hand we had a delicious dinner tonight. I made a potato-leek soup with focaccia bread and salad. The soup was fabulous - tasted a lot like a baked potato - and the focaccia was lovely as well and the salad, well, you get the point, I guess.

Here's the recipe for the potato-leek soup if anyone is interested. I got half of it off of a food blog, and another piece from Emerille Agassie. It makes a really thick, chowder like soup.

3 Tbl butter
1-2 large leeks
1 medium onion
5 cups cubed potato (I used a red and yukon gold mix, but the recipe actually called for russet) You can leave the skins on, it adds to the heartiness of the soup.
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and leeks and sautee until the onions are limp, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the potatoes and the chicken broth. The broth should just cover the potatoes. Add the bay leaves and the thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Turn the heat down to low. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes in the pan until to your own desired consistency (I left mine a little chunky cos' I like it that way). Remove the bay leaves. Add the cream and stir til warm. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

Such a simple soup, but it really was delicious.

Okay - so much for the idea about shorter blog posts. But look at that - it's only the 4th of December, and I already have as many posts as I did in November. Now the only question is if it's too late - did I already scare away all readers with my inactivity? :) Have a great night everyone!