Procuring Food…and a story of love

April 28, 2010 by libertatemamo 2 Comments

It’s not everyday that you experience feelings of true love, but every now and then something comes into your life which sets off that giddy rush of emotion and puts you back into the babbling youth of your teenage years. 

Which aptly introduces our Walmart story.

As you may know Paul and I have been happily together for ~13 years now, but this week something struck which bought a third party into our relationship. It was, indeed, love at first sight.
Our eyes met….we were enraptured.
Our lips touched…we were enthralled.
And, after the fact we couldn’t stop thinking about each other.

You see, we had just discovered Lindt 90% chocolate at the local Walmart…a delicious, smooth, insanely chocolately concoction which had inspired the aforementioned rush of emotion.  Thankfully, both Paul and I share a love of good food, so bringing this little hot tamale into our lives was in no way a detriment to our relationship. In fact, food is such a significant part of our lives that we tend to have a rather “open” stance with it and spend a good deal of time both procuring, thinking about and preparing delicious meals. For, as we all know, you are what you eat, and may even think that way.

Which brings me to eating on the road. It’s actually not significantly different from eating at home except for a little research on where to get your stuff. Walmart is around everywhere and a fine establishment it is, but (apart from the chocolate and the love story) for the finer things in life we tend to go more local. The absolute best way to do this is with a farmer’s market. There’s almost always a local market wherever you go, and the produce sold is typically grown by the farmer him or herself. So, not only do you get access to very fresh veggies, but you also get to talk to the farmers, buy home-grown eggs and even pastured meat. In this way we’ve had fresh Chard in Santee, homemade pastured liver pate in Borrego Springs, and fresh eggs in Desert Hot Springs.

Several places to research your local market:

• Newspaper. Typically the local paper will list any local markets
• Internet. A quick and easy way. California keeps a list of all certified farmers markets here, and in Phenix there’s the Arizona Community Farmers Markets
• Your friendly local. The locals are almost “in the know” and can point you to the best produce. If they buy there and eat there, it should be good.

So, next time you buy try going local. Who knows, you may even fall in love all over again…