Fresh To Death: Day 1

Starting the year off Fresh...to death? Possibly...

Hi!!
We are Taylor and Gabe. Starting Saturday, January 8th we will attempt, (what can only be described as suicide to some) to whip our eating habits into shape. For 30 days we will challenge our way of life by attempting to decrease our carbon footprint, eat healthier and gain knowledge that we can carry with us forever (without killing eachother in the process). A large part of this project is the food we consume. As many of you might know, Americans have some of the worst eating habits in the world. Our goal is to permanently change our way of consuming food. How, you might ask? Our plan is to only support local growers by strictly buying from farmers markets (yes Gabe that means no meat!).
The second portion of this challenge is to decrease our carbon foot print by decreasing our contribution to trash and pollution. We will not use paper products such as plates, cups, napkins or silverware (yes we will continue using toilet paper). Further more we will do without our car for those 30 days.

We are so excited to begin this month long journey! Wish us luck :)

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Day 1

So what we have learned today. First off, the most local we are going to be getting is anywhere between LA and Fresno. Second, wash everything twice. Lots of little tiny granules of sand and, dirt and what not, are all kinds of stuck to the lettuce and assorted vegetables. Third, free range chickens and grass fed cows as close as Santa Barbara!! Meat is in sight but I (Gabe) promised to go without meat for this month, at this moment I don't remember why, but I guess I did. Fourth, thank you baby Jesus for Taylor's Dad, A. for the help navigating the market and B. fresh squeezed O.J. for smoothies.

Shopping list this morning included: Bell peppers, two kinds of onions, lots of potatoes, fresh eggs (package says within the last 24 hours, those bad boys were under a chicken!) fresh basil and mint, tomatoes, squash, fresh bread from a bakery about 20 miles away and avocados.

So now for the hard part: Cooking! Part of our project is to make every meal at home using only the products we have bought from the farmers market and some (I am stressing "some") leftovers from the fridge. We have a helpful vegetarian cook book and our natural cooking abilities, however we are going to be lacking some ingredients due to the lack of local dairy for yogurts and cheeses and other things that are just not in season. This will be interesting...luckily we're creative...