Local Flavor | Paying attention to sources

Buying from Greenmarkets is so much more fun than I expected. From greens and vegetables, to fruit spreads and bread, I'm amazed at how much is produced locally. A quick round up of the places my food came from this week:

Phillips Farm, Millford, NY

Oak Grove Plantation, Pittstown, NJ

Bread Alone, Hudson River Valley, NY

Wheelhouse Pickles, Brooklyn, NY

Brownstone Beans, Fort Greene, NY

All close enough for me to stop in and visit soon. I've got a few leads on those last two in particular (pickling okra and brewing Nicaraguan beans in Brooklyn apartments? these guys have got to be crazy, and awesome.)

Giving Up Gift Giving?

I'm discovering that any real commercial purchase is going to be very thought out and planned ahead. Not only to decide where and what to buy, which was the whole point of this experiment, but also when. Most of the time I can sacrifice for a while until I can make the purchase the way that I want to, but what happens when someone's birthday can't wait until I've got my act together?

I've known this from the beginning, but I am extremely lucky to have a supportive, open minded, patient boyfriend as I launch into this experiment -- particularly when his birthday falls about a week and a half into it. Some creative thinking and lots of running around proved fairly successful, but perhaps only because Joe doesn't have typical desires for gifts anyway. Lucky for me, he didn't have his heart on an iPhone or Wii this year. He recently moved into a new apartment, so potted herb plants grown organically and pesticide-free on Phillips Farms in Millford, NJ, along with bright blue fabrics from the Garment District to make some pillow cases (raw goods that will be "manufactured" at home are going to be allowed this year -- I'm too hands on to give up building and crafting) fit the bill just fine.

I'm wondering if my family will be as pleased by my "inventive" gift giving this year?

An Organic Progression | Finally, a real personal connection

Last night I brazenly stopped into Counter, the East Village organic/vegetarian restaurant that serves up the wraps and turnovers I've been devouring from the Greenmarket for months (and exclusively for the last week). Granted it was a slow Monday night, but I was shocked when I asked to speak to Deborah Gavito, the restaurant's founder, and she came out to talk to me a few minutes later. Deborah is an adorable woman with a contagious smile who obviously adores her restaurant and her work. After only a moment of explaining what I was about, she brought me to a table in the back and eagerly told me all about Counter, the farms on Long Island and Upstate New York where all of her greens and herbs come from, as well as her real love -- the vast array of organic wines (300 on the menu) and beers (30) she finds from all over the world. She graciously gave me a tour of the small but immaculate kitchen (I nearly squealed when she pointed out the bread press where the wraps and turnovers that Body & Soul sells are made), extensive dry storage and prep rooms, and wine vaults. I even got a taste of some amazing cocktails served up by her 'mixologist'.

It was truly a pleasure to meet her -- and so much fun to hear someone so enthused about their work. She offered to take me Satur Farms on Long Island on an upcoming weekend to meet a winemaker with her and see where the greens come from! I'm looking forward to many nights at Counter and getting to know Deborah and her team there.

The Issue With Food | Overcoming a complicated relationship with eating

This was never supposed to be about food. Or so I thought. It never occurred to me that 90% of what I purchase is food. Morning coffee, lunches, afternoon snacks, happy-hours, dinners out, groceries, weekend breakfasts, all of it comes from somewhere and I had no concept of how many times a week I opened my wallet to exchange cash for sustenance.

There's a complicated element to the issues raised by food in regards to this "new religion" I've been accused of having, in that there's a question as to what constitutes "production", and what constitutes a "commercial item". If I have to visit the farm where every item on my plate comes from, I will go hungry and malnourished very quickly: something I promised myself I wouldn't let happen. That doesn't mean I'm off the hook completely though, and can go willy-nilly through Wendy's and Key Foods (a comparatively sub par grocery chain here in NY). My new philosophy on food and how it fits into the experiment is this: all groceries are to come from the Park Slope Food Coop, where I am and know others who are part of the chain of bringing the goods to market, and I have the opportunity to discover where everything hails from and visit as many (over time) as I can -- or a Greenmarket environment where I'm purchasing directly from the farms. Dining out is a bit more sketchy as it's pretty clearly a purchase of manufactured goods and I have limited access to every kitchen in NYC. I can, however, investigate which chefs procure raw goods direct from local farmers and Greenmarkets. I can learn more about local independent restaurateurs, become a regular and get to know them, meeting with them and learning about their businesses and seeing where the food is prepared.

I came to this realization last night when the possibilities for dinner where to either make my boyfriend buy a box of pasta and cook it for me (he can't afford to buy me "gifts" for dinner whenever it gets sticky, and God only knows where that boxed pasta came from anyway) or to eat at a local restaurant. We opted for Bonita, a Mexican spot in Fort Green, where we learned that they buy all of their meat and produce from New York State farms, and seasonally offer specials such as King Fish, which is a local game fish. Bonita is one of three owned and operated together, and they routinely will "purchase a cow" at a regional farm together and split it amongst the restaurants, ensuring meat is fresh and as un-processed as possible. I'm sure there will be more discussions as to how food fits in to the project, but for the moment, this seems sustainable.

The Distillation Process | A visit to Brooklyn Brewery reveals there's more work to be done

My first "factory tour" really opened my eyes. And then slurred my speech and compromised my coordination.

A visit to Brooklyn Brewery's Williamsburg, NY, facility is not what I expected. The "tour" consisted of a 10 minute canned speech from aspiring-actor and sometimes bartender Eric, in a room the size of a modest house that contained thirteen 20 foot steel tanks and an assortment of 60 some-odd Scandinavian tourists and local hipsters. Eric covered the basics: founded by Steve Hindy; iconic logo by design legend Milton Glaser (of I Heart NY fame, and Design of Dissent authorship); 1/3 of their beer is produced in Brooklyn, the other 2/3 in a larger Utica facility.... So apparently the room we were in is an actually working brewery, the tanks around us were filed with fermenting liquids and the distillation process is underway on weekdays. What quickly dawned on me, however, is that I'm not going to meet anyone who actually works the machines while on a guided tour with a $4 pint in my hand. It wasn't Eric's fault -- in fact chatting with him afterwards, he's quite knowledgeable about the process and seemed a genuinely good guy -- but a tour is not the same. It's a step in the right direction to seeing where the product comes from, but a deeper connection to a distiller, the company founder, or a visit to the massive facility in Utica are going to be necessary.

That all said: a few of the brand's labels are brewed in the Williamsburg factory. I saw no harm in trying the Winter Brew, Weiss, and special addition Blast. It wasn't until I purchased a case to bring to a dinner party when I realized, hmm, this might be challenging on a bicycle...

Habitual Spending

I've never really been a big shopper, and over the past few years I've become more and more conscious of what I buy and where I buy it from. However, walking through the city the past couple days I've been acutely aware of my urges to buy something! I've been bringing lunch in to work, and coffee some mornings (all left over from before the start of the project or from the Union Sq Greenmarket and Park Slope Coop) but when I go out of the office to take a break or walk home after work, I am magnetically drawn into the shops and coffee houses I used to frequent. I almost feel guilty for not patronizing them. It's really been quite an awakening to my old habits.

Fun With Communism | We're all in this together at the Park Slope Food Coop

Finally a real sense of making some progress! Tonight I attended an orientation session at the Park Slope Food Coop, a membership cooperative grocery store focusing on local and organic meat, grains, and produce, as well as community and social responsibility. With over 13,000 "volunteer" members, the Coop boasts $27 million in annual sales. The broccoli bin gets refilled every 30 minutes on any given Saturday.

Orientation was led by Julie, a massage therapist by day, and Coop member for 7 years. Fellow orientees hailed from as nearby as Park Slope to as far as Queens, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Trinidad (okay, she's a student in NY). In all, there were 20 new members tonight -- typical for a session, of which there are 4 a week. That's 320 new members a month. Impressive from an organization that started when 5 guys who decided to buy a bag of rice together and split it in 1972, and incorporated a year later. Currently, members enjoy low prices (all items are marked up only 21% above cost) for their commitment of 2 hours and 45 minutes per month, and provide 75% of the labor needed to run the shop.

I'm honored to be a part of it, and look forward to meeting fellow members, learning where the produce and other products come from, and stocking those shelves.

UPDATE 3.20: I used my new member privileges to buy much-needed soap and toothpaste along with some fresh produce and eggs last night. I'm still embarrassed by how good it felt to actually buy something.

Going the Distance | Physical and emotional lengths

Challenges to complete immersion and strict adherence to its principles come in many forms.

I discovered last night that Seventh Generation, which I thought was a "local" company and was relying on for many household necessities, is actually located in Burlington, VT. Six hours away. A new strategy is to take a long weekend to drive up to their factories, then cut over to Tom's of Maine before coming back to New York. In the meantime, my own personal involvement in the distribution chain by joining the Park Slope Coop will need to suffice.

Most people I've discussed this project with are extremely supportive and I love the conversations it starts ("there are 14 Breweries in New York State"; "if you support Burt's Bees and then they get bought by Clorox, do you stop patronizing them?"). But starting this during my birthday week is frustrating friends when I suggest pot-luck: "Don’t get me wrong I respect what you are doing but it is totally crazy to try and do that with a group of people... you can do what you want, just hard to pull off when you have external factors in play like friends."

Baby Steps | The learning curve

The project is off to a shaky, but definitive, start. Allowing for a sharp learning curve, and the complete overhaul of my interactions with the world in many ways, is going to take some patience. And nerve.

I've yet to clarify to myself strict guidelines when it comes to food consumption, and it's going to continue to be a process. Friends took me to dinner last night (a cap to a birthday weekend) and it felt like I was cheating right off the bat. Dinners out are going to have to be rare and special.

I regained some confidence in the challenge's feasibility at noon today when I finally introduced myself to Scott, who works the Body & Soul booth at the Union Square Greenmarket. Scott is there Mondays and Fridays and I've been buying vegetable turnovers and wraps from him for months. Turns out Body & Soul is related to the restaurant Counter, founded by local and organic chef Deborah Gavito at 105 First Ave, NY. I stocked up for the week, and look forward to going down to meet Deborah and check out the kitchen soon.

Counting down to the launch

A few days before beginning this year-long experiment, I'm excited by the prospects and nervous about the challenges. The plan at the outset is to spend the next year, my 30th as it happens, hyper conscious of every consumer purchase I make. For every transaction, there must be a personal connection with someone along the production chain. Whether its the designer, factory worker, chef, farmer, or maybe even trucker, being aware of the lives touched by every product I buy will certainly enlighten me, probably surprise me, possibly shame me, and absolutely provide me with some good stories.

The experiment/challenge will most likely direct me to consuming primarily local goods– grown, produced, created somewhere near Brooklyn, NY. I will not necessarily hold this as a rule, however. I hope to be able to make some connections across the country, and possibly internationally. I'll probably want to buy something that was made in China over the next year, won't I?

The project is sure to evolve, and I welcome comments, suggestions, and collaborators as it progresses.