One of the many self-improvement goals I've set for myself recently is to eat more sustainably, which is often at odds with the other big goal of being more economical.
Experts are always advising us that we can kill two organic free-range chickens with one stone by buying more locally grown food at farmers markets. This sounds great - in theory.
You see, up where I live (in the northern San Fernando Valley), we don't have a lot of great farmers markets to choose from. The most convenient one is in Northridge - but it's held on Wednesday nights... from April to October.
You can see the problem, right? It's January, and I don't have a good local farmers market to go to.
Yeah, I suppose I could hit ones held in Studio City or Encino on the weekend. But if I'm going to get in the car and drive that far, I may as well drive a little farther and visit the Grand Poobah of markets in the L.A. area: Santa Monica.
Fortunately, my foodie friend Deena agrees with me. So yesterday, after dropping our kids at school, we journeyed down the 405 to the Third Street Promenade, where we ooh'd and aah'd over some of the most gorgeous fruits and vegetables I've ever seen. I went there without any kind of agenda or meal plan in mind. All I knew was that I had some chicken breasts I wanted to use. I was hoping for some inspiration... ...which I found at a stand featuring all kinds of Asian greens. I picked up a bag of baby bok choy and took it from there. I grabbed a bag of fresh scallions (75 cents) and some garlic (three bulbs for $1.00). In addition to the chicken, I already had broccoli and carrots (a shame, because the Costco veggies in my fridge didn't hold a candle to the beautiful produce in Santa Monica). Unrelated to dinner, I also grabbed a three-pack of raspberries and blueberries. And Deena and I split a similar pack of strawberries. |
We made it back to the Valley around noon - which gave us plenty of time to put our bounty away before school got out.
This was such an easy and fun way to shop, we are planning to do it more often. Weekly might be difficult - but at least, we can get there on a monthly basis.
