Northampton and updates!

Life has been busy! I need to get back on top of updating.

I went home with Prouty for the weekend to Northampton, which has been really great. I was able to buy a ton of food at their local farmers market, on saturday. She took me to a new burger place in town called LOCAL BURGER that serves three kinds of local burgers, local fries and shakes with local ice cream! It was SO EXCITING!!! Unfortunately they didn't have any local cheese or condiments or bread so I did end up eating a plain piece of meat on a plate haha but I was content as I sipped my uber tasty shake and my fries. I conceded some ketchup since i was eating a plain burger. I have discovered I can't live without ketchup, so i decided I will get some natural ketchup (without corn syrup which is in Hein's) to carry around with me. Ironically, about 20 minutes later my body was really not happy with me. Without going into details, somethings didn't agree. Its interesting how sensitive my body has gotten in three weeks.

Saturday night we went to rachel's cousin's for a big family gathering. It was great, everyone was drinking beer and eating pizza, watching the olympics and i was making myself a salad and baked potato.

This morning Rachel and her mom made brunch for everyone with all local stuff!! Eggs, bacon, home fries! I did have to pass on the bagels and orange juice, but I had my own toast and jam. Its interesting that local ingredients are much easier to come by here in northampton. They have a whole campaign of "Be a Local Hero! Buy Local!" So all the stores have local hero tags on their local food.

Speaking of, Check this link out!

http://maps.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/foodenv5.aspx

Its an interactive food atlas (zoomed into mass right now, but you can choose any state or the whole country) where you can see different stats about growing food and other health related stats. Very cool! I have been thinking about trying to figure out where the best and worst place to eat locally would be, and how my project would be different depending on where I was living. I hope to explore this as I trek to various places throughout the next 5 weeks. I will be going to nyc in a few weeks so that should be interesting!

Wednesday:

breakfast-toast with butter

Lunch - Sandwich with chicken, formage blanc cheese, tomato, spinach, home made bread

Dinner - Left over ravioli with sweet potato and formage blanc cheese

drinks (sharing tastes of ipswitch oatmeal stout - 37.8 mils , smuttynose brown ale - 60.5 miles, rapscillion honey (can't remember where this is from but its local and delicious - check back) , Narragansett - 50 miles

Thursday:

Breakfast - toast with butter, eggs, home fries

lunch- Sandwich with chicken, formage blanc cheese, tomato, spinach, home made bread

snack - popcorn

dinner - chicken soup

snacks - popcorn, ice cream

friday:

breakfast - toast with butter, eggs, home fries, cider

lunch - Sandwich with chicken, formage blanc cheese, tomato, spinach, home made bread

snack - toast with jam, glass of milk

dinner - burger (from Easthampton, MA - 8.5 miles from northampton, 94 miles from boston) fries (from Hadley MA - 6.3 miles from northampton, 101 miles from boston), milkshake (Ice cream made y Bart's Ice Cream in Amherst, MA - 10.7 miles from northampton, 90.3 miles from boston) ALL LOCAL!!!

saturday:

breakfast - toast with jam

lunch- grilled cheese with tomato

-cheese - Smith's Farmstead in Winchendon, MA - 63 miles from northampton, 65.8 miles from boston)

-Tomatoes from American Hydroponics in Hopkington, MA - 27.9 miles

-bread made at home [yogurt from Sidehill Farm Ashfield, MA -16.5 miles from northampton, 115 miles from boston, Flour from King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT - 139 miles, honey from Shelburne, MA - 26.3 miles from northampton, 101 mils from boston]

-left over fries from dinner

snack - cider donuts (Elm Farm Bakery in South Deerfield, MA - 13.1 miles from northampton, 110 miles from boston)

dinner - salad

- mixed greens (Atlas Farm in South Deerfield, MA - 12.8 miles from northampton, 109 miles from boston)

-carrots (Winter Moon Farm in Hadley, MA - 6.3 miles from northampton and 101 miles from boston)

-onions (Atlas Farm in South Deerfield, MA - 12.8 miles from northampton, 109 miles from boston)

-tomato (Hydroponic Tomatoes from American Hydroponics in Hopkington, MA - 27.9 miles)

-oil and lime (i forgot my dressing and was forced to improvise)

-baked sweet potato fries (Red Fire Farm in Granby, MA - 80.9 miles)