It is now officially the day after the end of B.L.O.M week. The last thing I had was a cup of organic local grass fed milk. By the time the week was over, I had pretty much finished all the leftover dinners, but there was a ton of bread, milk, etc.
When I look back on that week, I didn't seem to starve as I thought I would. Pennsylvania, though it's not known as the agricultural state of the nation, still produces enough organic vegetables. There was more than enough. Just two problems however. One it's expensive, (my bill came to $160 with tons of leftovers) and two you can't sustain a family on just organic local food.
I think that's what this week has taught me. It's very very good to have a organic side dish, or eat a meal part organic, but it really is not practicable for a family, like 5, to eat complete organic local food. It's expensive, and hard. That's why my final conclusion is: Eat organic or local, but don't limit yourself to it. Eat the different food chains. One thing that I mentioned, before was that their was a lack of fruits in May. That's why you have to eat non local. Organic food is very pricey, that's why you sometimes have to eat industrial. Every little bit you eat counts towards voting with your fork, for the food you believe in.
It wasn't actually very hard to eat completely organic and local. Maybe just a little when resisting foods that I liked, but I overcame them.
What I don't really like is that soon this week became my challenge rather than my help towards the environment. That's why I also want to not have a steady diet of organic local food.
Nothing really changed with me. It's just that I know that I'm helping those animals and farmers, and that I ,along with every other organic local eater, is helping the environment.
This is the BLOMer signing out.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Last Day
Sorry I'm doing this post on Tuesday, instead of Monday. Nothing really happened that was unusual today, that I won't mention in my next post. Well, I guess dinner was unusual : Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Strawberries, all either organic, local or both.
Lunch consisted of pizza, and leftover chicken.
Breakfast was Spinach Mushroom Foccacia with Strawberries.
Snacks were the same as yesterday.
Now read my next post to get the full details on the week.
Breakfast was Spinach Mushroom Foccacia with Strawberries.
Snacks were the same as yesterday.
Now read my next post to get the full details on the week.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Two Days To Go
5 days down, 2 to go. I am not doing to badly, but like my mom said, I might owe that to the fact I can eat my dad's pizza, and not starve. Today for breakfast I had something different: French Toast. We used the bread mixed with eggs and other ingredients like that. Even the brown sugar was organic. I used Maple Syrup and strawberries for toppings.
Nothing out of the ordinary really happened B.L.O.M wise today.
I snacked on strawberries, yogurt, and milk.
I had pizza for lunch.
For dinner, I had Sausage, Potatoes, Garlic, Herbs, Swiss Chard, Asparagus, Baby Zucchinis, and a salad. It was all either organic local or both.
Sorry for this dull post folks.
Pete's Produce
Today was the day that I went to Pete's Produce along with my family. After quickly eating my Cheese Bread with more cheese topping it along with some swiss chard we headed off. My mom and I went to find some food for the rest of this B.L.O.M week, my father to find some healthy transplants for his garden, and my grandmother just came along. Pete's Produce didn't disappoint any of us. The first thing we saw when we walked up to the store was a huge arrangement of hanging basket flowers.
We then saw some signs that said things like how organic it was and how it supported the food bank.
I had already been at the store, so I knew what it was like (refer to the Sticky Situation). The food was top quality, and there was more than enough local organic food. My mom agrees that it was a little bit pricey, but that's organic for you. We got food for the next few days from maple syrup to strawberries for 50 bucks. Now that I won't be buying any more food that means this week came to about $160. That sounds crazy for 1 person, but I have a ton and I mean a ton of leftovers that I will be having along with my family for a little while later. It's still more than usual. My dad found huge beautiful transplants which were also pricey but good. We didn't get to pick strawberries but the right hand manager said that I could ask them some time later.
As we drove back from there, I saw how many farms there were, one after the other. I wondered why Chester County was a food desert (no easily accessible healthy food) when there were so many organic farms. It also made me wonder why, if these farms could sustain the county why each county had it's own farms. Then we wouldn't have to ship. Of course, that's not possible, with population, space, and climate, but it is possible in some areas.
Lunch was the pizza, and throughout the day, I had fruit yogurt, strawberries, and milk. I think that I am dehydrated and thirsty for juiciness. I haven't had any fruit apart from the strawberries and I am dying for some fruit. That's why I'm eating large amounts of those three things. I think the milk saved me from completely losing it with "fruity dehydration".
My dad and I went to the garden (don't worry I will get to that!) and harvested a mind boggling amount of veggies. We got a bucket of lettuce, radishes, and romaine, plus some garlic.
That night I had a complete meal all from our gardens, except the strawberries and beets that were in it. Not bad for the end of spring.
As we drove back from there, I saw how many farms there were, one after the other. I wondered why Chester County was a food desert (no easily accessible healthy food) when there were so many organic farms. It also made me wonder why, if these farms could sustain the county why each county had it's own farms. Then we wouldn't have to ship. Of course, that's not possible, with population, space, and climate, but it is possible in some areas.
Lunch was the pizza, and throughout the day, I had fruit yogurt, strawberries, and milk. I think that I am dehydrated and thirsty for juiciness. I haven't had any fruit apart from the strawberries and I am dying for some fruit. That's why I'm eating large amounts of those three things. I think the milk saved me from completely losing it with "fruity dehydration".
My dad and I went to the garden (don't worry I will get to that!) and harvested a mind boggling amount of veggies. We got a bucket of lettuce, radishes, and romaine, plus some garlic.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Who said pizza isn't organic?
Today was the final school day of B.L.O.M. I made my final speech, and gave a treat of organic local strawberries, and local pretzels to those that signed up. We made a total of about 45 dollars, and 50 names. I am now so close to finishing my week. Just some problems. I don't think it's due to the organic food, but I have lost 3 pounds. I have had some stomach problem which is not making me hungry, and especially this week. I just haven't been hungry. I doubt it's the organic food. I mean I have as much food as if I wasn't eating organic. I don't know. But today I was very hungry when my mom showed me the organic homemade pizzas my dad made. My dad makes lots of pizzas, and so this was as usual, except he used organic flour, organic oil, organic local herbs, organic local cheese, and organic sauce. The yeast, salt, and sugar was not, but you got to cut him some slack. He added pepper without thinking, but that's also okay. He said if you take the ratio of those things compared with the others, it's very small. I also discovered another thing today. Burning food adds more taste. Take my popcorn, before the butter idea, it was bland. But burned it had a new flavor. Same thing with the pizza. It's a useful thing to know.
Also today in German class we have fake Euro's and if you get enough you get gummy bear. My friend and I (he also was part of the event) thought we had combined enough, but then I realized I couldn't have them. I convinced not to have them, and then we realized we didn't even have enough. Just thought I'd put that in there.
For breakfast I had Organic Local Toast with Organic Local Jam.
For Lunch I had Organic Local Popcorn, Organic Local Beets and Lettuce, and a sandwich with some of the chicken from the chicken salad, with some of that mayo still on it (oops).
So, now it's going quite well. I sent an email out to my community garden people to let them know about B.L.O.M and this is the BLOMer signing out.
For breakfast I had Organic Local Toast with Organic Local Jam.
For Lunch I had Organic Local Popcorn, Organic Local Beets and Lettuce, and a sandwich with some of the chicken from the chicken salad, with some of that mayo still on it (oops).
So, now it's going quite well. I sent an email out to my community garden people to let them know about B.L.O.M and this is the BLOMer signing out.
The Sticky Situation
Sorry that I'm blogging today but I had a concert that I was performing in that was late.
Before I get to the "Sticky Situation" I want to quickly about Breakfast and Lunch.
Breakfast: Organic Steel Cut Oats with Local honey.
Lunch: Jam and Cheese Bread (don't ask) with lettuce and beets, Yogurt, and Popcorn. My mom had found out a great way to make the popcorn taste good. We took some of our Organic Butter and melted it. We then poured the popcorn into the melted butter, and whalla! Tasty snack!
Now I can get to the Sticky Situation. We had just come from a local organic farm which our class had stopped by coming back from a field trip. Amazingly this was the same farm, I was going to visit with my parents on Saturday. They said that they would let me pick strawberries when I came. So anyway, they had given us ice creams. The ice creams were local, and had 6 ingredients. Whoops, that meant it had to be Organic. I asked my teacher through the noisy bus and she said yes through the confusion. I then ate my ice cream and boy was it sticky. It was everywhere! When I got back, I learned that the ice cream, was actually probably not organic. That just shows how confusing and how deceiving food can be. A label says one thing, a person says another, an ad says yet another. It's so hard for the consumer to know what's organic, local, industrial. etc. Anyway, I don't blame anybody, it was an accident. I was feeling a little guilty, but my teacher said something that was dead true: "You don't have to be miserable for this week". And that was true. Also it was close to 5 ingredients, so I dropped it, though feelings of guilt still stayed.
It got even worse that night. I had my leftover drum stick and sweet potato with asparagus and swiss chard. My mom had made organic chicken, with organic broccoli/carrot slaw, with organic mayonnaise (8 ingredients), and pineapple (nothing). It looked so good, and tempting, and I was dying to have some. It's true, I could take out the pineapple and then I would be able to have it, except there was the mayonnaise. It was only organic. Then there were also onions, which my mom was sort of sure were organic. My family finally talked into eating some. I didn't have the pineapple or the celery (there was also celery). I might not have gone completely pure, but that's impossible, and I'm doing so much, I can afford a few mistakes.
That's pretty much it.
Before I get to the "Sticky Situation" I want to quickly about Breakfast and Lunch.
Breakfast: Organic Steel Cut Oats with Local honey.
Lunch: Jam and Cheese Bread (don't ask) with lettuce and beets, Yogurt, and Popcorn. My mom had found out a great way to make the popcorn taste good. We took some of our Organic Butter and melted it. We then poured the popcorn into the melted butter, and whalla! Tasty snack!
Now I can get to the Sticky Situation. We had just come from a local organic farm which our class had stopped by coming back from a field trip. Amazingly this was the same farm, I was going to visit with my parents on Saturday. They said that they would let me pick strawberries when I came. So anyway, they had given us ice creams. The ice creams were local, and had 6 ingredients. Whoops, that meant it had to be Organic. I asked my teacher through the noisy bus and she said yes through the confusion. I then ate my ice cream and boy was it sticky. It was everywhere! When I got back, I learned that the ice cream, was actually probably not organic. That just shows how confusing and how deceiving food can be. A label says one thing, a person says another, an ad says yet another. It's so hard for the consumer to know what's organic, local, industrial. etc. Anyway, I don't blame anybody, it was an accident. I was feeling a little guilty, but my teacher said something that was dead true: "You don't have to be miserable for this week". And that was true. Also it was close to 5 ingredients, so I dropped it, though feelings of guilt still stayed.
It got even worse that night. I had my leftover drum stick and sweet potato with asparagus and swiss chard. My mom had made organic chicken, with organic broccoli/carrot slaw, with organic mayonnaise (8 ingredients), and pineapple (nothing). It looked so good, and tempting, and I was dying to have some. It's true, I could take out the pineapple and then I would be able to have it, except there was the mayonnaise. It was only organic. Then there were also onions, which my mom was sort of sure were organic. My family finally talked into eating some. I didn't have the pineapple or the celery (there was also celery). I might not have gone completely pure, but that's impossible, and I'm doing so much, I can afford a few mistakes.
That's pretty much it.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Hard Lunch
Wow today was a hard hard lunch for me. It seems that on the second day of BLOM the school has a barbecue. That means while I was eating my (nonetheless good) lunch of my leftovers of dinner, organic local lettuce, organic local yogurt, and organic local beetroot I was watching people chow on burgers, hot dogs, potato chips, watermelon, and ice cream. The burgers and the ice cream wasn't so appealing but the rest was very. To add to that we celebrated someone's birthday in class and I had to eat my organic local yogurt while I watched people eat cupcakes and cookies. It's not as hard as I make it out to be at school, but when I got home, it was a temptation to snack, even on some celery. Again this is what I was talking about snacking. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I forgot to mention my breakfast. It was organic (not so local) oats with some local (not so organic) honey. It was bland but it was okay.
When I got home hungry, my mom said that once this week ends I shouldn't eat completely unhealthily, and I agree with her, because that would defeat the purpose. It's not to go a week for a record, it's to try to eat more eco-friendly.
For dinner it was local chicken with organic local sweet potatoes and organic local herbs. Now with this chicken my mom said sheepishly that it was actually not organic but that it was all natural, the chickens were free ranging, and they were grass fed. Now from reading the Omnivore's Dilemma, I knew that some farms were not labeled Organic because they didn't manage to get certified but that didn't mean they were not using organic methods. A farm is allowed to put anything they want on their package like all natural and grass fed but they were not allowed to say organic. Now from Omnivore's Dilemma I also learned not to always trust free range, but since this was all natural, free range, and grass fed, plus it was local, I ate it. Here is a picture of another organic local chicken the rest of my family ate (my chicken would have to sustain me for the rest of my week (sort of)). Their's had potatoes which I couldn't eat, so I took a picture showing how two meals can be different but look the same. It would have helped the purpose more if my family had cooked a non organic chicken but it's good they were eating organic too. Mine is on the right, their's is on the left.
Well that's the BLOMer signing out.
When I got home hungry, my mom said that once this week ends I shouldn't eat completely unhealthily, and I agree with her, because that would defeat the purpose. It's not to go a week for a record, it's to try to eat more eco-friendly.
Well that's the BLOMer signing out.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Start Of Organic Week
This is it! This is the start of Organic Week. I managed to get so far about 30-35 people and $28 for our school garden. It's looking good for BLOM. People have goals from 10 organic meals to giving up Pop Tarts.
So what is my goal? I am following the rules of 1. Organic 2. Local 3. Less than 5 ingredients.
For every food I eat, it must be 2 out of those 3 conditions. I know that that's not going the whole whole hog, but it's not practical for a growing person in Pennsylvania to eat completely Local and Organic. I'm doing as much as I can. I'll give you my meal plan tomorrow, but today I'll just give you my meals today. I started by waking up full and with some nausea. Yesterday I went to Washington D.C where I had some food which didn't suit me too well. My mom had prepared me local organic scrambled eggs, with organic local bread and organic local jam. My milk was organic and local and grass fed. Sadly, I was feeling so awful I couldn't eat much. My mom took advantage of this by using the leftover toast for my lunch sandwich. My dad and mom had gotten organic local popcorn which they popped in an popcorn machine and the microwave. Finally with this lunch, I had organic local yogurt and organic local lettuce. My meals when I got home weren't as pure as my lunch and breakfast. I had a snack of organic local spinach and mushroom foccacia sandwich with Wisconsin (oops) Organic butter. While I was eating this dinner was being prepared. It was Organic pasta from Italy with Organic Local asparagus and Organic Local swiss chard. It was sauteed in the Wisconsin Butter. After that I had a snack of Organic Californian strawberries and Organic Californian blueberries, along with Organic Local yogurt. So I managed to survive my first day.
Some thoughts:
I never realized how much I snacked.When I get home I usually have a snack, but I had to wait for dinner. It's hard to wait for dinner.
Pennsylvania is not the easiest place in the nation to eat locally. Unlike California and Florida, it's difficult to get produce, especially fruit.
My Organic "Local" Dinner
So what is my goal? I am following the rules of 1. Organic 2. Local 3. Less than 5 ingredients.
For every food I eat, it must be 2 out of those 3 conditions. I know that that's not going the whole whole hog, but it's not practical for a growing person in Pennsylvania to eat completely Local and Organic. I'm doing as much as I can. I'll give you my meal plan tomorrow, but today I'll just give you my meals today. I started by waking up full and with some nausea. Yesterday I went to Washington D.C where I had some food which didn't suit me too well. My mom had prepared me local organic scrambled eggs, with organic local bread and organic local jam. My milk was organic and local and grass fed. Sadly, I was feeling so awful I couldn't eat much. My mom took advantage of this by using the leftover toast for my lunch sandwich. My dad and mom had gotten organic local popcorn which they popped in an popcorn machine and the microwave. Finally with this lunch, I had organic local yogurt and organic local lettuce. My meals when I got home weren't as pure as my lunch and breakfast. I had a snack of organic local spinach and mushroom foccacia sandwich with Wisconsin (oops) Organic butter. While I was eating this dinner was being prepared. It was Organic pasta from Italy with Organic Local asparagus and Organic Local swiss chard. It was sauteed in the Wisconsin Butter. After that I had a snack of Organic Californian strawberries and Organic Californian blueberries, along with Organic Local yogurt. So I managed to survive my first day.
Some thoughts:I never realized how much I snacked.When I get home I usually have a snack, but I had to wait for dinner. It's hard to wait for dinner.
Pennsylvania is not the easiest place in the nation to eat locally. Unlike California and Florida, it's difficult to get produce, especially fruit.
My Organic "Local" Dinner
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Sorry for the delay
I'm so sorry for not posting anything for a while. I've been very busy with my garden and with the BLOM movement. I finally on Friday found some wristbands (there is a picture here of them) and was allowed by my school (they kept delaying my speech) to give my speech. However, I wasn't allowed to do 3 minutes like they had said I could do. I had to go quicker because they didn't want me taking up the relaxation time of my fellow students. (Complete bogus I say). I gave a quick snapshot, cutting out pretty much everything, I had planned to say, and decided to just skip the rules all together. My teacher says that it was a good thing that I made it short, because he said that after 30 seconds, everyone was tuning out.
Despite all this, I got about 15 people to sign up at school, and 10 of them payed a dollar (one of them 3) to support our school garden. At the garden party on the day after Friday I managed to give out 4 more wristbands to a few garden members. Also the garden director promised to put a link of this blog out to all the garden members, so if you are reading this because of that email thank you for looking at this blog.
Despite all this, I got about 15 people to sign up at school, and 10 of them payed a dollar (one of them 3) to support our school garden. At the garden party on the day after Friday I managed to give out 4 more wristbands to a few garden members. Also the garden director promised to put a link of this blog out to all the garden members, so if you are reading this because of that email thank you for looking at this blog.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Interview
Today I got interviewed along with two other fellow students buy the PA 21 news about how our school won the Green Ribbon School Award with the 77 other schools. I had just one minute to talk, but I managed to mention BLOM and if any of you readers are here because of that, I want to thank you for joining!
My Organic Earth Day
Even if no one else was doing a organic local day I was going to. So I decided to, with the food we bought at the Bryn Mawr farmer's market to have Earth Day be a organic local day. I started off with a breakfast of oatmeal. The oats had 1 ingredient: 100% rolled oats. I believe it was organic; I'm not sure. The oats were, I admit, from Minnesota, but I had on of the rules down, so I decided to eat it. With it was some local less than 5 ingredient honey which we had bought from Gentiles (a produce market). I also put on some cane sugar from (gulp) Texas. It was organic and had 1 ingredient so I ate it. One problem occurred when I was halfway through eating my oatmeal when my mom said "Oh I gave you leftover oatmeal from the fridge. It had some regular milk in it." I froze. We had put in raw local organic goat's milk, but forgot about the milk already in the oats. Luckily, the milk said that it had no rgbh. It seemed like some chemical or hormone which makes the cows produce more milk. Looking on the web that day, my mom found a website that said that the rgbh was really the only thing that you wanted to keep out of your milk, or at least one of the most important things. I know my breakfast was a half- hearted attempt and I do admit that we hadn't really prepared for this day, something that will not happen during May 22nd. My lunch was much better at staying local and organic. Arugula that was organic from California, local organic sausage with rustic bread also from California with a local organic pepper goat cheese spread on the top. It was delicious, and tasted fresh. I will upload some pictures of my meals later. That day was a day of hunger though. It feels weird, because it feels like you can't eat anything, and you are usually hungry. That can all be avoided if you plan ahead. Halfway through the day, my brother taunted that he would buy wings, my favorite food, but I stayed resilient, though it was hard. In the end he didn't even buy any wings. In between lunch and dinner I had local organic yogurt which was the free sample which the Whole Foods man gave to me. For dinner I had organic local duck egg with organic local sausage. In addition was some local organic asparagus and some California organic rustic bread with local organic pepper goat cheese spread. I have to say that that was my most local organic meal of the three. Well now I have put to the test a local organic day, and have come to the conclusion, that though it was hard, it was worth it. I kept money in my state and saved fossil fuels by eating local and bought food that was humane and healthy. Sure it was really expensive, but who says you have to buy it every day. Just once in a while. Also you won't starve like me if you buy all your food in advance. Not too far, mind you, because than the fresh food might spoil, just the weekend before the 22nd would be good. There you have it, folks.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Farmer's Market
Hello everyone,
On this day I will talk about the experience of a very pure local organic farmer's market. It was in Bryn Mawr. My family decided to check it out, to see if it held any promise. It was a wide selection of organic food, but boy was it expensive! We bought a sausage, duck eggs, chicken eggs, asparagus, goat pepper cheese spread, goat's milk, and some fruit jelly candies. The asparagus was $6 for a bunch, the sausage $13, and the candies 20 bucks! The cheese spread was $6 dollars for just a little cup. Though all this food was expensive, it was top quality, and as I will talk about in my next post made for a delicious organic local day! So basically what this farmer's market proved was organic expensive and local even more. At first I thought that local was the same price as far away, but my mom said at this other farmer's market she went to, the organic local strawberries were much more expensive than the organic California strawberries at Trader Joes. Right now organic food is expensive, but that is because conventional food is now our main diet. If more people bought organic food and less conventional food, the cost would lower. So buying organic is for a worthy cause!
The BLOMer signing out.
On this day I will talk about the experience of a very pure local organic farmer's market. It was in Bryn Mawr. My family decided to check it out, to see if it held any promise. It was a wide selection of organic food, but boy was it expensive! We bought a sausage, duck eggs, chicken eggs, asparagus, goat pepper cheese spread, goat's milk, and some fruit jelly candies. The asparagus was $6 for a bunch, the sausage $13, and the candies 20 bucks! The cheese spread was $6 dollars for just a little cup. Though all this food was expensive, it was top quality, and as I will talk about in my next post made for a delicious organic local day! So basically what this farmer's market proved was organic expensive and local even more. At first I thought that local was the same price as far away, but my mom said at this other farmer's market she went to, the organic local strawberries were much more expensive than the organic California strawberries at Trader Joes. Right now organic food is expensive, but that is because conventional food is now our main diet. If more people bought organic food and less conventional food, the cost would lower. So buying organic is for a worthy cause!
The BLOMer signing out.
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