New Year, New Beginnings

We're about to start a new year with our San Francisco tours. One of the fun things to in San Francisco, as well as most areas is to go find new foods at the farmers market. In January, many of the wineries in our area have great events such as Winter Wineland in the Russian River in Sonoma (www.wineroad.com). We go every year. We spend the weekend finding new wineries. After finding a winery we really like, we'll ask them what is their favorite winery. We always end up with a couple great new wine finds.

Holiday Fun Things

I love San Francisco during the holidays. On our San Francisco tours, we get to see all the lights and smell all of the great holiday foods. One the fun things to do in San Francisco is to go down to the waterfront and see the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Seasonal Changes

Here in San Francisco, fall brings crab and mushrooms. We like adding holiday foods to our San Francisco Tours, especially our North Beach\Little Italy tour. One of the fun things to do in San Francisco is wander around the markets and see what new foods show up. Check out the markets close to you and you might find some great surprises.

Fall Happenings

One the fun things to do in San Francisco or anywhere, in my opinion, is to check the new produce at the Farmers Market. Golden Chanterelle mushrooms are in season here. Is there anything better than a quiche or risotto with Golden Chanterelle mushrooms? Check out the new produce where you are! You may have something just as good.

One of fun things to do in San Francisco and in your hometown

Consider spending time at your local farmers market. It is one of the fun things to do in San Francisco as well as your hometown. Most farmers markets attract local musicians and performers, so in addition to supporting local sustainable agriculture, it is a lot of fun.

Local Resources

A good resource for local foods in the US, Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia is www.slowfood.com. They are also the place for find out how to get involved in building sustainable agriculture and communities.

Farmers Markets in the US

A good source for farmers markets in the US is the USDA website, http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/. You can look up farmers markets in your local area.

Creating Demand

One thing that we here repeatedly on our tours is how unique San Francisco is, with an incredible variety of local foods. This may sounds simplistic, however there are an surprisingly number of area in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere that have or can create the same demand for local foods. The more food stores hear demands for local foods, the more they carry them. If you are willing to vote with you feet, in other words shop at the stores that carry local foods and let the other stores know that you are doing that, the more the market will be created for local foods. It's easy for a store to deal with one distributor for everything, rather the dozens of farmers and local producers. The only incentive for them to deal with local producers is that consumers will not shop at their stores if they do not.

Finding Your Local Farmers Market

A good source for finding your local farmers market is the department of agriculture for your state.

Demand Creates Supply

We often hear on our tours how lucky we are to have an abundance of local foods. Our guests tell how they wish they could get local foods where they live. An important factor in having local foods available is local demand. If your local grocer believes that will lose customers if they do not carry local foods they may start to carry local foods to keep customers. Make it clear to your local grocer that you will shop at grocers that carry local foods and you may end up with local foods at your local grocer.

Imported Food

According to USA Today, only 1.3% of the food imported into the U.S. is inspected. Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration is mind boggling. How can anyone ask the question about whether you should eat imported food, regardless of the price? There is an alternative. Make it clear to your local grocer that you will not buy imported foods. It is a simply reality, if they can't sell it, they won't carry it.

Creating Demand for Local Foods

One of the important thing you can do to create demand for local produce is to continually ask your local stores to carry local produce and then make it clear that you will shop at stores in your area that carry local produce. If enough people in your area ask for local produce and your local stores believe that they will get more customers as a result, that can be very powerful incentive for them.

Bread with Feeling

I've always been a fan real bread, that is bread with feeling. If you're gotten bread from most grocery stores, that might sound bizarre. I realized that a couple years ago when I had bread in a grocery store and it was bland, lifeless thing that had been "Baked" in the store. It looked like bread; it felt like bread, however when I bite into it, it was like eating a white sponge. According to the store, it had been par baked, in other words, shipped to the store frozen and the put into the ovens frozen. The result was obvious, the yeast dies and the dough gets wet from freezing. Remember what happens when you add too much water to flour, paste. In other words, if you want bread with feeling, you need to go to a local bakery.

Does Eating Close to Home Apply Only to Farmrers Market

Eating close to home also means buying close to home. In other words, when you buy your food from a local store you support your local community. When you purchase from a chain store owned outside your local community, you're supporting a corporation. Even on a personal level, you're supporting yourself. When you go to local butcher, they become your assistant. If you come to let then what you want to make, they can usually suggest which meat works best. And just like a local produce, they usually know where your food is from.

Organic Needs to Close to Home

In my view, the term organic only means something when it is grown locally. Organically grown produce needs to grown in an area only when ground water, land, and other environmental factors are monitored by a government organization or independent firms that can be not only be trusted by can be properly overseen. In other words, if produce is "organically" grown overseas, you can only hope that proper oversight is occurring. The only way you'll know if it is not properly overseen will be is someone turns up ill and they can trace is back. If you live in Massachusetts, you want organically produce from Massachusetts: if you're from Michigan, you want from Michigan. If that is not available, at least make sure it from the U.S., if you live in the U.S., the U.K., if you live in the U.K, etc.

If other words, "organic", without oversight, doesn't mean anything.

Additional Farmers Market Resources

In case you're trying to find some local farmers market near you, an excellent resource is the department of agriculture for your state. Go to the state government website. It is usually the www.{State Abbreviation].gov, such www.ca.gov for California, then go to the state department of agriculture, then look for farmers markets. It's worth checking out. You might be amazed about the great food available close to you.

Slow Food Movement

If you have taken our tour, you're probably familiar with the emphasis we have for eating locally and seasonally. An excellent resource for this is www.slowfoodusa.org.

Slow Food USA is very involved in sustainable agriculture and supporting local agriculture. They also have ways to get in touch with your local slow food organization.