Giant Chocolate Buttercream Cake

Well, that sucked.

Yesterday morning I woke up completely unprepared to try being a locavore for a month.

I realized I couldn't have any coffee...it doesn't grow in California or anywhere else in the U.S. mainland. Argh. No chocolate, either...check out the entry on Wikipedia under "cacao" and you'll see. As far as I can tell, no tea is grown here, either...although I can't find any reason why it wouldn't be possible.

Soon, I have a roaring headache. I figure I should go to the Redwood City Farmer's Market for the first time this year. They should have some good local stuff there. So I grab a big bag to fill with purchases and hurry out the door. They are only open until noon, and they get busier and busier until that time, plus there may be things (like quarts of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, although it's probably early in the season for that) that will be sold out by now, but at least I won't miss it entirely. I don't totally know what is in season. I ordered a local foods wheel, but I don't expect it to arrive until Tuesday at the earliest.

I stop at the bank and since I am not prepared for this trip, I'm completely unprepared for being a locavore, I have to take money out of PayPal using my debit card, which costs me an extra $3. Sometimes the Farmer's Market just seems sooooo expensive. I think part of it is because spending cash just makes everything seem more expensive than using plastic. If they took credit/debit cards at the Farmer's Market I think I'd spend soooo much more...it would probably be worth it to them to pay the fees to the credit card company if you crunch the numbers...but it's kind of cool to think nobody is paying those fees at this market today. Well, *I* just paid $2 to my bank and $1 to PayPal for the privilege of using cash but um...the people with the stalls aren't paying those fees today.

Before even getting to the Farmer's Market, I pass Boulanger. I get...weird at the farmer's market with the crush of people, the chaos and my indecision and sometimes I won't buy anything at all, or maybe just a few portabello mushrooms and some baby spinach, but then I will almost always get a cappuccino at Boulanger, and then come home and maybe sip it on my balcony with a croissant or a bagel. I can't do that today...the coffee is not grown locally and neither is the milk probably or the sugar...or the flour in any of the pastries. No Boulanger for me today. Or tomorrow. Or next week.

The first food I encounter at the Farmer's Market is two different bread stalls. They each have rather different selections and both look very tasty. I think of asking them where they get their flour, but both stalls are rather busy and I decide not to. I make a big circle around the market. There are two flower stalls and I wonder if the flowers are grown locally. They COULD be...I should ask, but I don't. Maybe next week.

I'm looking for the stall that sells the wonderful walnuts, dried apricots and apricot preserves, but I don't find it anywhere. I do find the stall that sells all the different types of mushrooms. I buy two types of potatoes and some corn. I am thinking about how the butter I have at home is from New Zealand and I can't use it. Last night I was trying to send my bf home with a bunch of the non-local food I have, but I forgot at the last minute, so I have butter and cheese from New Zealand, a GIANT CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM birthday cake, and a bunch of other stuff I shouldn't eat, like vegetarian corn dogs and frozen Trader Joe's taquitos.

I buy some pluots or something. Like I said, I have a headache and I'm really not paying that much attention. The sun is beating down, and a few vendors say to me "it's hot out today, isn't it?" Which, since they live in the San Something-or-Other valley, where it is about 110 out every day this time of year, and it's only about 80 right now in RWC, I think they are just asking me because *I* am looking rather hot and wilted.

I am determined to buy plenty of stuff whether I feel like it or not because otherwise who knows what I will eat in the upcoming days...although my bf has promised to take me to the Palo Alto Whole Foods on Sunday. They sell locally grown raw cheese and milk that I want to try...I don't think the Whole Foods in Redwood City sells this same brand. But today, I am at the Farmer's Market, and there is no dairy and no eggs in sight, sadly, so I buy some weird looking beans I have no idea how to cook, and some weird looking cucumbers I hope aren't just for pickling or something, a bag of mixed salad greens, a few onions, some peapod type things, some eucalyptus honey I hope doesn't actually taste like eucalyptus but at least it's sweet and locally grown, some heirloom tomatoes so I can be just like every restaurant in town right now, except now I need some locally grown balsamic herb vinagarette and buffalo mozzarella to turn the tomatoes into a salad. Finally my bag is full and actually quite heavy and I've spent most of the cash I took out, so I take it all home and collapse.

Once home, I eat the raspberries I bought and drink some water. Blech, water...where is my coffee??? Or tea? The raspberries are really flavorful...wow...even better than the giant chocolate cake in the fridge, but the chocolate cake might actually have some caffeine and the raspberries certainly do not. I have some pistachios that were locally grown, so I eat some of those. After a while I realize they are SALTED, and I don't think the salt was locally grown. By now my bf has sent me a text message telling me I should probably just *try* to eat locally as much as possible but make some exceptions like for coffee or for when it just isn't convenient, which makes me feel rather stubborn and like "no, I really want to do this", but realizing I'm eating non-local salt I am really wavering and realizing what I got myself into. Because of my headache, I decide to take a nap.

Waking up, I still feel like crap. Last year I didn't have caffeine for four months and I did feel a bit bad at first but today I just really...well, I just really have a GIANT CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM CAKE in my refrigerator. Argh. Maybe I should make an exception for stuff that is already in my apartment. I mean, it's probably worse to waste the food than to eat something non-local, right? Right? I realize I'm really trying to rationalize eating a piece of that cake right now. I'm thinking I have some local cheese and eggs and I could make an omelette and even throw some mushrooms in it. Oh wait...the olive oil I have is from Italy and the butter is from New Zealand and the cooking spray, who the heck knows what's in it and where it's from. Oh hell...

....

....I eat a big piece of cake. Or really, I mostly eat the buttercream icing. Who cares about the cake part? Actually, who cares about this damn locavore thing? Yes, I want to be more aware of my food choices, and I'm happy to spend the month of September becoming more familiar with locally grown foods, but this has the potential to cause problems for...

The movie we are supposed to see Sunday

The restaurant, Paradiso, we always eat at when China goes to the vet (Wednesday)

Going to the horse races (Friday)

Going on that tour of the Healdsburg vineyards via horse and carriage with a picnic provided later this month

Trip to the Giants game next week

Just about everything else

So, I ate the cake, and I ate some more pistachios, and then for good measure I ate some bread with flour of unknown origin with New Zealand butter on it, and I had a few cups of very strong tea. Today I'm out of coffee but I'm having some more tea and then I think I am making hashbrowns...in New Zealand butter.

Let's just call it "local food AWARENESS month". I'm still going to The Cheese Board in Berkeley later this month to check out the local cheeses and I'm sure this will be a great month to eat at some "slow food" restaurants that use MOSTLY local ingredients. I can also cook more at home using my local food wheel and a seasonal cookbook I have kicking around somewhere. I may also try a few different Farmer's Markets around the area and maybe seek out some farm stands, too.

I just wish I'd gotten a cappuccino at Boulanger yesterday. The day would have been so much better.