It is really difficult to discern, when visiting a conventional grocery store, the origin of the food for sale. Some items are marked "United States," or "Canada," but that's about it. It gives the impression that an apple is an apple, a steak is a steak, a carrot is a carrot -- where or how it was produced doesn't matter much. It made me wonder: do people genuinely not care, or has agribusiness and advertising made them believe it doesn't matter where food comes from?I went to the two "regular" grocery stores in Fergus Falls -- SunMart and Service Foods -- in search of locally grown and produced edibles. In particular, I was on the look-out for local dairy products: Bongard's and Cass-Clay. Before coming to Fergus Falls, I had never heard of either; but to be fair, I haven't been a huge consumer of dairy products for nearly 20 years.
I have decided to abandon, temporarily, my gluten-free, dairy-free diet so that I can appreciate more fully the experience of "local eating." Hesitantly, I purchased Cass-Clay milk, half & half, and butter, along with a brick of Bongard's marble-jack cheese. Cass-Clay was one of the main brands of dairy products displayed at Service Foods; Service Foods was also where I found Bongard's cheese (SunMart does not carry it).
Browsing the very limited selection of food produced by local brands (Cass Clay, Bongard's, Barrel o' Fun), I couldn't help but dwell on what I was sacrificing to stick to the 100-mile diet. I was craving corn chips, but Barrel o' Fun didn't have "non-GMO" or "organic" on the label, so I passed them up. I stuck with the dairy products I usually avoid, daydreaming about making a pumpkin pie from scratch.
I don't know the recipe for pumpkin pie -- or rather I didn't have one with me in the store -- so I searched for canned pumpkin hoping there would be a recipe on the label. No such luck -- neither grocery store had canned pumpkin!
I asked an elderly woman next to me in the dairy case if pumpkin pie called for half & half or heavy cream, and she suggested "gourmet" half & half from Land o' Lakes, which she grabbed off the shelf for me. I politely took it, waited until she was gone, and then exchanged it for Cass Clay half & half.
When I got home, I looked up "pumpkin pie" in the Joy of Cooking, and it calls for heavy cream. Not wanting to go back to the store and buy even more dairy products, I've decided to figure out a way to make pumpkin pie with Cass Clay half & half.
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