Free Bird

I love food. I really, really do. I love making it, I love eating it, I love feeding it to other people, I love talking about it, I love reading about it, and I love hanging out with people that love food. Working at Viking has turned me into a bit more of a food snob than I used to be.

Well, snob may be a bit of a strong word. Maybe I'm not a snob, but I am a bit more food-aware. Not as much as some. I mean, I'm not totally sold on the whole organic movement, especially since reading about some of the politics involved in food. I do appreciate the intention. You know, using less pesticides, and treating animals humanely and such. I'm not sure I trust the labels at the store to pay twice as much, but it has made me think a bit more where my food comes from. It has made me want to eat more food that was produced in the same state that I live. Here in Utah, I have found some great opportunities to eat local. Not always, but at least once a month I try to buy Winder Dairy Milk (it really does taste good enough to pay $4/gallon). I used my tax return money to buy a share from Jacob's Cove, a community supported agriculture venture (CSA) that a cute little family has started in Orem. Those veggies are currently growing, and I won't get to eat them for a bit yet.

While surfing Craigslist today...er...yesterday, I saw an ad for fresh eggs. I have been interested in getting local eggs for a while now, but haven't known where to get them from. There is a guy that sells them at the farmer's market in the summer, but the farmer's market hasn't started yet... So I was doubly excited to see some other outlet to get local eggs. I texted the lady, and she got right back to me! I decided to head out there to check it out!

 

So after work, Allen and I went on a little adventure. We drove out to Benjamin to check out where these eggs came from. We pull up to this little place way up next to the the west mountains, and chickens come running at the car. Sometimes birds are afraid of people. Not these chickens! Seems like they know that humans are their meal ticket. I actually had to have Allen get out of the car to shoo the chickens out of the way so I could pull into the driveway. It was pretty funny. Talk about free-range chicken... these chickens were all over the place!

There was even a rooster running around, so the eggs are fertilized. This is not really all that important to me, but I'm sure its a selling point to some...

I got me a couple dozen eggs ($2/doz if you plan on being a regular and bringing back the cartons $3/doz otherwise), and headed home. I'm so excited about my cute little brown eggs! I'm sure they'll taste a little bit better, even if it's just because I know they come from happy chickens. I'm pretty psyched to be able to eat them for breakfast tomorrow!

 

Coming home, Allen spotted a little handmade sign advertising honey for sale. We pulled in to this cute house with a big pen of show sheep out back. Ahhhh... memories....

Anyways, this cute country couple have bees and are so excited to tell us about them. The new honey will be ready around Labor Day, but they still have a bit from the last batch... Something about honey in the pyramids...

So that's my local food attempt for this week. Milk, eggs, honey. 

Yay food!