Day 1 - Gluttony v. Grapefruit

October 1 came fast.

Last night my husband and I decided to celebrate my last day of distant-cuisine by ordering 4 gigantic sushi rolls at Shintori Sushi. We couldn't just go for local-ish food with Mexican or even divulge in the European cuisine. No, we had to go all the way to Japan and stuff our sacks full of unsustainable fish, enriched sticky white rice, tofu made with soybeans most likely from Brazil, topped off with a big, fat beer produced in the oldest brewery in Japan by a German.



It was dericious.

This morning, however, reality hit. I was completely unprepared. It was time to get smart or starve. Lucky for me I work at the Foodbank. The Foodbank has a little program called 'Backyard Bounty' where volunteers, led by our fearless BYB Coordinator, Doug Hagenson, harvest fruit and vegetables from local estates, orchards, etc to bring back and distribute through our warehouses to those in need. The produce sourced through the Backyard Bounty Program is extra-special because not only is it local and organic, but it is DECLICIOUS produce that would otherwise go to waste. This morning I was lucky enough to find grapefruit samples from last Saturday's harvest. This grapefruit was heavy, juicy, and overall a lovely breakfast.

If you're interested in the program, you can find out more here: http://www.foodbanksbc.org/backyardbounty.html

Doug will also be at the Sol Food Festival this coming weekend to promote the program.

Here is Doug with his grapefruit:

Here are the volunteers kind enough to harvest it on a 100 degree Saturday:

I ate it without sugar, in case you're wondering, because a) that would be cheating and b) it didn't need it.

For lunch I had this dish made from a neighbors' avocado tree and organic tomatoes from Lompoc:

I'm looking forward to expanding my shopping list outside of just produce. Tomorrow's going to be a big day for keying in to where I can find more local food types. I'll be attending 3 local food events; the Santa Barbara Fishermen's Market to get some local-caught fresh fish, the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market for some eggs, oils, and hopefully dairy, and the Sol Food Festival, which will be a great kick-off to my month-long endeavor.

For being totally unprepared, day 1 was a success. I will celebrate my great, procrastinator's fortune by picking up some Santa Ynez Valley red and heartily gulping it down.