Where the Heck is This Stuff From?

Hello, friends-

May 12 was when I started this blog post.  Yep, almost 5 whole months ago.  I could feed you a line of excuses about how I forgot or got too busy, but that seems a little boring and, well, frankly I just kept putting it off on purpose.  This is hard.  By the time I got to my fourth blog post in the month, I was sick of calling companies only to be rejected and told that they "had no idea" where my food was from, or they couldn't tell me any more information than the fact that it was probably from America, but it may not be.  They couldn't tell me for sure.

So, to give you some insight to this process, you will find below what I considered to be Phase One of the process.  I wrote down the food I ate all day with as much info as I could get from the label.  I was fortunate that during this time I was able to get a lot of fresh produce from the Farmer's Market on my way to work.  While I have may cities designated, the thing that made this so challenging is that was typically the distribution center.  It took a series of phone calls, transfers, exaggerated stories about this being a school project that I had to have this information for, etc. to get even short answers from these places.  I guess it's better that way- I may have started a riot at the mega farm where my eggs were laid because I had a secret vendetta against chicken farmers.  Hippies.  

Anyway, I'm sorry that I didn't finish this.  I won't make excuses, I'll just accept my shortcomings and hope you won't judge me too harshly.  I will wrap up by saying that I learned a lot from this exercise.  I learned how convoluted and intense our food system can be, and at one point equated it to the mafia.  I was reminded of the power and value behind supporting all things local- particularly our farmers and food producers.  I was challenged to think critically about every bite of food that I put in my mouth.  Months after this activity (supposedly) finished, I find myself reading many labels of the food I eat- not to see the calories or grams of fat, but to see where it originated and to try and discern the path it took to get to me.  I think I will continue to track my food in the future when I start to feel disconnected from what I am eating.  You know, a friendly reminder to be thoughtful and intentional with my eating habits.

To any faithful readers out there, thanks for your patience.  I challenge you to try this for a day- I can promise it will change the way you think about your food.  With no further ado, my food list:

red lettuce- Indy farmer's market - VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

spinach- indy farmer's market-  VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

carrots-green giant (bakersfield, ca)

sugar snap peas- southern selects (pompano beach, fl)

broccoli- no idea... bermuda triangle - target, but no clue where

cucumber- Indy farmer's market

tomato- Indy farmer's market-  VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

string cheese (Lincolnshire, IL) 

raspberries- Driscoll (Oxnard, California)

marshmallows (Grand Rapids, MI 49548

salt and pepper potato chips (White Plains, NY 10604)

Hummus (White Plains, NY 10604)

Feta (Monrovia, CA)

Cucumber- Indianapolis

red pepper- Trader Joe's- Bermuda Triangle

pita- no idea?

Mike & Ike's (bethlehem, pa 18017)

Trying to be intentional in Indianapolis,
Katy