I have a goal to find really good, vegetarian fed, antibiotic and hormone free meat. It is my winter goal since I won't be focusing on vegetables then. Until then, Heinen's is doing a fine job of filling my local meats need. They carry Gerber chicken, with fits the bill perfectly and I don't have to search any further. I stopped buying chicken at another (ahem!) big store awhile back because it didn't taste or look as good. I knew nothing about local importance or the benefits of vegetarian fed meat at that point, but my taste buds must have. Vegetarian fed meat is meat the way it was intended to be. Chickens do not like eating other chickens or cows or pigs, or anything of the sort. Somehow, corporate America has decided that they do. They've also decided that chickens like to stay shut up in a cage full of dung rather than roaming about a farm yard. Yeah right, and little boys hating running around on soccer fields. (Note: I'm not completely against corporate America. I just think they messed up in this department.) Anyway, Gerber chicken is the way to go. Check it out at Heinen's or at www.gerbers.com.
Okay, but my fajitas didn't use chicken last night, they used beef. I also got the beef from Heinen's and it is local, antibiotic and hormone free, but apparently not completely vegetarian fed. They are probably pasture finished because cows not on a mostly vegetarian diet can't usually get away without antibiotics. So, I'm close. Beyond the taste benefits (which let me tell you, everyone knows Heinen's meat tastes better - can I get my check yet?), vegetarian fed beef is higher in omega-3s and other important nutrients. So, my beef was local, and what else? Well, the cheese - also from Heinen's. I will do a whole section on cheese at some point, just not today.
My peppers and onions were from Farmer Tom and Pickering Farms. If you run now, you might still be able to find some local peppers (although probably not at any grocery store - just farm stands) and slice them and put them in the freezer for the winter. If you're ahead of me, then you've also already made and canned your own salsa. I'll get there, but hey, I'm the lazy locavore, remember?
So my splurges were an avacado, tortillas, and spices. Let me tell you, picking up that avacado with a sticker on the outside of it was bizarre. Other than bananas, I haven't many pieces of produce with stickers on it lately. It suddenly seems so bizarre to see a sticker on a piece of food that isn't in a wrapper. Oh yeah, that means it's not local.
And that, my friends, is how you get an Ohio fajita.
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