Resources

As I've mentioned it's tough work being a clean eater. I have to constantly look up recipes, modify recipes, cook the recipes, look up places to obtain local food, vegetables, produce, dairy and meat, look up restaurants that serve local food. It's tough in the beginning, especially when I'm not sure where to go. There's no easy one stop for all on the island. As I progress, I'm going to add resources to the list on the side of my page. For now, here's a list of my resources and how I selected that particular one.

First, let me start with produce. Now one would think, living on an island, it should be relatively easy to obtain local organic fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. It's not. I've had to go to Whole Foods. Why Whole Foods and not another supermarket, well honestly, Whole Foods has a bigger selection, plus it allows me to know where my food came from. The farms out east are not open during the winter and neither are the local ones. Next thing was, am I am willing to drive out east every other weekend to pick up produce. No I'm not. Why? That's a lot of gas. Plus everyone is driving out east, it's not going to be fun. So what I did was, I found two farms. One is local, Organic Today Farm which is in Islip NY. Not too much of a selection at times but it's local and organic. It's also open on a daily basis. I also signed up for a CSA from Garden of Eve Farm which is located in Riverhead. It starts June 9th and I pick up a local box in Sayville every other week. Why I picked this farm was due to it having multiple drop offs for CSA and you get a variety of fruit and vegetables. Plus it had different options for different people. The CSA will go from June to November. If Chris and I like it, we will also sign up for the winter CSA which is once a month. There's honestly not too many farms in the middle of Suffolk County on Long Island. I tried a few of the weekend farmer's markets around here and wasn't thrilled. They didn't meet the criteria of organic, choices and frequency. Both these farms were able to meet the criteria plus I was able to talk to the farmers which made me ecstatic.

Next was my produce. I used to get my produce from Whole Foods. However, there really isn't much of a selection that fits my criteria, grass fed, free range, hormone free, etc. I'm limited very often. Plus it's expensive! Needless to say, I haven't really eaten meat much since September. Mike from Organic Today in Islip has recently started selling local meat which is grass fed, hormone free, etc. Perfect. You can order by Wed and have it by Sat. He doesn't have too much of a selection but it's a lot cheaper then the supermarket. I'm excited. I'll probably order meat within a few weeks. I also found a farm upstate that delivers meat. You can check out www.eatwild.com for a local place by you. I chose Fox Hill Farm grass fed beef. I have yet to order from there yet but I will be. (The problem is you can't just say hm. I want this and then order it. It does take a few days). I can't wait to check out these farms with their meats. Both are a lot cheaper then finding it in the supermarket. I have yet to find a fisher's market that I like on the island. Any suggestions?

Next is dairy, cheese and whatnot. I found a farm that is called Udder Milk Creamery. They deliver to Long Island and have milk, cheese, etc. That's also on my list of places to try. I'll let you know after I try it.

Pantry goods. I have discovered Amazon is a lot cheaper then Whole Foods. It's also easy to find products that I use on a regular basis there. Unlike Stop and Shop or King Kullen. The only difficulty is now when I need food, I need to make a list and then order it at all once instead of going to the store and saying..hmm. what do I need? It should save more money in the long run.

Next is WHERE TO GO EAT! As many of you know, I recently had a birthday. I didn't want to go someplace that I was going to have to ask a hundred questions or that I knew the food wasn't prime. I did some research on www.eatwellguide.org (also great because it allows you to find a restaurant ANYWHERE and a caterer!!) I found several places on Long Island. One that I actually close for my birthday was 5th Season restaurant in Port Jeff. It's across from the water. The food changes every 12 weeks due to seasonal produce available. We went there for my birthday and OMG delicious. I have pictures on my phone. As soon as I can figure out how to upload those on here, I'll put up pictures.

I've mentioned cookbooks and reading material previously. I'll post them up on the side so no one has to go scan my previous posts. If I'm missing anything, please let me know. I'll also keep you updated as I go!




“Not only were you riding down this mountain but the mountain is chasing after you and you need to figure out how to escape the mountain but also use it.”
On Big Wave Surfing

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