I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to go broke with my $4 a day medium cold brew. The rest of the year I’m pretty good at bringing coffee from home, but I just can’t get on board with hot coffee on 80 degree days. The summer might be over but it doesn’t seem like the heat is going away anytime soon. In fact, for a fairly mild summer, it seems like some of the hottest days are ahead of us. Luckily, I’ve figured out a way to still enjoy cold brew every morning without the hefty price tag.
Wow, what a month. Multiple birthday celebrations, great dinners, canning, recipes then Sandy. Usually I love October and the fall but this month ended with just a bit too much turbulence for me. Sunday night as the winds started blowing and the lights flickered, I wondered if this post would even happen. But luckily here I am, safe and sound.
Foodie Penpals has just become such a fun part of my life. It’s a great program started by Lindsay at the Lean Green Bean, where I get to connect with other foodies across the country and share food. I think I might scare my penpals a bit. I’m much too eager when we receive our assignments on the 5th of the month when contacting my new friends. But it’s just so exciting. Sometimes I wonder whether I like the giving or receiving part better.
The New York Locavore Challenge ingredient of the day is Locally Roasted Coffee. I had some trouble choosing my 5 non-local ingredients for the challenge (which in all honesty varied a bit week to week), but coffee was one I had some gripes with. Obviously there aren’t any coffee trees here in Brooklyn (shame…), but there are a number of local coffee roasters. So is it a local ingredient? It’s kind of like supporting a local bakery. All of their grains might not be sourced locally, but it’s much better to buy their bread than the mass produced supermarket brands. Or when I get my salsa from the Brooklyn Salsa company. I know all their ingredients aren’t local, but it’s better than buying from a national manufacturer.
There’s a lot of loop holes, per se, in localism. When I eat at a local mom and pop restaurant, I know not all of their ingredients are sourced locally, but I’d rather eat there than a larger food chain. At least the revenue stays locally in the community. So in short, yes, I consider my coffee local. If I were able to bring some Kona beans home from Hawaii on my own, that would be even better, but I still have another 3 years before I go back there (I might start a daily countdown soon…).
Brooklyn Locavore 