day late and a dollar gained

so i wanted to get this thing off the ground yesterday. i mean, a week ago. really, like a month ago but isn't that the way of things? we put off what can be started today under the clouds for a chance to start tomorrow when it's sunny.

hi. my name is al and i'll be taking you on a small adventure of food consumption over the next year and hopefully beyond. you see, i'm a father, dad and food consumer. i'm really a product of an environment. i get hungry. i think of things i'd like to eat. and then i hunt for those items usually with a car and a wallet as my vehicle and weapon. i always day dream about living 200 years ago. usually those fantasies are interrupted by a text message, or an incoming email or some other pressing digital technology trying to establish itself as necessary...but i digress

my wife, kristen and i are attempting to wean ourselves from the grocery machine. she eats much better than i do. i'll blame my profession. there's gotta be a reason why i'm eating poorly and it surely can't be MY fault! i'm in a room for 10-12 hours a day, staring at a computer with an hour break to scurry into sunlight, eat a lunch, many times, with a few co workers, and then it's back to the dark edit bay. there's always a kitchen nearby stocked with almost every conceivable processed snack imaginable. so going hungry isn't really an option here, which is nice. but leaving here and hitting up an organic market isn't really an option, either.

as i read about companies such as monsanto attempting to dominate the global foodscape, i get defensive about my family. i do not want scientists creating zombie-foods for me or my children. i think it's a great theoretical experiment to attempt to make super foods but to create them and sell them and hope no one notices is downright evil. i have to also thank monsanto. after reading the book fast food nation several years ago, i started a small garden on the side of our house. and my life changed.

so this is the introduction to our YEAR WITHOUT GROCERIES campaign. for the next year, we are going to forego buying fruits and vegetables from any grocery chain and only from farmers direct and farmers markets. currently, we're enrolled in Beach City Greens, CSA, for our initial fruits and veggies. by june, i hope to have our garden producing enough vegetables so that we will only have to supplement our diet with fruits. we will also be abandoning convenient stores and restaurants. i have a feeling that maybe we'll treat ourselves once in a blue moon as we both love pizza. A LOT. but we'll see.

i hope to post in here daily, if not weekly. i'll post thoughts, questions, recipes, our diets, what we feed our kids, when i fall off the wagon and maybe a random animal video. they're my favorite. anyhow, welcome and thanks for reading.