Local and Fresh

I know that local is a relative term, especially when I live in California and the coastline is an expansive 840 miles long.  However, the food shown here is all from less than 200 miles away, which is local enough for me.

Monterrey strawberries, cherries from Linden (near Stockton, CA), half a cucumber from somewhere in the Valley,  Lemon Quark (to spread on berries) and Jersey Cheddar from Spring Hill Cheese Co.  in Petaluma.  All found at the Farmer's Market and all chosen by my very enthusiastic taste testers, Aidan and Abby.  If you have children of your own, or some you can borrow, bring them to the Farmer's Market with you.  Seems that when I come with children in tow I am greeted with extra samples and smiles. . .and, in turn I usually buy more.  A win win for everyone.

waste generated: none:)

Lemon Quark

If you have not yet tried Quark, you are missing out an a truly fabulous eating experience. Quark is delectable. So delectable that the only reason there is any left for this lunch is because I hid it in my super secret hiding fridge.  To translate - - in my house, any food that is not in the front row and precisely at eye level remains unseen, and effectively, hidden. This is great when I want to hide something, like, for instance, a giant birthday cake.  This is not so great, when I realize that more containers of milk have been opened in one day than a family of five can drink in a week.  

I digress.

Back to the Quark.  The quark in this lunch is Lemon Quark from Spring Hill Cheese Co. in Petaluma, Ca.  It is a German style cream cheese and the Spring Hill website states that it is made with Meyer lemon zest and a TOUCH OF sugar.  Just a touch.  I don't believe it. It just tastes too good, like lemon cheesecake meets sweetened ricotta.  I could eat it by the spoonful, and I do, I just pop a strawberry into my mouth after in the hopes of alleviating the guilt.

Organic strawberries stuffed with Lemon Quark (both from the Farmer's Market and stored in lidded laptop lunch container); Crunchy, salt-free, organic almond butter on Mi-Del whole wheat graham crackers (wrapped in a wrap-n-mat, shown underneath); organic banana (from god knows where); Sigg bottle filled with Silk soymilk.

waste generated: none :)