the mascot's dinner

On Saturday night we had a special dinner to celebrate the mascot's promotion to grade 7. I aimed for an "as local as possible" menu and came up with this: Manitoba organic beef and local portobellos, local/organic fingerling potatoes, local/organic asparagus, and local hydroponic/organic butter lettuce. The "trucked-in" ingredients were goat cheese, dates and pepitas for the salad, organic broccoli, balsamic vinegar, tamarind/pepper steak sauce, and the brownies & ice cream that I served for dessert.

Everything was so good...and you really can tell the difference in taste/quality between the organic and non-organic ingredients. It also makes a big difference to your wallet. I would say that buying local and/or organic groceries costs between 25% and 50% more than conventional products. Yikes! I'll continue to do it, because I really do see the value in it (more about that later), but it's sad that everyone can't have the same access to good, clean food.