New neighborhood grocery in Charlottesville: The Farm

Saturday was sunny and warm, a perfect day for HPup and me to walk (yes, walk! hooray!) down to Belmont to check out The Farm, a new grocery promoting local products.

The outside area is cute, with gourds and pumpkins for sale, and a picnic table for lunching. The inside is small but beautiful! I didn’t expect it to have such an upscale feel. I ordered a latte (the coffee is local, from Shenandoah Joe) and had a look around.

Local produce, local bread, local wine and beer! Local tofu, local eggs, local hummus and salsa and pesto! Yay.

They get produce from Horse & Buggy and The Farm at Red Hill, which also supplies salsa, pesto, hummus, and other dips. Tofu from Twin Oaks, breads and pastries from Albemarle Baking Co, and The Farm sells sandwiches. I didn’t try one, but they looked delish, and were cheap!

I plan to frequent The Farm, and hope they’re very successful. Two paws up from HPup!

HP in HK

Greetings from smoggy Hong Kong!

In my wanderings, I stumbled upon ThreeSixty, Hong Kong’s largest organic/natural foods store. I headed straight for the egg section to see the egg choices available to responsible Chinese consumers (and zillions of ex-pats, and many tourists, from the looks of the clientele). The eggs were all free-range, pastured, happy eggs, from Washington State and New Zealand. (Too bad they have to be shipped in from so far away.)

Interesting that the New Zealand eggs are sold in 10-packs!

From ThreeSixty’s site:

We are committed to sustainable consumption. We believe in relationships based on trust, honesty and integrity. We will partner with organisations that share our vision and demonstrate a similar commitment to our planet and its inhabitants.

Prices weren’t bad, and there was a food court upstairs with many different types of cuisines on offer. Cheers to ThreeSixty!

Avoiding beef vs. enjoying leather

Leather is a by-product of the beef industry, right? It comes from cows that have already been slaughtered for meat, doesn’t it?

Or maybe not. Action For Our Planet says the big cattle factory farms and slaughterhouses make up to half their profits from leather, so when you buy leather goods, you are supporting companies that practice inhumane treatment. Care2 Causes tells that more and more leather goods sold in the US are made from leather produced in China and India, where animal welfare laws are non-existent or unenforced. In Defense of Animals has a similar argument.

What’s a responsible consumer to do? Fortunately there are many synthetic leather-like materials on the market today, which are generally easier to care for than leather.

Here are a few good sites for vegan shoe, bag, and accessory shopping:

Alternative Outfitters: mens’ and womens’ shoes; bags; accessories

Moo Shoes: mens’ and womens’ shoes; bags; belts; wallets

Zappos Vegan: vegan shoes for the family, and other eco-friendly products (some of which contain leather, so be careful if you’re trying to avoid it completely)

Happy humane shopping!

Integral Yoga Natural Foods

On Sunday I needed to restock my produce bin with a week’s worth of local veggies, and since Relay Foods has bumped their minimum order up to $50 (sigh), I headed up the street to Integral Yoga Natural Foods. They have a wide range of local produce, tofu, bread, and other products, except for meat–it’s a vegetarian store. The vegetarian cheese counter puts Whole Foods’ to shame.

I tried to take a picture of the cheese display, but it didn’t turn out. If you want non-standard cheese varieties made using vegetarian rennet, go to IY.

When I got home, I cooked up a few days’ worth of roasted local squash, zucchini, onion, and sweet potato.

Buy local produce!

Cheers! (i.e., British kudos)

A couple shout-outs from HP’s recent trip to London…

Marks and Spencer’s Forever Fish campaign:

M&S has had a sustainable fishing policy for 12 years and 84% of the wild fish sold at M&S is now independently certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or undergoing MSC certification. But now M&S wants to take it further – and that is where Forever Fish comes in. Through partnerships with WWF and Marine Conservation Society, education programmes in primary schools and Fish of the Month promotions, the plan is to take the lead to make sure our sea life is protected for future generations to enjoy.

and Chop’d, which uses local ingredients where possible:

Wherever possible we work with the seasons. Every September we take the van down to Kent to pile it full of heirloom apples from Brogdale Farm, home of the National Fruit Collection. Every spring we gather bagfuls of wild garlic from the woods of West Sussex.

All our chicken comes from a single farm on the Essex/Suffolk border, is barn reared and meets farm-assured and ‘red tractor’ standards.

Company delivers local food to consumers

A start-up grocery delivery service in Charlottesville, VA, Relay Foods,  recently got some attention from Forbes:

An Online Grocer For Web 2.0. Just Don’t Call It Webvan 2.0.

Relay helps bring consumers and local food producers together by purchasing from small farms, bakeries, butchers, and cheese shops in the Charlottesville area, and delivering the groceries to buyers at convenient pick-up locations. This model gives people easier access to local foods; cuts down on greenhouse gases and cars on the road as many orders are combined into fewer trips made in biodiesel-fueled trucks; and opens a new distribution channel for the local businesses.

We find it interesting that the article refers to Charlottesville, Haute Pasture’s home, as “the locavore capital of the world.”

More from Relay’s web site:

Support a Sustainable Community
Communities are resilent entities. But over time, even the strongest ones become threatened when the ties that bind are loosened. Relay strengthens the ties that bind us to one another. Food is the key that unlocks relationships to farmers, to shop owners, to chefs, to bakers and cheesemakers. Through Relay, you experience the small town connection to those who grow and purvey the food you love to eat!

Shop Green
Relay has designed its operations to be light on the earth. Together with you we reduce our collective carbon footprint. Most food travels on average 1500 miles. With its farm vendors, Relay dramatically reduces the miles from farm to table. Take your car off the road and let Relay do your shopping for you in its small biodiesel-fueled trucks.

If you live or work in the Charlottesville area, check out Relay Foods!