Foodzie: Making finding unique locally grown foods easy

It’s that time of year for us to find that perfectly unique gift idea for friends, co-workers and family. And why not try your local area and small producers from around the country.

Foodzie makes this so incredibly easy, by providing interactive maps for local producers and their products that you probably didn’t know were even there.

I love fresh chestnuts and never knew there was a producer in Winters, California … which is on my way to the San Francisco Bay Area.

You’ll find every type of good food related idea and gift imaginable, and by the way, perhaps a good reason to get out for a weekend drive with friends or family to explore some of these areas. There are some absolutely amazing foodie ideas on this site, and from mom and pop enterprises. Hmmmm, I’m thinking back to that year I was making and selling cases of my jam…

Check this out, a single malt scotch chocolate caramel bar with Maldon sea salt flakes (OMG!), from BonBon Bar in Berkeley, California!

Or what about a perfect start to that boulliabase or gumbo:

Locavore? Let's get real, okay?

I love everything about being a locavore. That means eating food that is in season and grown within 100 miles, according to most, of where you live. Being a locavore would, in the ideal sense, mean really fresh, picked at the peak of ripeness, from Ma and Pa Farmer.

If you live in the central valley of California that might be possible. When you live in Nevada, not so much.

Click to read more ...

The mother of all farmers markets.

Ron and I went over to the Bay Area last weekend to visit the folks at Posit Science (that Brain Fitness Program that you’ve seen on PBS during their fundraising drives) and then up to Marin to visit the daughter and son-in-law to be, Michael.

On the last day we all decided to hit the Farmers Market over in the parking lot below the Marin Civic Center (that wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright building with the blue roof). It was sensory overload squared. It’ s a foodie paradise.

The diversity of product was absolutely astounding- almost as astounding as the number of Toyota Prius hybrids that could be found in the same public parking lot. This is the land of, what I call “REI Liberals”. They’re probably all good hearted folks deep down but shoppers in fancy shmancy expensive ‘casual’ clothing and pelotons of matchy-matchy spandex ‘cyclists’ give me heart burn. I ride a bike. It has baskets for groceries and straight handlebars. I’m too old for spandex.

But back to the market. Whole aisles devoted to artisan bakers, exotic potatoes, mushrooms, flowers and the most amazing BBQ’d oysters on the entire planet.

But as you can see from my little slide show here, this place is definitely worth the trip when you are in the area. Heck, they even had a tent where several professional massage therapists appeared to creating some deep and serious blissouts for several customers.

Lunch up.

maven