Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Living foods do not bite back

The Cheyenne Tuesday Farmers Market has a nifty web site that gives details about the farmers, handmade food purveyors and artisans that sell their wares at the Sears parking lot off of Dell Range.

It seems fitting that local food and art are being sold in the shadow of the mall, home to enough Made in China stuff to stock every garage in Cheyenne. I don't have a garage, so someone will have to take my share.

At the Saturday market at Depot Plaza, I've been buying some of Yoga Oasis's delicious cashew cheese pate and healthy flatbreads made from "sprouted nuts, seeds and grains," some with fruit and veggies. Yoga practitioner, artist and chef Debbie Matthew is the proprietor and sometimes is accompanied to the market by her son, who also makes a mean banana bread. I haven't purchased any of her art, nor do I plan to travel to Laramie for yoga classes, but I am eating her homemade "living foods." Too early to tell if they're good for me, but they do not bite back like some other things I've eaten.

Since my heart attack in January, I've been searching out foods that won't contribute to another one. I eat heartily on vegetables from my garden and the farmers' market. I'd eat my lawn if I thought it had any nutritional value. I've cut way back on the salt and the red meat. I eat fewer snacks. My ice cream cravings have been tempered by the memory of constantly beeping hospital room monitors. Too bad -- I love ice cream.

I am trying to be good. I spend countless hours clogging up the grocery store food aisles while I try to grok the sodium and saturated fat contents on food labels. I am beginning to understand that the grocery store may not be the best place to find edibles. Eighty percent of the store's foodstuffs are bad for you.

It's clear that I can only buy some foods from farmers markets. The season is short in the Rockies and budgets are lean.

If you haven't already, go to the market today from 3-6:30 p.m.

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