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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A quiet opening today for Natural Grocers near UT campus
The Colorado-based Natural Grocers is set to open its first Austin location this week at 3901 Guadalupe St., just north of the University of Texas campus, but the big grand opening party isn’t until a week from today.
The store, which has 32 locations in three states, sells only organic produce, growth hormone-free milk, antibiotic-free meat and food that is free of preservatives, trans fats, hydrogenated oils and artificial coloring and sweeteners. It also has a bulk section and specializes in vitamins and supplements.
On Tuesday, May 19, the store will host a grand opening with a free barbecue, raffle and specials. The store will officially be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. I say officially because the publicist made a point to note that they aren’t firm on those hours, so if it’s 7:59 p.m. and you need to pop in, they aren’t going to kick you out.
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So much for eating less meat
Last week, I wrote about cutting back on the amount of meat in my family’s diet. And then what do we go and do? Host a hot dog taste test party for a story next week, which left my boys and our guests grumbling about how much unidentified meat we’d put into our digestive tracts.
There was a time in my life when I couldn’t eat hot dogs. I was in college and as close to a vegetarian as I’ll probably ever be. I vowed to eat only sustainable meat from local sources, and we didn’t have hot dogs at the farmers’ markets that fit that description (Suzanne Santos of the Austin Farmers’ Market says you can buy all-beef dogs from Homestead Land & Cattle Co. at the Austin market).
My diet was evolving, but it was my approach to cooking that was changing even more. I experimented with grains such as bulghur, quinoa and millet. I finally learned how to cook real vegetables, not just shelf-stable ones out of a can. I relied on my secondhand copy of Mollie Katzen’s “The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest” when I ran out of ideas, which lead me to even more complicated things like baking my own bread.
Eating sustainably raised meat was making me a better cook and more adventurous eater.
Which is funny when you consider I spent most of Saturday grilling a food item that has gained a reputation for being both cheap, unimaginative and made from parts of animals we don’t want to think about.
Now I have all these leftover dogs and only a few ideas for what to do with them. Through Twitter, my food writing compadres Robin Davis and Warren Rojas gave me a few ideas. Robin had not one but two hot dog soup recipes. Warren pointed me to this recipe for salchipapas or french fries with hot dog sausages. My Twitter peep Prentiss Riddle (@pzriddle) said his mom used to make Weenie Chop Suey with hot dogs, celery, rice and soy sauce.
I haven’t whipped out my childhood favorite, the octodog, but I’ll be sure to take pictures of it when I do.
You’ll have to wait until next week to find out which of the 15 kinds of hot dogs won the taste test, but in the mean time, what’s your favorite way to eat a hot dog? Are you loyal to a certain brand?
A quick note about what we pay for food that didn’t make it into last week’s story: Americans have gotten used to food being cheap. We pay less of our annual income on food than almost anyone else in the world, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The great news is that even in this down economy and with the higher cost of sustainable meat, which I’m well aware is what it takes to cover the farmers’ costs to raise the animals, more consumers than ever are interested in locally sourced meat.
The Sustainable Food Center just announced that last Saturday was the highest grossing market day they’ve ever had. Customers spent more than $30,000 buying local products, produce and meat.
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