I'm a cheat and a wreck

Weeks into this quest--I'm a bit of a wreck. When Michael Pollan's FOOD RULES tells me to stay out of the grocery store as much as possible--Does he know someone might be reading this book in March in the Midwest. I'd love to go to the farmer's market. My community even has a new one,a bike ride away, opening this spring. But that's not helping me when even the spring asparagus harvest is months away. I did freeze and can some local foods from my garden and local sources. Ate it up, months ago. Note to self--freeze and can more this year. Invent the time to do this. Explore year-round gardenting.

Pollan also says to eat some foods that predigested by bacteria and fungi, but I haven't reconciled this rule with other rules.

Yogurt--love it. But It has some chemicals my grandmother wouldn't recognize. She never even ate yogurt. Sourdough bread: Yeah, try to find it without white flour Mr Pollan ( may I call you Mike?), I just don't know if I can find the time to figure out how to make yogurt with fruit that would satisfy.

So there's my excuse for some cheats. Yesterday, running late, I had about 30 seconds to throw together a sandwich. Right in front of the fridge door was a big hunk of salami made by a local family butcher. Local or not--there is no way to reconcile this fat and nitrate festival with the rules. One broken rule begets another, so I grabbed white sourdough bread because I have to keep my natural stuff in the freezer. Mike likes me to buy food that rots. No-preservative whole-grain bread sprouts and spread green spots faster than a spilt bottle of Rit green dye. Since my family has has opted out of my experiment, we have anti FOOD RULES food in the house.

On the go, I stopped in a park where other Wisconsinites froliced on this 47 degree sunny March day with frisbies, baseballs, and even some college-level canoodling, as if on a Carribian spring break. You must love the fortitude of Midwesterners.  I ate the sandwich and home filtered water downed in a few mintues, breaking rules about eating slowly. No time to do otherwise on this day.  About 2 hours later, my neck tightened and a hurt helmet materalized. By the time I got home, I had to turn down the lights and nap. So much for fortitude. Next time I eat my organic peanut butter on frozen whole grain and skip the headache. Or perhaps the headache was something else--spring pollen? No, that hasn't been a culprit in the past. I fear Pollan has made me unfit to handle a good Milwaukee sausage. .

Amy Lou, author Every Natural Fact