California is known for many things, including its rich farmlands. If you go down into the Central Valley, you will find farms and plantations growing everything from avocados to peanuts: this is some of the richest farmland in the country. No wonder Sacramento residents are so often found shopping for their family’s groceries are farmer’s markets that feature a wide variety of fresh, locally produced foods! It is much easier to be a so-called “locavore” in sunny California than it is in some of the colder, less bountiful states across the country.
Unfortunately, however, there are certain products that are not so easy to find in California. For all the talk of eating locally produced foods that you can find in Co-Op meetings and foodie blogs all across wireless Internet, there are certain menu items that have come to be considered “essentials” in the American diet that just cannot be found in neighborhood markets. One of these staples is coffee. For the average Californian, coffee is something to be enjoyed every single day of the year: a cup with breakfast, a coffee break at 10:30 a.m., or maybe a single espresso shot after dinner to help with digestion. Coffee can be a good excuse for a first date or a networking meeting; a coffee break during work can be a great way to get to know your coworkers, or to boost your energy you’re your concentration for the long slog of the afternoon ahead. But whatever you use coffee for – pleasure or necessity – it is certainly not something that you can find growing locally, even in beautiful, fertile California. Read the rest of this entry »
