Farmer’s Market Buzzkill

The town where I live is both charming and mediocre. The beachtown culture is ‘laid back.’ The farmer’s market reflects that. This morning, every stand had nightshades galore and autoimmuners can’t eat nightshades (tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers, tobacco). I am not a farmer, that might be the only thing that grows in this soil, I don’t know. There was some kale, cabbage and squash. I got a red cabbage and some kale. And those are my vegetables this week. I’ll get some squash on Wednesday at the food co op. I am thankful this town at least has a farmer’s market, even if it’s not the most vibrant. So, the charming coastal part of the farmer’s market was fresh flounder. There are great blue and green eggs, although I cannot find a chicken in this town that is not eating corn. The eggs are for my family, I still do not eat them since they are not part of the AIP (Autoimmune protocol) althought I could eat the yolks.

We ate the flounder for lunch. I rinse it, sprinkle it with Herbamare while the oil heats up. Today we used bacon fat from breakfast. I cover both sides of the filet with coconut milk powder then fry each side for 2 minutes. We only eat the meat side, not the skin, though I know many who eat the skin. I peel everything and don’t eat any skin of anything. I also flip the filet in the pan. You can use a wide spatula for flipping since the fish falls apart easily. You can practice your ‘in pan flipping’ with eggs, it takes about 10 days to get the hang of it and after that you can flip anything. You may as well learn how to do it since pan frying is the quickest easiest way to cook.

I came home from the market feeling deflated. I don’t care to grow my own food, but I do want variety. I was reading about heirlooms in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it made me think about all the varieties I could be eating, the flavors I could be imparting on this limited cooking palate. I am a foodie, a food snob, an epicurean, eating only meat and vegetables. I need variety. I thought mushrooms were going to be my outlet, but it Cordain says no yeast. Does that mean mushrooms? I haven’t had time to sort it out. I’m just avoiding them. I stopped with the Kombucha too.

Things could obviously be worse. I’ll have a guest blogger next month discussing staying paleo as a contractor in Afghanistan. Retired special ops marine and all around bad ass, Ron Holmes, will let us all know how bad our food situation could really be and how he manages.