Airing of Grievences: Just Because Its Local Doesn't Mean Its Good

We’re not waiting until Festivus -We've got a lot of problems with people, and now, you're going to hear about it.

So Gretchen and I are going to start regularly posting things that annoy us or don’t make any sense.  Let’s face it, you’re going to see a lot more from me in this category. 

I try to buy everything at the greenmarket and through my CSA.  We’re talking about products that need to be consumed fresh so the quality is going to be better if they haven’t been transported from California or Florida in a truck; and in a lot of cases the greenmarket vendors are no more expensive than the supermarket and you get to spend your shopping time outside.  

These are great reasons to get your product from the greenmarket. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can just show up at your local farmers market, co-op, or store and buy something labeled ‘local’, ‘organic’, or ‘artisanal’ and expect it to be good.  In a lot of cases you're going to pay way too much for food that isn't as good as it should be.

With this in mind I’m going on the record about food that I think doesn’t live up to its billing. 

Last summer I did my shopping at up to three farmers markets a week to get good produce I didn’t feel ripped off buying.   Sure it would be easier to buy the mealy, overpriced apples available at the market in our neighborhood; but walking the extra block to stop at the market near work to get the good ones is worth it.

In some cases, its bullshit prepared foods produced by under-trained hipsters, who will charge you 10 dollars a bottle for something that you can prepare in less than 15 minutes for 60 cents.

In other cases it’s just substandard produce from farms that will charge you more because they are ‘certified organic’.  That label just means they can spray government approved pesticides as much as they care to, and can’t spray others once.  I’m not saying that these farms don’t avoid spraying pesticides at all; and they aren’t doing everything the right way - but I’ve had produce from organic farms that taste better and they won’t charge you twice as much as competing vendors.

Don’t get me started on beer – the craft beer movement has spawned a whole lot of breweries that call themselves ‘craft’ or ‘local’ - again this doesn’t mean they’re any better than a beer that’s been sold in the supermarket for years.

You can’t turn around without seeing beers on restaurant menus and in bars from local breweries.  In New York City, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re that good.  Maybe it's that brewery just got distribution before they really knew what they were doing on the strength of a pretty good brown ale; but If I can’t really tell the difference between the ‘blond’, ‘IPA’ and ‘wheat’, I think they're doing something wrong.   

If the bartender serving us a beer to pours them side by side, tastes them, then offers to give Gretchen a free beer because he understands why she’s confused when her wheat tastes like an IPA – I know they’re doing something wrong.  

Why put three beers from this brewery on your menu when other local breweries are solid, and others turn out a number of great and interesting beers – because it’s ‘local’ or ‘craft’?  In most cases these craft or 'artisan' beers are still just boring, forgettable, or plain bad.  

Again, I just think we need to trust what we taste and not fall into the trap of having a label tell us what to like; and I’ll continue to have shorter posts about food that I think is not worth it.