Slow food

I've been coughing like an aging smoker all week. My doctor says I have bacterial and viral infections and prescribed some antibiotics to help. That and Mucinex has kept my hacking to a tolerable level. Well, most of the time. This morning was not a good morning to ride.

However, I felt well enough yesterday to join Slow Food Austin on their farm to cafe tour, following the local food chain from Sand Creek Farm in Cameron to lunch at the Monument Cafe in Georgetown. If you're at all curious about the food you eat, you really should check out Slow Food Austin's site.

The tour started out at Ben and Alysha's Sand Creek Farm. They are a source for, among other things, raw milk, cheeses, and grass fed meats:



Ben tends the farm without the use of any tractors. Instead, the family (Ben, Alysha, and their 5 girls) uses work horses to pull farm implements. It's amazing how quiet and peaceful their farm is without the added engine noises.



After the farm, the group (all 50 or so of us) traveled to Georgetown to have lunch at the Monument Cafe. Our meal was prepared with ingredients sourced from Sand Creek Farm:



Afterward, we visited Monument's demonstration farm behind the cafe where Rusty Winkstern, the owner of the cafe, gave a short talk about sustainable farming, sourcing ingredients locally, eating seasonally and discussed the upcoming Monument Market opening soon that will feature organic food from a 300 mile radius of Georgetown:


All this food talk is excellent. However, I've been sourcing my food from two primary sources this week, Annie's and the Girl Scouts:



I do doctor up the raviolis just a bit with spinach, carrots, and portabella mushrooms to add a bit of excitement: