Hi,

Maybe I'm consumed with my stomach. Maybe I always am, but giving up smoking has given everything an extra edge.

I wanted to say that, yesterday, after I went to the West side Market and found it closed, I stopped in at the Food Co-op in University Circle on my way home to see what might be happening. It's located on Euclid Ave., just at the side of the Institute of Art. They have a large sign about supporting local produce in the produce area. Most produce is organic, and there are signs for Ohio grown food, tho far from all comes from Ohio. They've local dairy, Middlefield cheese, and something (delicious) named, I think, Northeast Grassfed. I had a nice talk with a manager, who is interested in the Challenge, and in learning more about local suppliers, especially nuts, which I hope to get to next week. For future reference, they've organic ginger, filberts etc.

Happily, this morning the west Side Market was alive and well. As I'm allowing myself Ohio City Pasta, I spent some time there. I spoke with someone who had just begun working there. She said that they used local flour "when they could". Same with cheese; some is local, some not, and who knows what's where.T here is a new ravioli (delicious), white bean and rapini, with the rapini (if you like the taste) coming from a farm in Ohio City.

I bought some broccoli, non-organic, but from Medina, in the booth that Kathleen showed me.

Thinking of my stomach this morning (Kathleen, I'm a breakfast eater) with only a bit of a very lovely local melon in it, I thought of the Native American peoples, and the early farmers, creating tasty meals with what they had. I did some googling, but as I was hungry, tried not to dwell on thinking about the recipes. There's alot of stuff there that I'm going to try a little later on. maybe everyone will find more.

I do have some very basic recipes for Native American corn bread and johnnycakes that I'll send along as I try them. They use molasses, we'll see if maple syrup and honey will do.

This is all allowing me to feel closer to the earth.