I stopped by my neighborhood HyVee store last night, just to see for myself what local products they offer, since they so often brag of this. Besides the two local milk brands, Burbachs and Legacy, I found local salad dressing (Iowa and Nebraska), cheese (Jisa’s of Nebraska – also available at our farmer’s market), chicken – free-range, hormone-free (Iowa), beef -pasture-raised, hormone-free (Iowa), yogurt (Iowa, but unfortunately I don’t really like it), popcorn (Nebraska), jelly and honey (Nebraska), soybean oil (Iowa), herbs (Iowa), meat seasoning and BBQ sauce (Iowa), and relatively local cream. Relatively, as in
I also noted that the store’s bakery bakes bread daily in-house. Does this count as local? Does buying from any local bakery count, if the ingredients are of an undetermined origin? I have yet to discover a local flour mill, so I would have to guess that all ingredients are shipped in to all of our local bakeries. Where do you draw the line?
I didn’t bother with the produce section, other than the herbs, because most of my veggies come from the farmers market (and hopefully soon my garden), but it is nice to know that I can get some other items close to home during the week. I am definitely getting geared up for Local Food Month!
