Wednesday, February 23, 2011

First delivery from Tierra Santa

It's not easy, but not impossible, to find organic food in GDL. The health food stores are a loss, as they mostly stock large quantities of strange sesame and amaranth snacks but not a lot of real food, along with many supplements that one should be truly wary of trying, as there's virtually no regulation of such stuff here. Purorganiko stocks a larger variety of actual food, much of it imported and therefore sold at rather astronomical prices (for the consulate crowd, it just makes more economical sense to order most of this stuff online). The dry goods selection is decent and they do receive produce on Fridays, although the variety is limited. You can often find better produce, especially lettuce, celery, carrots and occasionally some other things at Costco.
I had heard through the grapevine that someone was delivering CSA boxes of organic produce in town. It took me a while to track down the website of Tierra Santa, and I started calling and emailing them just after Christmas, to no avail. After a couple a weeks, I went back to the friend of the friend who had sent me their website and she forwarded a bulletin with some different phone numbers and emails. After further persistence, I finally got a response. It took another two weeks to get them to actually set up the deal, but we finally got our first delivery yesterday. They are very nice and dedicated, but apparently lacking in some business sense. The poor guy told me that they had expanded from 20 clients to 80 in the past few months, and I just kept thinking that if it took me a good month and a half to finally make this happen, how many clients had they lost in the meantime? Anyway, we were very excited to get the box of goodies, and here's the breakdown of what we received:
Lots of citrus: limes, lemons, grapefruit and oranges
Two boxes of lettuce, one mixed and then one labeled spinach but more likely arugula
avocadoes
zucchini
onions
tomatoes
bananas
plain yogurt
two dozen eggs
tortillas
I'm not sure how reliable the certification of everything is, but they are certainly trying to provide legitimately organic or close to organic stuff, and to have all this delivered to my house for about US$35, well, I can't complain. We were hoping for a chicken, but they are apparently hard to get a hold of right now because of the cold spell in northern Mexico, and we might add some cheese or some other optional goodies from time to time. Each week they send out a list with additional items that you can choose for that delivery. If you're local and interested in trying it out, there's a 500 peso membership and then a 250 peso deposit to get things rolling. After that, you can make arrangements to either pay when they deliver or make a deposit at Banamex to cover your box each week. Try this number if you'd like to sign up (and if that doesn't work-let me know and I can dig up some others): 33.1111.0276.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Well worth the 50 pesos

I mean the caterpillars were worth the 50 pesos, not the Cantarito that I was waiting for at the little bar. (Recipe: Tequila, orange, lime and grapefruit slices and a dash of grapefruit soda over ice). Bet most of you can guess which tequila house we were at on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon. No tours or tasting for us this time in Tequila, which is about 45 minutes out of GDL, as we spent most of the day chasing the girls. The best find was a playset tucked in a bougainvillea-covered courtyard. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Mas playa!

Be free, Irie, be free! Notice the beginning of a gallop at the end, which is now her preferred mode of locomotion whenever there's room to move.
Ruby's snorkeling trick, which if it were just audio, might sound more like a heavy breathing prank phone call.
Our beautiful friend Robyn, entertaining Iris and demonstrating her infinite patience with our sometimes demanding kids. 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Playa!

Five glorious days in Nuevo Vallarta were just the ticket for a little mid-winter break from the routine of work and school. Much missed and vitamin D-deprived friends joined us from Portland. There were hours of bocce and beer and playing in the sand on the beach. Ruby, who has clearly inherited the waterbug gene from my side of the family, had to be periodically dragged from the pool to eat and rest and let her pruney little feet dry out a bit (video of Miss Fishiness to come). The guys could barely get through a game without a little unsolicited advice or outright intervention from the local Canadian Italian community. Perfect weather, with a nice breeze in the afternoons off the water, and whale tails and spouts spotted most evenings from our patio overlooking the bay. Can't wait to get back down there--any takers?