The results of last week’s survey in the newsletter are in. 280 of you took the time to respond, which is pretty good — fully a quarter of Terra Firma subscribers. That makes the data a pretty accurate reflection of our customers’ dietary preferences. Here’s what we found:
65% Omnivore
17% Mixed households
11% Vegetarian
3% Vegan
Surprised? I guess I was expecting a higher number of non-carnivores. Going forward, this data will obviously not affect the contents of your boxes nor the crops we grow for you: all of them are 100% vegan-allowed.
Cooking is a different story. I myself am an omnivore, but even when I was a vegetarian, I always ate dairy products. Now, with local organic milk, cheese, eggs and yogurt so readily available, I eat even more dairy. It’s in my genes, as all my ancestors lived in Northern Europe where it was a critical part of most people’s diets.
If you read and use the recipes in this newsletter, you are probably aware that they often include some kind of cheese. This time of year, my favorites are feta and goat chevre, both of which are wonderful combined with fresh tomatoes.
I also love adding a small amount of pork fat, usually in the form of organic bacon (the “gateway” meat), to certain vegetables. The combination is sublime.
In the end, I firmly believe that the only dietary principle most people need to follow is the one expressed so well by Michael Pollan: Eat (real) food, mostly plants, not too much. And I’m pretty sure that most Terra Firma subscribers — whichever percentage you fall into in the numbers above — already follow those principles.
Thanks,
Pablito