First things first-- ice cream. I have to admit I've never seen a full episode of American Idol, and it only mildly piqued my interest when they did a big charity jamboree
episode a few weeks back (though some sources slammed them for using pictures of African kids without intending to send any of the $987 quadrillion they raised to said kids), but they do have a new product I can really get behind: American Idol Ice Cream. So far I've tried two flavors and they both rock: Choc 'N Roll Caramel and Take the Cake (it helps that they were both on sale at my friendly Baltimore Giant). And, joy upon joy, they even have a website where you can vote for your favorite flavor!I just voted for Take the Cake and it's currently in the lead with 33% of the votes! This might make my husband sad, as he nearly dry heaved in the kitchen when he saw me eating it. What's wrong with yellow cake flavored ice cream filled with sprinkles and neon blue frosting? I can trace my love for Take the Cake to two sources-- my wheat allergy as a child, which led my mom to feed me plates full of frosting (no cake allowed) at birthday parties until I was 9 or 10, and Uncle Wiggly's ice cream store in Baltimore that used to have a flavor called Party Cake but then stopped carrying it (I almost threw a tantrum in the store the day I found out). Thanks to American Idol, and the intelligent voters across America, it looks like Take the Cake is here to stay!
The next food bit is slightly more intellectual and much less delicious. Check out this link, which has a super interesting chart diagramming which huge corporations are behind your favorite organic food brands. Coca Cola and Odwalla, Kellogg and Morningstar, M & M Mars and Seeds of Change? It's enough to make me want to supplement my ice cream filled diet with only farmer's market produce...I'm pretty sure those guys haven't been bought out yet.
3 comments:
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I'm not so sure why you think so poorly about these big corporations being behind the little guys. Think about it, all of them started with their own agenda, produced a great product, the large corporations saw the value and then paid good money for them. Because the larger companies have deeper pockets and infrastructure in place (i.e. economies of scale), they are able to bring these natural foods to a much larger public. If that weren’t the case, I’d never be able to get Morningstar at my parent’s grocer in the middle of nowhere America. I think it’s great. That is unless the integrity of their product is undermined by capitalistic greed. Its all very similar to the classic indie rock debate. Should an indie band ever sell out to a major record label? As long as they continue doing what they (the artists) like, more people get to hear and enjoy their music, great.
The farmers market produce is without a doubt the way to go. But then that defies your definition of “cooking”, leading you right back to Kellogs/Morningstar.
Yeah, I've stopped questioning peoples' motives. If they make good things happen, I don't care if they're doing it to get paid or doing it because they're nice.
Why people do something isn't as important (to me) as what people do.
Love the blog, keep up the good work.
thanks for the comments guys-- and also for challenging my knee jerk anti-big corporation reaction :) wider distribution, and getting organics out to more people is definitely a good thing, BUT i'm afraid it might come at the cost of the values, quality, and innovation that made some of these little guys so successful in the first place. so odwalla juice is super yummy, and can be purchased everywhere, but maybe coke slips in a little corn syrup on the side cause its cheaper than organic sugar (or shifts purchasing oranges from local california farms and ships them in from some huge farm in south america or wherever). and the other concern is that people shopping aren't necessarily aware of who owns what, and think they are supporting some local organic farm when really kelloggs fat cats are getting fatter.
i guess the ideal is having great local food networks that satisfy our every need, but i know that perfect world has not yet arrived-- so i threw a morningstar sausage patty on an egg and cheese biscuit this morning and it rocked.
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