Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I just got back from the Farmer's Market, where I scored some great food for the week.
When you go to the Farmer's Market, you don't take a shopping list. You look for whatever is best looking, freshest and healthiest.
And if you have your own garden, you grab things you don't grow.
We have a ton of greens, enough kale to feed an army of elephants, plenty of parsley, basil and other herbs, some winter squash, pumpkins and tomatoes. So I didn't need any of those.
We have some chard, but not very much. The leaves are small, and we usually cut them and throw them into fresh salads. But Trudi and I both like steamed chard with dinner (or with eggs, for breakfast), so I'm always on the lookout for that. Spotted some great chard and grabbed four big bunches. They were grown by a young man and woman who somehow managed to beat the summer heat and raise some seriously nice veggies. Good for them!
After that, I wandered over to another farmer's stand -- and spotted some great-looking blackberries. Grabbed a pint. The farmer put them into a small plastic bag. All of the farmers use recycled plastic bags (the kind you see at a supermarket). Many people bring them old bags. Helps keep their costs down, which means we all get more and cheaper food.
The same farmer (a young man with a faintly philosophical expression), also had some good-looking summer squash and potatoes. I don't eat many potatoes (and Trudi rarely touches them), but these looked nice. They were fairly small, too, which is good. You don't need to chow down on a giant potato all the time.
Anyhow, I grabbed a small box of potatoes and a summer squash. proving that he truly was a philosopher (or at least someone who looked out for his customers), he put them in a separate bag so they wouldn't smash the blackberries.
I checked out several other farm stands. They had lots of great looking tomatoes, and I was sorely tempted -- but we have plenty of our own, and buying more would be silly. So I passed on the tomatoes.
One thing you don't see at a Farmer's Market is junk food. Even the best grocery stores have endless aisles of cheese doodles, cookies and sugar-syrup candy coated crunchie stuff called breakfast cereal (which they actually market as heart-healthy and good for you). You don't have to buy it, of course (and we certainly don't), but it's good for your soul to be able to get out and buy some real food without having to walk past the garbage.
If you have kids, think about this: how healthy would your kid grow up to be if he or she only went with you to the Farmer's Market and never set foot inside a grocery store? (Come to think of it, how healthy would YOU be if you did that?)
I walked back to the heirloom tomatoes. Tempting. Very tempting. I almost gave in -- but at the end, I decided to look for things we don't have in the garden.
One of the farmers had some great looking peaches. I bought a pound. The young woman working at the farm stand was tall, slim, blond, and beautiful, but being married, I certainly didn't notice any of that. I did notice that she picked out the best looking peaches when she weighed them for me. Another young farmer who knows a thing or two about customer service!
After I paid for the peaches, I spotted a red pepper that looked incredible. It was an heirloom pepper, boasting a deep, rich wine-color. If I had to name the color, I'd call it burgundy. If it wasn't burgundy, I don't know what it was, But whatever it was, it sure looked tasty.
I had to have it! It was fate.
You see, last night Trudi saw a recipe where you cut a red pepper into circular slices and drop them into a frying pan -- and then drop an egg into the center, so you end up with a fried egg circled by the red pepper. She was wild to try it, but we didn't have any peppers in the house. So this would be her breakfast treat.
I asked the price, handed over a dollar, and got change back. That's another nice thing about the Farmer's Market. It's all cash. No plastic. And you really do get change back some of the time. It's a nice feeling.
I walked by a stand where they were selling small herb plants. If you don't have room for a garden, buy some small herb plants and grow herbs in small containers. When you cook, cut a leaf or two and see what a difference fresh herbs will make. (And from a nutritional point of view, fresh herbs are exceptional.)
I finished up by grabbing four dozen eggs, four pork chops and five pounds of ground beef from a local farmer who sells his own all natural beef, pork, lamb, chicken and eggs from free-range, grass fed critters. I would have grabbed some bacon, as well, but for some inexplicable reason I forgot. (I know, I know - how could you forget bacon? But we have a pound or two in the freezer, so all is not lost.)
This particular farmer is one of our favorites. He works incredibly hard to bring the very best products to his customers. We buy all of our meat and eggs from him, and if he sold fish, we'd buy fish from him as well. I think Trudi and I are his favorite customers, Trudi because she's pretty and pleasant and sweet, and me because I eat a lot. Many of the folks who go to the Farmer's Market are vegetarians, so a farmer who sells beef, pork and eggs is happy to have a hungry weightlifter for a customer.
I asked how his critters were handling the summer heat. He said they were doing well. He feeds them lots of kelp meal as a food supplement, and the salt and minerals really help them. I told him that Vince Gironda used to recommend kelp tablets for bodybuilders "back in the day." He thought that was interesting. I think Gironda would have liked him.
Grimek would have liked him, too. Do you remember the famous Grimek line, "Meat is my baby!" -- that would be music to the farmer's ears.
By the way, Grimek, Gironda and all the other great bodybuilders and weightlifters from the Golden Age of Iron all ate pretty much the way Trudi and I eat: fresh veggies, fresh meat and fish, and fresh eggs. All of it natural and organic, because all food was natural and organic back then. And much of it was grown locally.
So yes, Grimek, Stanko, and Gironda -- and Davis, Schemansky, Hepburn and Anderson -- and Kono,
Klein, Terlazzo, Spellman and Pete George -- LaLanne, Gironda, Park and so many more -- all ate natural foods, organic foods, local foods and seasonal foods. So did the men who came before them -- men like Saxon, Sandow, Hackenschmidt, Inch, Cyr, Apollon, Marx and Goerner. That ought to tell you something.
The meat and eggs finished my shopping for the day. Actually, it almost finished my shopping for the week. With what we grow ourselves, we won't need much more for the next seven days.
Yes, I know they say that healthy food is expensive. Actually, it's not that expensive at all. You just need to know where to find it. And in our neck of the woods, the Farmer's Market is a great place to start.
As always, thanks for reading and have a great day. If you train today, make it a good one -- and always remember to eat your veggies!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. In case you missed it, we just started the big pre-publication special for my new book, DINOSAUR DUMBBELL TRAINING. You can read about it (and place an order for the little monster) right here:
http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html
P.S. 2. Save big clams on shipping and handling by ordering two or more Dinosaur Training books,
courses, DVD's, t-shirts or other goodies at the same time. You can find them right here at Dino
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P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Great training and great food adds up to great gains. And great gains are good." -- Brooks Kubik
