What Is Your Foodprint?
Thinking about your foodprint is a great way to kick off the month of April as we celebrate Earth Day, all month long. By making food choices that do less harm to the environment, animals, and people you are extending the life of our beautiful earth and reducing our effect on climate change. You too can celebrate Earth Day every day by eating sustainably sourced meats, local produce, and visiting restaurants that are serving locally grown foods.
Shop Your Local Farmers Market
QC Farmers Market at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island has ALL locally grown items for sale. The local farmers are directly selling to the customers at this market and the prepared food and craft vendors feature locally sourced products. You can even pre-order your produce and meats!
Sustainably Sourced Meats
Grateful Graze is a farm in Cambridge, Illinois, that practices Soil Health Principles and provides nutrients to the living soil by moving the livestock and providing them fresh fields to forage and offering them free choice of minerals. Offering beef, chicken, pork, lamb, and eggs, Grateful Graze provides great quality meats that are Better for your family’s health, the animal’s health and the environment's health. Lucky you, they also sell at the QC Farmers Market every Saturday morning and you can pre-order to pick up too!
Cook Sustainably
Eating what is in season is one way to reduce your foodprint. We are lucky to have a superb growing season with fresh fruits and vegetables readily available. Whether you grow your own produce or your neighbor grew too much zucchini and tomatoes and loves to share, the Quad Cities has so much seasonal produce. You’ll be tasting the freshest, most flavorful produce you can get your hands on this summer!
Download the Seasonal Eating Challenge PDF to get ingredient and technique suggestions from foodprint.org.
Eat Locally!
In Rock Island, there is a non-profit restaurant that is serving up produce that is donated by Quad Cities gardeners and community members that have produce to share. NEST Cafe creates dishes based on produce donations and seasonal ingredients. They are using meats from Grateful Graze and continuously shop at QC Farmers Market throughout the year for salad, fruits, vegetables, and even local apple cider vinegar. Their delicious menu changes daily to reflect the donations and seasonal items, so check their website or social media for the updated menu.
Plant-Based Goodness
Rolling around the QC is a bright green food truck serving up incredible tacos. Cocina Verde is a family run moble food restaurant with delicious plant-based (aka vegan) tacos, nachos, tamales, and desserts. Eating plant-based once a week can help to reduce your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It can also help you to lose weight and reduce the risk of heart disease and other illnesses. Therefore, reducing your foodprint too!
Happy Earth Day!
Elly is a transplant from a global citizen to a Quad Citizen. She has traveled to 30 countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica. She loves everything about food. Eating, cooking, and inspiring others to try new flavors and cuisines. When she is not writing about the QC food scene, she is spending time with her friends and family, thrift shopping, and continuing her travels around the world.