Finding real food on the road — all the way across America
By Stephanie Pierce
My husband and I recently finished a summer-long adventure in which we toured the northern half of the United States. Even though we were living out of our 1998 minivan — sleeping on a futon we’d equipped with leg-risers to fit in the back — we were determined that one part of our lifestyle would not change: how we ate. We brought a laptop with us on the trip and with the combined triple power of Local Harvest, Eat Well Guide (which now has a cool trip planner feature), and Google Maps, we ate almost exclusively from farmers markets, food stands, and food co-ops. We covered more than 9,000 miles across 31 states, and managed to shop in a conventional grocery store only a few times. (If you’re curious for more details of where we went, check out our trip blog.)
After sampling so many of the country’s food co-ops, I got a pretty good feel for what makes an outstanding co-op experience and what kills any joy...
