We just watched Food, Inc. What a fabulously sobering documentary; an absolute must watch for every American that eats. I realize I'm a little late with this one, but I knew the second we watched it, the last remaining gasps of our 'traditional' diet would die a sudden, painful death. I was right. Neither of us want to eat anymore...
I've mentioned before about my on going quest for healthier eating: more organic, more local, etc. But now...now I want to do more. I want to get involved, somehow, with this movement. I'm looking into things today to see what I can do in my own neighborhood to bring awareness to this, even more than people already know.
Isaac and I planned out some family goals yesterday that include no grocery store shopping all summer. I think this is totally doable. With our freezer full of grass fed organic meat (we're not even half way through our 1/4 of a cow) and information on a CSA for other organic meat (pork, lamb, turkey, chicken), our dairy and eggs being delivered from a local farm and the farmer's market to supplement produce that we can't grow ourselves this summer, it should be easy to stay out of the store. Before then, I'll make sure I'm completely stocked on flour, sugar, beans and yeast and the experiment will begin.
I realize we're completely blessed to live in a place where local access is so readily available. I get that. Produce of every kind is so plentiful here in the summer and is a definite boon to helping me can for the winter. Which is our second goal. I need to redirect our grocery budget through the summer to items I can can and to restock our meat supply. Next year around this time we'll reassess what we did and tweak what didn't work.
I'm so excited to start.
Music:
(the farm, all together now)
Sounds great. Wish we had that availablity. I wish we had room and the water didn't cost three times the amount just because we live "outside" of Silver.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't putting in grass or a sprinkler system in our new yard. I'm so excited about that. We're taking this summer to research sustainable plants for the yard and getting our side yard built up with raised garden boxes. So the farmer's market will be heavily used this year and hopefully a little less so next year.
ReplyDeleteSobering movie, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteEven DH, who is usually not very reactive to those kinds of things, mentioned it a few times when we next went grocery shopping. ugh!
We had tacos last night and BOTH of us commented on how it was a good thing we knew the hamburger was locally raised / grass fed or we'd have had a hard time eating!
ReplyDeleteHave you done Bountiful Baskets? For $15 you can get a basket of fresh produce from a co-op. I did it one time and loved it, I've tried to do it since, but the site near my house in Hyde Park always fills up fast and I forget to enter and by the time I do, it is too late. Here is the website. http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/
ReplyDeleteAnd if you'd like to get more involved, you could volunteer to open a new site and be the coordinator.
P.S. I wanted to tell you thanks for posting on your blog regularly. I don't always get a chance to comment with my toddler pulling on my arm, but I do enjoy reading!
Amanda - I haven't. My friend Trish does it and loves it, though. I know about it, but haven't done it. I know a lot of the produce isn't organic and I've been meaning to check into how local it all is. I'm thinking not very, right? Trish? Is it all Utah stuff? So I've been on the fence with it and meaning to fully check into it more.
ReplyDeleteRegional would be more accurate. And even that is a stretch at times. We got pineapple from Mexico this Saturday, for example.
ReplyDeleteIn the summer they had a few more truly local items than they have during the winter months.
Some sites are beginning to offer organic baskets for $25 and those look like a really GREAT value as well.
The Crossroads Utah Food co-op is a lot more local in the summer months than Bountiful Baskets. The Farmer's Market share that they do in the summer is all local and organic for the most part.
Here's a link for them:
https://foodco-op.net/
They are a lot easier to get into than BB. No mad dash to order before they sell out like BB. BUT they only have one pick up per month. BTW The deadline to order for this month is this Friday.
I do like the co-ops for getting more produce into our lives. But I will definitely be focusing more on locally grown stuff beginning very soon. I loved driving to the Willard area last summer for fresh produce and I'm planning to do a lot more of that this year. We'll also be checking out the closer farmer's markets as well.
Oh! And the meat...I'm currently working on clearing out our freezer so we can restock with grassfed and local. I can't get the image of the chickens out of my mind. ugh!
Huh. That's what I was thinking RE: BB. And why I haven't tried doing them yet. Esp. when I can go to our local grocery store and they sometimes have more local produce stocked! I wish there was a truly good local alternative here in the winter. From May through October I'm good. I might just have to rely on frozen and canned stuff from our farmer's market until I can figure something else out.
ReplyDeleteI have a link to what looks like a good local meat csa (whole chickens, beef, pork and turkey) if you want the link, I'll email you.
And, yeah. I told Isaac that I'm sad rotisserie chickens are no longer an option. I LOVE my rotisserie chicken, but...I just can't do it now.
Did I mention Sammy watched with us?
Where did you buy your 1/4 cow? I looked about 6 months ago and not many Utah sites came up. I found a great one in Minnesota but the shipping was nuts.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited to hear how this goes for you!! Make sure you continue to post your progress and where you find things (for the less knowledgeable people).
I am excited cause I'm gonna be canning like crazy this summer (last summer was my first time) and we went through the stuff too fast and I miss fresh canned peaches!! But WHEN....not if....WHEN we go to lunch/dinner/girl night I will bring you some jam (if you don't have too much) cause it is yum!
Wow... and I thought Cindy and I were doing good getting our shopping bill down under $200 a week.....
ReplyDeleteD
D - you probably are doing good with that! I'm thinking you guys have some farmer's markets, but locally grown meat isn't plentiful or common?
ReplyDeleteUh... local anything isn't that common. I mean, there's plenty of butchers and such, and local abattoirs, and fresh fruit and veg places, but they usually cost more than the grocery store..... and those grocery stores charge like a wounded bull. I mean, our fantastic finally just under $200 shop consisted of TP, milk, bread, peanut butter, yogurt, veggies and ham. Yeah.....
ReplyDeleteD
I, uh, won't tell you what we spend for our mostly local and organic stuff, then. Except...won't you be glad when you move back home?!
ReplyDeleteIf only I had the funds and a chest freezer to store a large amount of beef. Did you get your beef from the guy in Soda that raises grassfed or were you able to find a closer source? I really miss it when they don't have the local eggs at the market, and it made me realize that cost doesn't matter that much anymore since I'm not going to buy the other stuff anyways. I'm very excited for you to have a garden, and I imagine your yard to be very gorgeous when it's finished!
ReplyDeleteI SO wish you could come up and help with the yard! I'm ordering seeds tonight for the garden (I'm trying heirloom seeds this year and kinda excited about it!).
ReplyDeleteWe did go with the guys in Soda that raise grassfed. They do the farmer's market here, so they were able to deliver to the house. However, we found a guy in SL that does chicken and pork, as well, and I think we're going to try him this year and just get lamb from the guy in Soda.
T-
ReplyDeleteYes.
D
Have you ordered your seeds yet? I remembered the other night that I have an entire garden's worth of heirloom seed for northern climates. It's a year or two old, so it needs to get used soon. I ordered it thinking that I was going to move back to the north soon after, but I have no idea if that's going to happen now. I will send it to you if you want it!
ReplyDeleteI haven't ordered any yet - I would love them, thanks!
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