Middle Brick Road

*Sniff Sniff*

Go ahead – take a whiff. Do you smell what I smell? The season is changing and today was the first day of the summer farmer’s market.

Every Saturday, for the rest of the season, local farmers will come here with their fresh wholesome, steroid free food.

A few vendors stay over the winter months, and they were all their this morning too. And we . . . once again were early enough to get the bacon. This is highly coveted stuff I tell you. No lie. We arrived just a few minutes after 7am this morning and we got the last pound of bacon available. He will not have more for at least another month.

You know that saying about bringing home the bacon? Yeah, well shopping at the farmer’s market really gives you an appreciation for the bacon . . . for everything really.

We take for granted all the time that food will be on the shelves of the stores when we go shopping. We do not worry if there will be eggs, chicken, steak . . . because it is always there. Again, at what cost?
We get our eggs from Cardinal Hill Farms, and for the record best eggs ever. We were talking this morning and I found out it takes them six months to get eggs from the new baby chicks. That means that if they have a high demand in May for eggs, by the time they get more chicks to meet that demand, the season is over. At least the main season anyway. This particular vendor is at the farmer’s market every Saturday morning, even during the winter. And can I just say, best chicken I have ever tasted in my life.

Something is really to be said for food that hasn’t been tainted with GMO’s, and if you don’t know what they are, click the link and educate yourself!

Not only do the meat products at the farmer’s market taste better, they are better for you and better for the community. Not to mention that where we shop, there is little difference in the cost of what we would normally buy at any other grocery store.

The biggest difference, is that I see exactly whose hands my money is going into. When you get something from a regular store, it is often the cashier who puts the money in the drawer for someone else to have.  

Don’t get me wrong, they’re probably great people, but I don’t know anything about their employers, the CEO of the company – heck, I don’t even know if that CEO lives in or nearby my community, so that the money I spend stays in the community.

When I shop at the farmer’s market, I know exactly who is getting my money, that it will stay in the nearby community and that they are unlikely to use their money to say fund a superPAC.

It has been six months since we began our crusade. We have only rarely gone out to eat, and have made one single trip to Walmart. I know, that not everyone can make the change that quickly – and they shouldn’t.

If you want to make the change overnight, then do it. But honestly everyone can’t just do that. Remember that it takes six months for the farmers to meet new egg demands, a month or more for bacon. And let me tell you . . . the steak is starting to get a little scarce.

Getting food at the farmer’s market really puts things into perspective.

There is not an endless supply of bacon, pork chops, steak, eggs, chicken, turkey milk or even vegetables. We have to stop behaving as though there is.

Living within our means also means living within our community and not consuming more than our fair share.

Too many countries, too many people -other human beings- are starving. Just because we do not see it, does not mean that it isn’t happening.

The other day, I asked Steven if he thought we could try to challenge ourselves and eat for $2.00 a day each – for just one week.

Honestly, I do not see how we could do it. I really don’t. That would give us a total of $28.00 to spend for an entire week.

It really puts some things into perspective, that is for sure. I know that we don’t waste nearly as much as we used to and that we are conscious of not only how much we are eating, but how much it costs us and then we must confirm those costs somehow.

Because we buy organic milk, we spend nearly $8.00 a week in milk alone. One gallon cost us $7.38, it is the one thing we really splurge on and that costs more than we would spend on “regular” milk.

Side note on this subject, Organic Valley is the ONLY way to go if you want real milk. The other “organic” milks are not up to high standards, not to mention, Organic Valley supports a cooperative of several family farms across the country. Horizon, for example does not even pass standards in Good Guide, which if you’re not using it . . . why aren’t you using? Good Guide = Smart and Informed Shoppers, just sayin’ as for soy milks, you will have to do your own research there.

Okay, but seriously. There is no way we could even begin to actually survive on $2.00 a day, $5 maybe . . . but there is no way we could get in all of our nutrition at that rate, at least no way that I know of.

I think next week I will plan to make everything we spend under $70 and do my best to make it that way every week. The “I work hard so I can eat well” husband doesn’t like the idea all that much, but coming up with clever meals that are inexpensive and healthy will be the way to go.

Either way, I am excited that the farmer’s market is in full swing. I am really looking forward to doing almost all of my shopping there. Today, Martin’s (that is where we buy our milk) only got $24 dollars from us – almost a third of which went towards buying the milk.

 And . . . we finished all of our errands before 9 am – well before the noon cutoff time.

I love changing in ways that I want to see and knowing that I can do small tiny things like avoiding shopping on weekends, so that eventually . . . no one works on Sundays or past noon on Saturdays.

That used to be the norm, and it can be again, if we really make it a point to do so, we just have to value spending time with our families over watching Glee on Tuesday nights.

What kind of food habits do you have? Do you eat out or cook at home? Where do you buy your food? Could you live off of two or five dollars a day per person in your home? Also, if you have a good, healthy, inexpensive recipe please feel free to share it.