We started this journey on January 1 by stopping buying food from the grocery store cold turkey. It’s been 6 months now and we are smack in the middle of summer. We are just over the solstice (which certainly means more to me as a grocery gardener then it ever has before) but not yet into the huge bountiful harvest that will start in earnest in another month.
So far we are on track – I’ve bought tortilla chips, salsa, and orange juice once for my husband’s birthday and I’ve caved in to the kids once and bought bunny crackers and chex mix. It’s hard giving things up completely and luckily my kids are young enough to be fairly compliant about it. Compliant is not the same as non-complaining but I’ll take it.
I’m lucky to live in the maritime Pacific Northwest where it’s possible to grow a wide variety of things year-round and a hotbed of organic farmer’s markets to boot.
I’ve been able to find semi-locally grown wheat, spelt, corn, beans and lentils (either Eastern Washington or just across the border into Oregon via Azure Standard.) I have access to affordable raw milk, both goat and cow that I’ve been learning to turn into cultured dairy products and cheese. I’ve found pastured organic eggs until our own chickens begin to lay.
I have good access to organic, grass fed sustainable beef, pork and lamb from Thundering Hooves and Cascade Range Beef. I have access to wild caught salmon and tuna from Loki and St. Jude that are much more affordable when you form a buying club to get the wholesale prices by the case.
For the most part our grocery bill is around the same as it was before, or perhaps even less since we have zero discretionary spending on things like packaged foods, menus are carefully planned ahead of time around seasonal foods and most foods are bought in bulk (as in 25 pounds of wheat berries to be stored and ground into flour as I need it.)
We eat very well, the menu is creative and accomodating of every family member for the most part. The kids no longer eat little pizza rolls but we make pizza once a week and always have cheesy breadsticks on hand in the freezer to be dipped in pizza sauce when the cravings strike.
I’m not going to lie to you though. I spend hours in the kitchen every day. My husband suggested I post a day in the kitchen and my immediate response was “No way – it would scare everyone away!” But maybe I should. There are no convenience foods that grow on trees. This is slow food at it’s slowest.
I love to cook and I love food. I love gardening. I love that it slows things down for us in this crazy world. I love teaching my kids to enjoy food – from choosing the seeds for their own garden boxes to planning a meal and then making every wish of that meal come true.
You want a sundae of chocolate ice cream with cajeta and cherry sauce on Sunday? Saturday night we make ice cream base then Sunday churn it, take the cajeta out of the freezer and open a jar of home canned cherries. We pour cream off the top of the milk and put it in a jar so he can shake it up to whip it. He will enjoy that sundae more than anything we could have bought and he will remember that experience – of making his own decisions and being responsible for helping me pit cherries to can them, waiting for the ice cream to finish and tasting everything along the way.
It’s something that is sorely lacking in our society today. I can’t make him wait for many things or involve him so painfully in their process but food is important. As Debs puts it, food is love. And I love my family dearly.
This post is part of Fight Back Fridays with Food Renegade – a damn good blog for lovers of sustainable, organic, local, ethical food.
I like that “food is love” philosophy of yours! I’m not nearly as far along in the world of local foods as I would like to be. I still make concessions for my kids as far as fruit goes (bananas & apples year round). But, inasmuch as we are able, we like to buy locally grown fruits, veggies, meats, and eggs. So, congratulations to you on your accomplishment!!
Thanks, too, for joining in the Fight Back Friday fun.
Cheers,
~KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
Fantastic!!! Will you talk a bit about how this has affected your grocery budget? Obviously you don’t spend any $$$ on food @ grocery stores but are you spending less, as much or more in other local venues for food? Thanks!
Kristen – it’s hard not to make concessions but we talk about it constantly, how far the food has traveled, why it’s not full of nutrients, etc. We’ve been eating apples but they are in the form of applesauce from the freezer. So happy we are 2 weeks away from early apples!!
Celina – I’ve done a few posts about it here: http://sustainableeats.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/how-can-you-save-money-buying-locally/ and here: http://sustainableeats.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/how-much-does-it-cost-to-eat-sustainably/. We eat very well though. I love to cook and I’m a total foodie. We aren’t spending more money then we were before but we are eating very differently. No more OJ, weird or exotic things for those new recipes I’ve been dying to try, nothing out of season or imported and that alone will help keep our grocery bill in check. Buying bulk or forming a buying club provides you amazing savings on organic, sustainable foods that otherwise would cost a fortune. That has been the key to keeping within our budget. If you look back at my old wordpress blog I was posting weekly menu lists of the foods we were eating but I’ve been too crazed with the garden lately to keep that up. That might show you how well and creatively we were eating, all for what we were spending before but now it’s all grass fed, pastured, ethical and healthy. Before it might have been “natural” meats from Costco which I’ll never support again. The more you know the more it haunts you.
You are just such an inspiration! This was a great update!
Thanks Sara, honestly it’s tempting to give up sometimes so I really treasure feedback like yours!
I am in awe of what you have done! My focus has been, of course, just eating healthy real food. I already spend a lot of time on the kitchen, but what you’re doing is a whole other level! Since I live in the Valley of the Blazing Sun, I don’t think we could completely switch to local foods & a garden is not an option for us, but I am going to start hitting the farmer’s markets & see what we can get. I’m also looking into local dairies. You’ve inspired me!
Pingback: Fight Back Fridays July 3rd | Food Renegade
What a great article! I have not made it to the no grocery stage as of yet, but only the outer edges and much much less frequently. You are an inspiration, glad I found your article from Fight Back Fridays!
Hi Sheri, my dad has always gardened in AZ in the winter – even small steps make a huge difference!
Hi Leslie, every now and then I find we really “need” something like olives from CA or hot sauce but not buying the bulk of your diet from evil corporations is making a HUGE change! Good work!
this is a really impressive and inspiring undertaking!
Back when I lived in the US I was working on this transition. I would buy everything I could at the farmer’s market and what I couldn’t find there I’d get either at a local food co-op or a specialized shop (like the butcher or bakery). Here in Germany it’s surprisingly harder to do this that one might think, but I am gradually finding my way around
Jen, that is interesting it’s harder to do in Germany. When I lived in Sweden a million years ago they didn’t have all this prepared stuff and we would buy the meat & veggies from farmers frequently. Everything tasted so differently then the boxed helper meals I had grown up on – it inspired me to learn how to cook. It’s taken me many years to figure out that you can only make a meal as amazing as the ingredients you use and you can only get those ingredients from farmers who use sustainable soil practices. What a difference!
I love your comment on not posting how much time you spend in the kitchen. . I have spent the last year just trying to make everything from scratch (not worrying just yet on whether it’s local or organic) and then working the local and organic in where I can. . I spend a TREMENDOUS amount of time in the kitchen. . but I do consider it time best spent. . I am reading through your archives, so will likely comment again. .
Melinda sometimes I wonder if I can keep it up. I’m really looking forward to my kids getting older and more help from my hubby. But things are getting better slowly…