Localize!

Shhh...

2008-07-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to put this blog to sleep for a while. I'll just do more sustainability posting on my other blog. Maybe I'll come back to this one, more inspired and with more material soon... or maybe not. Thanks for your readership, sorry it's been so slow!

A Great Food Budget Compilation

2008-06-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

I found someone that put together an amazing list of ideas to share.
Nice!

How are you economizing?

2008-06-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

I was so discouraged today after my weekly grocery shopping trip. I went to Trader Joe's and our local produce store, and spent over $100 on the bare necessities. I was actually expecting to pay about $75, with some extra for the week to buy eggs, milk and some local produce, but I went over on the week's allowance and still see a semi- empty fridge. Prices have really shot up around here in the last couple of weeks, and I am trying to figure out what I might be able to do differently. We are already eating less meat, and really don't do much dairy at all anymore, since Amelia is allergic and Jeff is on a special diet (I eat kefir and yogurt.) I don't buy ANYTHING that is pre-made, not even salad dressing! I still refuse to shop at Walmart, and really want the money that I spend on food to go to farmers and to stay in our local economy.
Things I currently do to stretch the budget:
Buy lots of beans and grains in bulk, so I don't have to buy canned beans and always have something on the shelf that I can cook, like lentils or rice.
Only buy the produce I know we will eat-- we never end up throwing food away.
Buy whole chickens and make chicken stock and save the meat for lots of soups.
Use leftover grains and beans in soups.
Buy produce in season, and buy lots of it when I find a good deal (especially onions!)
Buy as much as possible from local vendors (although I had to stop buying the world's best bread from a bakery here because it was really expensive-- back to TJ's, only I am just now starting to bake my own at home, so hopefully that will help a bit.)

I think Jeff and I eat significantly less than the average person. I would rather buy less food and have higher- quality ingredients to cook with, but there is only so far you can go-- we need fuel! Food is just becoming a lot more expensive. Our budget is certainly not growing at this point, and when it does we need to be saving the extra income-- so I am determined to figure out how to make it feed us well. What are you doing to stretch your food dollars?

Finally, We Have a Garden!

2008-05-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought our garden would just never happen. First of all, unlike all the smart people, we didn't put cardboard down all winter over the spot where we wanted to put our plot. Instead, we had to dig up thriving grass, by hand. During all of that digging, we found that our soil was about 25% rock (really, a very modest estimate.) We double- dug our bed by hand, and I'd say that was easily 50 hours of work-- so we feel like we got a pretty late start on actual gardening.
I did do a lot of starts, but the neighbor's cat came and knocked all of them off of our porch repeatedly (I guess this had been its favorite lounging spot when the previous cat-loving owner was here.) The ones that survived the cat did not survive Amelia's curiosity, and so they were all destroyed in the end. You must understand that we REALLY DO NOT have a good place for these, it wasn't just a stupid place for them-- it was the only place! Next year we'll get one of those flimsy greenhouse shelves with a cover-- lesson learned.
I had spent a modest amount of money on organic, open-pollinated seeds with all of those other virtuous qualities, and hadn't planned on growing much else besides what was in these packets. But then a pipe broke under the sink where I was keeping them, and they got soaked. I figured I could still plant them, as long as I did it soon, and so I put them in the oven to dry. I mentioned this to J, but in the morning brainfog he forgot and baked them at 350'. Luckily, I had found someone to trade seeds with on CL, and had an egg carton of 12 kinds of seeds separated in the little compartments with a little label. I put these out of Amelia's reach, so I thought, but she must have grown a little taller and she managed to get ahold of these and jumble them all up! All of this happened in a couple of days mid-April, when I was finally ready to sew seeds in the barely-ready garden plot.
So I have bought starts with money I made selling yard stuff on CL. I actually planted some of the baked seeds and picked out the jumbled seeds that I recognized, and so we do have some things sprouting from seeds as well as some vigorous, purchased starts. I am happy. I thought it just wouldn't happen after all of the hassles, but here we are, growing food!
Our yard is in a state of overhaul, and actually looks pretty bad. The long-term plan is to do as much edible landscaping as possible. I am particularly excited about the artichoke plants that we're growing-- they are beautiful all year. We just took a big hedge out from under the kitchen window in a full-sun spot, and my plan is to plant that bed thick with all kinds of culinary herbs.
Here are some garden shots:

The main garden plot-- notice we're "making lemonade" with all of the rocks, using them as borders. We have three long rows and three square plots, the last one is still being dug/sifted for the second time-- hopefully plantable this weekend.
Just a portion of the rocks we took out of this plot! We plan to use them for pathways and other landscaping purposes, since we don't know what else to do with them.
A favorite: Nicoise salad green blend with chicory, dandelion and mesclun.
Something new-- we're growing potatoes this year. When I planted them, I didn't really realize what growing them entailed, namely building a mound of dirt higher and higher as they grow... I need to get some wood frames to put over this plot so I can build some height.
Some of our edible landscaping over by a lilac tree. Guess what our biggest garden pest is so far? Squirrels! They dig up the newly placed plants and then bury their nut, and fill in the hole! You can see a mound of dirt here, they dig holes all over the beds. The ones in our neighborhood are very cheeky, thanks to a squirrel-loving, semi-crazy neighbor who feeds them and lets them in his house.
We never really intended to have a lawn, so I figured I was off the hook for lawn care, cutting grass, etc. What I completely forgot about was the fact that things grow anyway! These weeds are shoulder-high. At least they have pretty flowers, and smell nice too. We are borrowing a neighbor's weed whacker this weekend, and need to use it all over our entire yard-- it's looking pretty ridiculous.

Items planted so far:
Veggies-
Salad greens of all types
Kale
Cabbage
Broccoli
Carrots
French Green Beans
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Artichokes
Red Peppers (3 kinds)
Tomatoes (3 kinds)
Cucumbers (2 kinds)
Eggplant (2 kinds)
Potatoes (2 kinds)

Herbs--
Basil (3 kinds)
Oregano
Thyme (3 kinds)
Rosemary (several starts for landscaping)
Garlic
Onions
Chives
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Sage
Parsley
Cilantro
Dill
Mint (2 kinds)
Nasturtium

Fuit--
Strawberries (25 plants!)
Concord Grape
Figs
Apple-- Espalier style, with four varieties, not quite in the ground yet.

We are really hoping to make a dent in our food bill this year, and plan to preserve as much extra produce as possible for the colder months ahead. We spend a lot of money on produce throughout the year! I can't even imagine how much easier next year's spring planting will be, after all of the work and lessons learned this season. Whew!

Local Find

2008-05-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

Our financial constraints have made using local resources really challenging. We were buying eggs and milk from the farm we support, but they cost3.75/ dozen of small eggs, and the milk prices doubled for the winter, making it impossible to keep buying from them. I recently found a family selling free range, organic eggs on 30 count flats for 7.50, or $3/ dozen. The eggs are large, and the fun part is that they are a mix of green, brown and white. I am happy to buy from them weekly, and it's only a few miles away. I think we'll go back to buying milk from the farm again when the prices go down, but I'm really the only one drinking it, and having to drive half an hour each way to pick it up each week, then driving about three to four hours once a month to do our share of the pickup duties seems like way to much commitment for a gallon of milk. We'll see if we end up getting produce from the farm-- our hope is that our garden will be almost enough for us. We'd like to keep supporting the farm, but I'm not sure we are getting enough out of it to continue. I'll keep you posted.

Local, Seasonal and... Ethnic?

2008-05-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I have wanted to become proficient in Middle Eastern cooking-- beyond falafel, tahini and tabouleh. I almost never follow recipes, though, so I've been stunted in my abilities to learn from cookbooks, and usually just try to replicate flavors from restaurants. But I have decided to devote myself for the next couple of months to a really wonderful cookbook about authentic Arab food. So far, I have made a couple of the recipes, and it has been really exciting to cook using different techniques than I have tried before.
Tonight I made a meatball and rice soup, and it was really nice.

There are a lot of types of cuisine that are counter-indicated for eating locally in the Northwest-- especially Asian food, with all of the tropical produce, and special ingredients. But Middle Eastern food, I have realized uses lots of fresh herbs that are growing in my garden as we speak, plus lots of other staple grains, legumes and nuts that can be bought locally. Even feta cheese is made locally, and California isn't too bad of a source for olives. Extra bonus: it's my very favorite kind of food.

My plan is to make every effort to blog about the Arab foods I'm cooking, and if there is interest, I'll share recipes. I am really a terrible food-tographer, but I'll keep trying. I am always so curious about what other people eat. I'd like to blog a solid week of dinners, and I'd like to encourage anyone else that wants to, to do it with me-- I'd love to see and hear about everyone's meals and kitchen activities.

Tonight it was Shorabat Ruz Bi Lahim, or Rice and Meatball Soup. I had to make beef stock, which of course was more effort than usual for a dinner, but now I have a couple extra quarts for the week. Besides the stock, it was really pretty simple, attractive, and very very tasty. We have a lot of ground beef in the freezer, the remnants of a portion of a grass-fed cow-- we preferred the steaks and roasts-- so now we need to come up with some great ways to use the ground beef.
I added chopped kale to make it a more complete meal, and it was a really nice, light but satisfying dinner.

Doesn't get much more local than this!

2008-03-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

We have so many things growing in our yard, and I know some of them are probably not only edible but also medicinal. I am borrowing a good book from Chris D. to help me identify these plants, but until I'm more certain on the ones I'm not familiar with, dandelions are a no-brainer. I chopped up a bunch of greens the other day to put in with a ham, onion and gruyere quiche-- super tasty, and the greens were so bitter on their own that I know they did our bodies good! I have also been picking the yellow flowers and making tea. Not the best tasting, but it's supposed to be pretty good for you, and it's a lot of fun to just take advantage of what's already growing while I'm waiting for seeds to sprout. I think I have some kind of cress or other edible salad green growing, it tastes really good but I'm not eating a bowlfull until I'm more clear on what it is. Maybe I'll take some pictures and see if anyone can help me identify them. In the meantime, we have plenty more dandy greens to experiment with!

What are you eating?

2008-02-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

I am always so curious about what other people eat. Especially at this time of year, when very little produce is actually in season. We have been eating a lot of soup, and especially cultured- cream based vegetable soups. There is always winter squash waiting around indefinitely to be eaten, but my favorite right now is cauliflower. I love that it is rich and filling, but not starchy.
I'll share the recipe.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup
I sautee one onion until golden in bacon fat (I always save mine when I make bacon) with salt and pepper.
Then I add a head of cauliflower that has been broken up into florets, plus a couple cups of chicken stock.
I let these simmer together until the cauliflower is soft, then I add some fresh sage and/ or thyme and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
I turn off the heat and add some freshly grated parmesan cheese and a cup of cultured cream (regular sour cream works very well too) and blend some more-- sometimes it gets really thick and fluffy!
I try not to heat it much after I've added the cream, so as not to kill all of the beneficial flora from the cream, and it is usually just the right temperature to eat at this point. So good!

What do you find yourself making over and over again?

Book Recommendation

2008-02-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

Food Not Lawns
Of all the books I checked out of our library for garden-dreaming, this was the most practical and inspiring. She definitely approaches the topic of gardening via the "big picture," talking about community and sustainability as much as soil and seeds. I appreciated the inspiration and encouragement to nurture a garden all over the yard, not just in designated plots, and ideas to save money, including salvaging materials, and finding free or available resources within the neighborhood. Read it, I think you'll like it!

Restoring the Senses

2008-01-31T14:28:00.000-08:00

"Gardening grows from our deep longing for salvation, so that beauty fills our lives."

Here is a link to a Speaking of Faith podcast about gardening, Easter, and Orthodox faith. It's a little early in the season, but I know many of us are in the garden dreaming/ longing season, and I found this very inspiring.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

2007-10-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so I achieved my goal for one week, and all of the food I bought was local. How was it? Did it feel great, was it easier than I thought? Well, it was fun and not too difficult to do the shopping. Cooking was fine, too. The only problem was that Jeff and I were SO HUNGRY all week. SO hungry. All of our food was local and organic, but there was so little of it! We had some very good dinners, and J got to take some of those for lunches, but there wasn't much to nibble on in between. We don't eat huge meals, so we are often hungry throughout the day, and J eats a lot of toast. What about when a loaf of bread costs twice as much as usual? I am not big on starch, but local meats and cheeses are the biggest expenses on the shopping list. We pulled through the week, but it was pretty discouraging. I went straight to TJs and bought several loaves of bread to put in the freezer, and stockpiled inexpensive, imported chocolate and California cheese. Sigh.
Moderation is not something that comes naturally for me, but I am learning that idealism can really bite you in the butt! I am ready to try again, and will work to be smarter about it, selling out only where it is most efficient, and enables me to enjoy the rest of the disciplined part.
In the mean time, I bought 20 lbs. of tomatoes for 50 cents per pound, and canned them-- fun!

Accidental Cheese Making

2007-10-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I was making raw milk kefir, looking for a place warm enough to leave it to culture. Since our stove is electric and therefore cold when not in use, I just turned it on as low as I could and put the jar of milk in there overnight. I guess that 150' is the coolest it goes when it's on, and so the milk had curdled and separated pretty dramatically. It seemed ruined to me, but I decided to see if I could salvage it.
I should have taken more pictures, but I didn't expect any results worth sharing. I strained the curds and saved the whey for other uses. I put the curds in a dish towel, squeezed them and left them hanging over the sink overnight to drain. In the morning, there was a pretty firm but springy ball of cheese, so I pressed that with a stack of cookbooks in thicker dish towel for the better part of the day. Suprisingly, the cheese that resulted was very good. It reminded me a lot of haloumi cheese-- it had a little sharpness to it, but the mellow milky flavor of mozzarella. Plus, when I used it in a grilled cheese sandwich, it didn't melt but it got soft and creamy. The only thing I would have done differently is salt the curds after I strained them, although putting ham in the grilled cheese fixed that. Good outcome to a mistake, but I'm not sure I'd use another 1/2 gallon of expensive milk to make 6-8 ounces of cheese on purpose!

Weekly Shopping Report

2007-10-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start tracking what I am spending where. The chart on the sidebar is not up to date, but I plan to work on it in the next couple of days. To start with, I will put a photo of what my money bought me this week, and from where. This was a significant week, because this is the first one that I haven't shopped at Trader Joe's!

From the farm, I got a bag of produce that included fresh herbs, pears, cabbage, assorted peppers, a small winter squash, tomatoes, beets with greens, corn and leeks. I also ordered 1 1/2 gallons of raw cow's milk and a dozen eggs from pastured hens. The bill was $35.

I went to a local grocery that sells a lot of local and organic produce, and bought a loaf of locally made sourdough como bread, spaghetti squash, limes (not local, but cheaper than the non-local lemons that were available,) and quite a few red peppers to roast and pickle for future use. The bill was $11. That sourdough bread was almost $4, which seems pretty expensive-- but the bread is super good. We usually buy two each week, but I didn't buy the second one, with the hopes of baking a loaf myself this week.

Next stop was our local co-op, to find some things I usually buy at TJs, plus some staples. I found some good organic, local butter and cream for a bit more than the organic ones that I usually buy. I also bought organic garbanzo beans, flour (for breadmaking,) mung beans and quinoa. The most disappointing part was looking for chocolate. I usually buy a couple of good-sized bars of dark chocolate each week, never for more than $2 each. There were a lot of organic, fair-trade chocolates available, but were VERY expensive, and the only local ones were EXTREMELY expensive-- $3.69 for a very small bar. I bought one, and then another also smallish bar that was made in WA, also for over $3. I really doubt these will last me the week! My bill at the co-op was $30.

So I spent $77, which leaves me with $23 for the week. I would still like to buy some bacon from our local meat place, Otto's. We also usually buy a bottle of wine each week, but the local ones at the co-op were mostly over $10 each (sad face.) I'll keep looking. I didn't buy any meat this week because I had previously ordered a couple of whole chickens from the farm, and have one left, plus a roast from Jeff's mom. We'll probably need the extra money I didn't spend to order a couple more chickens next week. Also, we are buying part of a free-range, organic steer that was recently harvested-- we are going in on that with Jeff's family, and I don't know yet how much our portion will cost.

Overall, I think this week was pretty successful, but I have yet to cook the meals and see how far these groceries will carry us! I will keep you posted on that.

Fall Soup

2007-10-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

Heidi asked about some vegetable soups that are easy on the stomach, and that inspired me to make a winter squash soup last night. I'm not sure what kind of squash it was exactly-- not quite a pumpkin, but a pumpkin or kabocha or any other would work well too.
To make it, I sauteed a couple of leeks (just the white and very light green parts, cut in thin rings) in butter. I peeled the squash and cut it into big chunks, and added it to the leeks once they were looking cooked. I added about four cups of chicken stock, salt and pepper, and some fresh sage and thyme. I let this simmer for about half an hour, and once the vegetables were tender, removed the sage and thyme. I used my immersion blender to get it really smooth, then added some cultured cream-- maybe 1/2 cup. It turned out really nicely, and was fairly simple. I like it when you can really taste the main ingredient-- rather than adding too many seasonings and covering up the subtle flavors.
To make this soup more digestible if you have dairy issues, you could either omit the cream at the end (although if you kefir culture the cream, that helps) or season the soup with plenty of ginger and some cinnamon, or garam masala.
You can use this basic recipe with lots of different vegetables, broccoli or red bell peppers or sweet potatoes come to mind!

Storing Summer's Produce

2007-09-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Eating seasonally, there are some dramatic ebbs and flows to the types and amounts of produce that come our way throughout the year. We support a local farm, and for $20 a week, get a big paper bag full of produce. For the last month, we have gotten a lot of tomatoes each week, and I actually requested that they stop sending pounds of summer squash! This week, I decided I needed to do something with all of the tomatoes and peppers we've been getting, so I had an afternoon of food prep.
I made roasted salsa with onions, tomatoes, chili peppers, limes and cilantro. I put the onions, tomatoes and peppers under the broiler until they had blackened a bit. Then I took the skins off of about half of the tomatoes and the seeds out of the peppers. The remaining charred bits gave the salsa a nice smokey flavor. It turned out really good. I am trying something a little different, and am lacto-fermenting the salsa. Why? It helps preserve foods longer, and enhances the nutritional benefits of the ingredients.

I still had a lot of cherry and grape tomatoes left, as well as fresh herbs, so I made a batch of sweet tomato sauce. I didn't bother to peel the tomatoes, I just used an immersion blender at the end to chop up the bits. I didn't make enough to store, but it was enough to use for a couple of meals this week. I simmered onions, tomatoes, garlic, red wine, thyme, and basil for about an hour, then threw in a little parsley at the end.

While I was at it, I also made a batch of saurkraut with a head of purple cabbage. To make it, just chop up the cabbage, add salt and any seasoning (I added fresh caraway from the farm-- it came looking like seed flowers, and I just crumbled the seeds off of the stems when they dried). Mash it up until you get quite a bit of juice. Pack it into a jar, making sure there's at least an inch of space at the mouth, and add some whey.

If you don't know how to make whey, it's really easy. Make some yogurt (just ask if you don't know how-- also very easy!) and then strain it through cheesecloth or a kitchen towel and catch the drips. This results in two products-- yogurt cheese and whey. You can use they whey to preserve foods or as a soaking enzyme for beans, grains and flours to make them more digestible. The yogurt cheese can be used like cream cheese, and make really good dips or spreads. To learn more about using whey to add nutrition to your food, the Nourshing Traditions cookbook is a great resource-- it is based on ancient traditions of food preparation that promote outstanding health.

For Starters...

2007-09-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit late in reporting about buying food for the first week of September. I'll just make it for the first two weeks. I've decided that I am going to buy whatever foods I can from farms FIRST, then fill in the gaps with other sources afterwards-- if I do it the other way around, my money mysteriously disappears before I can buy from farmers!
I am doing a weekly order with Geercrest Farm, and they also coordinate with other farmers so they can provide a wider range of products at once.
I have a picture below of what my first week's order looked like-- for $40. It included two gallons of fresh, raw cows milk, a bag of produce (tomatoes, pears, summer squash, cucumbers, carrots, kale, pears, garlic, green beans, nasturtiums, chilis) and lots of fresh herbs, and a dozen eggs. This weeks was about the same, only two dozen eggs this time, and a little variation on the kinds of vegetables.

I found out after buying goats milk for two months at $15/ gallon (!!!) that not only can they supply cows' milk, which I would drink as well as Amelia, but it is only $8/ gallon. I can't believe I spent so much more money before, but at least I can afford to buy things like cream and eggs as well now.

Luxuries

2007-08-18T17:30:00.001-07:00

As I went shopping at Trader Joe's this week, I had a new awareness of which foods that I buy regularly are NOT from local sources. Although most products don't have an origin label (they give a TJ hub address instead,) many were no-brainers. Some foods that we eat regularly just don't even grow in Oregon, as far as I know: avocados, bananas, coconut, olives, to name just a few. Then there are all of the regular, non-exotic foods that I just don't know the source for: canned tomatoes, meats, cheeses, bread (some I do know are from nearby,) crackers, canned beans, and on and on. I've pretty much always just shopped at TJ's and the local farmer's market, so I am not as aware of other sources for these item that are actually local and affordable. One big plus is that Bob's Red Mill is located very close by, and we can get any dry grains or beans from them(although not all are grown locally, they are processed here, and I'll take it!) As far as weekly shopping goes... I still plan to go to Trader Joes, but will consider the exotic foods luxuries, and look for OR alternatives. I also need to do a bit more legwork on other basics to see what my options are.

Ethics of Eating

2007-08-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you an inspiring interview on PRI. It is with Barbara Kingsolver, author of a new book: Animal Vegetable, Miracle-- a reflection on the year that her family moved to a farm and grew most of the food they ate. So much of what she said about how we live and eat resonated with me. One comment that I especially appreciated was about how, in our culture, many of us sit down to an incredible meal with the idea that we are doing something "sinful" by indulging in good food that has been wonderfully prepared for our benefit. I love the reverent and grateful attitude she holds toward traditional ways of producing what we eat. I'm about to order the book!

Thanks to H. Shack for the recommendation.

Foraging

2007-08-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hands down, the best way to get local fresh produce is by finding it in your neighborhhood. Here is a picture of what I came home with after a couple of walks this weekend: pears, apples (braeburn and granny smith) and walnuts. Not pictured are the many, many blackberries I ate along the way, as well as a couple of cherries and a plum. There were more apples and walnuts than I wanted. The funny thing is, I couldn't find apples at the farmer's market this week. By the way, does anyone know about harvesting walnuts? I could bring home a whole bag of the green fruit, if I wanted, but I wasn't sure what would be next. I remember getting the hard shelled nuts out of their black dry skins in our yard growing up-- so do I put these in the sun, or what? I guess could look it up, but I prefer the community- friendly sharing of knowledge!

The Whats and Whys

2007-08-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of months before Jeff and I moved up to Oregon, we sat down and made a "dream life" list-- things that we would like to have in our life, since we are kind of starting anew as we resettle. On the top of the list was being able to live as sustainably as possible, mainly by eating primarily local food. Now that we are here and getting ready to move into our house, I am beginning to think about how to actually make this happen. Portland is a great place to try to do this, since the culture is very supportive of local, organic, self-sustainable businesses and lifestyles that respect the environment. There are farmers markets every day of the week that I can go to. I think that the hardest part about eating locally produced food will be keeping within my $400 per month food budget-- it's already a challenge, since Jeff and I love to eat and drink well, and I love to feed other people, too. That's where the blog comes in, since I think that a lot of people believe it's impossible to be frugal and support these kinds of values. I am hoping that this blog will (a) keep me on track (b) encourage others that it is actually doable (c) generate support and helpful information for others who would like to live with less impact on the environment.

Beyond benefiting the environment there are many great reasons to "eat local". Here are just a few:
Locally produced food is freshest, and therefore tastes better and has more vitamins.
Eating locally also means eating only foods that are in season-- which is not only beneficial for the body, but uses less resources and requires less fertilizers and pesticides, since these plants grow easily in their natural seasons.
By buying from the growers, we develop community relationships, learn more about our food and connect to the food itself.
Food grown on huge factory farms is subsidized by the government and may cost less at the grocery store, but organic produce grown by ethical farmers does not-- it may cost more, but we are supporting these farmers and showing appreciation for choosing to grow quality food for us.

In September (with a fresh budget) I will really begin these efforts, and will let you know how it goes. For the rest of this month, I think I will be doing (and sharing) as much planning and research as I can on how to eat locally, yet inexpensively. I definitely look forward to any insight and or information you readers have to offer!