Hunting & Foraging, OK so it was a trip to the grocery store!

In light of the fact that I do not have the time, nor the means to go and hunt down my daily rations I understand that our only option is to fully engage this challenge with the rational understanding that the days of hunting and gathering in the traditional sense are somewhat behind us suburbanites. This however does not mean that the frustration of gathering is over whatsoever! I took my first trip to my locally owned and operated supermarket with my shopping list in hand and my hopes naively high that this would be as easy as waltzing the aisles and selecting my options. I mean after all how hard could a simple shopping list for a family of three really be? I hadn’t planned anything extravagant, or out of the ordinary for our culinary delight. My plan was simple, I would shop for the local products and should there not be one I would attempt to find a sustainable choice. If that was not possible I must reconsider my need, or purchase something as local to me as possible if it was something I must have. I would use the following codes to help me track my items for future knowledge. L, would mean it was a local product, S, would mean I had to make a sustainable choice in place of local, and finally N, meant I had neither alternatives in the matter. I provide for your viewing pleasure the simple list I took with me:

Leeks – L
Tomatoes – L
Celery – L
Sour Cream – N
Creamed Corn – N
Cheddar Cheese – N
Ranch Dressing – S
Cream of Mushroom Soup – N
Beef Broth – L
Mushrooms (Button) – S
Lunch Meat (Chicken or Turkey) –N
Dried Corn Husks – Could not find them

Considering my son was up for the task and excitement to travel to the grocery store to try out our new buying habit, I felt obligated to try to make the experience enjoyable for him. That was at first, before the frustration set in. He quickly took to reading the labels for all sorts of demands we have now placed upon our food sources and much to his chagrin he found himself standing in the middle of the snack aisle muttering to himself at first, and then loudly exclaiming to all within ear shot “For smurf’s sake! I can’t even have tortilla chips now?!?! What are these freaks thinking marketing this junk to kids my age! Mom did you know how much junk is in this store?!? And to think you used to FEED this to me!!” I didn’t know whether to flee and hide, or smile and applaud his efforts. Either way I knew we probably should get out of there before Child Services showed up asking me some pretty deep questions that I no longer had the energy to explain! I also needed to figure out how smurf’s somehow became a scapegoat to blasphemy, but thought I’d save that one for a later date.

How could a simple shopping trip leave me asking myself “So just what am I going to do about the Cream of Mushroom Soup? It’s in EVERYTHING!!!” I’ve since re-grouped and I think I’ll find away around it. I have to give myself credit for all of the other areas I’ve made great strides in like where we source our meats from. We purchase all of our meats from Duma’s Meats & Farm Market in Magadore, OH. That was a great little gem given to me by my dear friend Linda Wendel. When you visit Duma’s you will see cattle grazing in their front yard and know that the next time you visit….voila, Ribeye! I’ve also longed for the taste of milk, no….the real taste of milk! The kind that you can only get fresh from the dairy, so during my research I came across a local creamery which is some of the best tasting milk I’ve had in years. They are both local and sustainable, so I get extra points on my dairy items. Then fruits and vegetables had to be sourced from the proper farmer’s markets and for the sake of fiscal responsibility I wanted to try to find a place that not only bought local, but that was large enough to be able to leverage their buying power to drive the price to a reasonable level. I’ve seen tomatoes at $2.99/Lb and as much as we eat tomatoes that was not going to fit into my budget! Here at the homestead we have the great joy of housing 4 beautiful Buff Orppington hens who provide us with fresh eggs and the return on that investment has been realized in so many ways other than their daily egg contribution. They take care of many of our kitchen scraps; give us hours of fun watching them in their flock, and serve as the neighborhood petting zoo on a regular basis. All in all I have to chalk up my first trip to the grocery store as a true learning experience, and with any luck I’ll learn to embrace the moments of frustration as another lesson learned and catalog it along with the many I have left to learn on this journey.