A Shopping Trip, and Some Rules.

It has been pointed out to me by my husband -- who can be a smart ass -- that we need some rules in this "eating local" adventure. Sunday morning after waking up to pouring rain and high winds, we decided to go to Concord. Concord is the capital city of New Hampshire and the nearest shopping Mecca. Rob needed some new shirts for work and I wanted to check out the Concord Food Co-op, which is the largest health food store around us. When I mentioned I wanted to go there it went something like this.

“You said we weren’t supposed to go to a store,” my husband said.

“I meant like a big grocery store, like Shaw’s,” I replied.

“The co-op sells groceries,” he said. “I’m pretty sure they sell quite a lot of groceries.”

“Well yes, but they're different groceries,” I countered.

“Oh, different, I see,” he said with that grin he has when he’s teasing me, and which also irritates the crap out of me.

“They have organic stuff I can’t get at Shaw’s, they have a ton of local products and if we shop there we’re supporting a local business, so it’s okay,” I said.

“So what are the rules then, exactly?” he said with the same grin. "I need to be clear on this."

“Well, it’s like ... I don't know, just no big, chain grocery stores, I guess, and no Sam’s club, definitely not Sam’s," I reasoned. "We are still using up some stuff we had so I hadn't really thought about it that much yet."

“Okay, well we need some rules,” he said, rather pompously. “First, no chains, no Sam’s and no Walmart.” he said.

“Okay.” I agreed.

“We can go to any farm stand we want and buy their stuff as long as it’s grown by them," he said.

“Okay,” I said.

“You can buy stuff for canning, as long as it’s organic," he said. "Tristan will have a fit if you don’t make strawberry jam.”

“I didn’t even think of that, actually.” I replied. “So, okay”

“We can go out for an occasional meal as long as we choose the place carefully, no chain restaurants,” he decided.

“Well, we don't do that anyway,” I said.

“I’m just saying," he retorted. "We have to be clear here."

“Okay, what else?” I asked, getting impatient.

“I think that’s about it," he said. "Just when we run out of something, we’ll talk about it and decide what and where to buy.”

“Right,” I answered. It was my turn to grin. I knew he was thinking about his chocolate supply.

We went to the co-op, and there was not really much we needed. I bought a bag of organic lemons and some cheese from a couple of local producers. At our local health food store here in Laconia, I bought a bottle of organic vanilla extract and I will probably go back there for bulk olive oil and organic sugar when we are out.

This week we have had a couple of memorable meals. For our Sunday morning breakfast we had pancakes with the whole wheat pastry flour from the CSA, with some of their bacon. We still have a good supply of our own maple syrup, which we used. With big glasses of strawberry milk along side this was definitely the best meal of the week. I made a casserole of the CSA's ground beef, eggs and cheese. We had this with a side dish of Swiss chard, cooked with garlic and some leftover bacon grease. This was memorable for the fact I didn't like it, but the boys ate it right down, I was just relieved to get through the meal and use up something from our share. Unfortunately we went out to eat too much. The day we went to Concord we ate out at our favorite Mexican place, I knew we would end up there if we were anywhere near Concord. On Tuesday we got take out pizza. Tristan had an opportunity to have a longer riding lesson so by the time we got home it was very late. This often happens on Tuesdays, so I must plan better that day. I keep forgetting that everything takes longer to make. Pretty much all convenience food has now been eliminated from our house so, for instance, if we want tacos, I might have everything to make them but the taco shells, so then I have to make them from scratch, and sometimes it's just too much.

On another note we had an interesting request from Brookford Farm, evidently the woman who is in charge of the CSA at the store where we pick up our stuff, can't handle all the work of the CSA with everything else she does, so we got a call from the farm asking us if we wanted to take over. I said yes because for one thing, I can see how this whole thing works from the farm's side, and I can maybe be better organized (I couldn't be much worse). So of course, today was the week four pick up, and the farm wanted to change the delivery to us right away. I said okay if they could inform the people getting their boxes of the new location. Yes, they said, of course we will! So I arranged everything with our office staff to receive the boxes and get things put away in the fridge and freezer. I checked who would get what from the farm's spread sheets and made sure to go over all the directions the farm emailed me. I found out that there were only three boxes being delivered, one of those ours. So I checked my email this morning first thing to make sure that the farm had informed the people of the new location, but no, I had an email saying the same old thing, which was don't forget to pick up your box at the old location. I can now see what some of the problem is. Then after a talk with the former CSA person at the store I can see we are probably doomed. She can't say enough bad things about the farm, their organisation and their products.. She has put up with three years of the wrong orders, crappy produce and spoiled meat. She actually suggested we try to get our money back. Oh, great.