Shelves vs. dirt

This morning I was on the east end of town for a meeting, so I stopped in to a new chain grocery store. Several people had told me that they enjoyed the layout and the wide selection of natural foods. While I wasn't sure if this meant local foods, I had some hopes. Not surprisingly, they turned out to be unfounded. I followed the directory toward the bulk foods aisle with hopes of finding brown basmati rice, but it seemed to consist largely of nuts, dried fruits, and candies. In the "natural foods" section nearby, I did find organic white rice for twice the price of my usual grocery store, Red Front. There was a large selection of what appeared to be organic junk food. I eventually selected cat food, non-scented shampoo, and vitamins and walked to the checkout past an employee unloading boxes of cherries from Washington state.

Now, there's really nothing wrong with this store. As chain groceries go, it's probably very nice. I am realizing more and more, however, that I don't want food that comes from stores. It sounds odd to say this. Cat food, shampoo, fine, but I'll eat the cherries that came from Ben's co-worker's tree. (Said cherries await my pitting in the refrigerator right now.) There is increasingly less and less food on the shelves of stores that I feel good about buying.

So, the meals for today:

Breakfast: Granola, milk, coffee, pie
Local: Milk, peanuts, honey, wheat bran, some pie ingredients (see yesterday)
Non local: Oats, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, molasses, coffee, some pie ingredients

Lunch: Turnips, sandwich
100 foot: Turnips, chard
Local: Bread (except salt), onion, PB, honey, yogurt

Snack: Pickled beets
100 foot: Beets
Non: Vinegar, sugar

Supper: Tamale pie, mint tea
100 foot: Cilantro, tomatillo salsa (partially), sweet and hot peppers (frozen), mint, stevia, egg
Local: Cornmeal, onion, buttermilk, yogurt whey, fat, honey, corn (frozen)
Non: Pinto beans, baking soda, salt

We have a 25lb bag of non-local rolled oats that go into our perpetual supply of granola, and I'm not sure what I could do without buying dry beans, BUT! Our bean plants, which I am growing to dry, are beginning to flower! I need to get out to the garden to pick the peas and strawberries before dark, so I shall close here.