Eating Green

I walked over to the farmers market on my morning walk on Saturday and took some pictures while they were setting up. I'm finding when you have a camera in your hand people are pretty nice. Later I went back and bought a bag full of lovely produce.

I don't shop at the farmers market every week because I always end up buying too much and I've usually spent my grocery money for the week by then. I was thinking I should plan it so that Saturday is at the beginning of my food budget week.

I realized that before we know it the farmer's market will be closing for the year and it will be back to produce from Mexico and Chili. Our grocery store tells us where it comes from now. I felt better about it when I didn't know. It does however take away the denial.

Learning to make the best choices is a process for me. Because I have been focusing this week on eating more veggies and eating all the colors I'm thinking more about produce and how much better it is at a farmers market. I'm trying to figure out how I can improve the quality of what I eat without breaking my budget.

I think one thing is just cutting out all the expensive extras. I have done that to a degree, but I was thinking if I bought my veggies first and made those the main part of my meals, then I would fill in around them with a little protein and those extras would naturally fall to the bottom of my list. Produce first, protein second and everything else third. I don't know if that will work come winter, because the produce isn't as good them. I'll have to see how it works out. Last year I ate homemade soup a lot.

Buying local and organic protein is another matter. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I do use a lot of dairy and so that is where I have consentrated my dollars. Buying raw milk is almost out of the question for me, so I just try to get local and organic if I can.

I read that organic eggs are much healthier and so I'm sticking to the organic and local ones. I eat a lot of them. Cheese is just too expensive to get made with raw milk.

I hope next year to grow a little more in pots and to try some dehydrating. As I said this is a learning process and I'll have to see how things go this winter.

Linda