Day 8 - The Grocery Store

I am proud to say that I made it through the first week having spent under $5 at the grocery store. I had no choice but to go today because ELS isn't open again until Wednesday, we were out of several staples and I needed the ingredients for the dessert dishes I'm serving at our book club meeting tomorrow night. I had plenty of time to shop so I really paid attention to the products in the store and where they came from. It didn't take me long to come across my first big shock. I was in the second or third row of the produce section when I came across two side-by-side baskets, each divided in two. In that 3x3 foot space were New Zealand kiwi, Thai lychee, Mexican avocado and Chilean bosc pears. If I had purchased just one of each of those items I figured together they'd have travelled over 25,000kms. That's 25,000 kms as the crow flies, and we all know nothing travels in a tidy straight line. I think we'd all be horrified to see the actual number. I looked around and I also saw the lemons, limes, oranges, bananas, mangoes, pineapple, apples and worst of all, the $2.49 pint of strawberries from California. Who buys 12 Californian strawberries in June for $2.49 when you can drive down the road and pick a 4 litre basket worth of fruit, right off the plant, for $8.50? Who decided shipping fruit all over the world was a good idea? How much fuel is used, and how much pollution is created by shipping this fruit all over the world? Why do we think this is acceptable? I remember my Dad telling me they used to get a box of oranges at Christmas time, I believe it was from a family friend who travelled there, and what a huge deal it was to have citrus once a year....and he didn't die of scurvy! When I went to the Dominican Republic with my Mom and Sister I ate a banana that had actually ripened on a tree and I couldn't believe it was the same fruit. Everyone knows how hard and bland California strawberries are in the middle of winter, yet we buy them. I came away with more strength for this project and I'll be sure to put even more time in to canning, freezing and dehydrating the berries, cherries, peaches, pears and apples that grow in my Province! 


Tonight's dinner was a simple local pork roast seasoned with herbs from my garden, mashed potatoes from one of the nearby farms and peas from the CSA. Yum!


Shannon A.