Days 3-7: Onward and Upward

It would be fair to say that Week One was a total bust in this house, but that is all behind us now, onward and upward! 

Today, with list in hand, I went to the Farmer's Market and to the Eat Local Sudbury shop, where I found several things that will make this project so much simpler.   Truthfully, I felt quite nervous about being at the Market. I have never made a habit of attending the Farmer's Market to buy food, I felt sort of ridiculous driving up in my car, walking around with those re-usable grocery bags hanging off my arm, wandering past tables of produce and crafts. I felt awkward, like a kid on their first day at a new school, afraid to say the wrong thing, ask a stupid question or get hopelessly lost.

Luckily for me, I ran into a friend, who had a coffee with me and explained that the Eat Local produce was at the market but the dairy and meat were at the store, which was located a few blocks away. I managed to get all the basics- milk, cheese, pork chops, flour, and cheddar smokies.  At the market, I shared some butter tarts with my kids and bought a basket of strawberries. YUMMY.

The greatest surprise was POPCORN!!!! Seriously, at the Eat Local shop, I found popcorn seeds.  What a relief. I love salty, buttery popcorn. It had not occurred to me that I may not be able to find it here, I scooped up the 1kg bag of seeds feeling as if I had fixed a dam before it broke.  I can only imagine my panic next Tuesday, arriving in the kitchen to make popcorn and feeling guilty about ANOTHER cheat. As it is, I will enjoy my locally grown popcorn with local butter while watching TV.  Bliss. 

But I need eggs. I felt sure I'd find eggs today, but alas there were none to be had. So, Sunday morning, over easy eggs will be replaced with buttery toast and strawberries in yoghurt.

I could not bring myself to buy things to replace items I still have in the fridge. I saw local sour cream but I still have a tub from last week and I can't just toss it. Whenever I see kitchen purges on tv, where the family dramatically tosses all offending foods into trash bags and haul it out to the garbage grossly irresponsible. I bought it, I'll eat it and when I need to replace it, I'll buy local.

                                                                                

Shannon D.