However, the conditions were not the only things I struggled with. Before this summer, when it came time to making a cake, I would go to the grocery store, buy cheap eggs, vegetable shortening, icing sugar and what ever butter and cake mix was on sale. I walked in to the grocery store this week and didn't know what to do. Most of the people who were going to eat this cake didn't know or likely care where the ingredients came from, but I would....and so would Shannon D. since one of the cakes was going to her house!! I know we've only taken on this project for dinners, but I've done enough reading and research now to fully understand the ramifications of buying processed food and factory farmed animals and their products and I don't want to rely on them anymore. However, baking from scratch and with local ingredients was just out of the question this week...I didn't want to be experimenting with so much to get accomplished! And besides, sugar isn't grown here and I need a lot of sugar for cake! So, I decided to compromise. I bought the best quality cake mixes I could find, which was from an Organic line that listed only ingredients I could pronounce, free-range organic eggs (though I still couldn't bear to use the good ones from Dalew's. I bought them from the grocery store) and local milk.
I was really proud of myself for thinking this through and sticking to my values. Yes, I still used a ton of refined sugar and the food-miles were hefty, but they could have been a lot worse. I also sent a message to the grocery store chain saying "Hey! Look, I'm voting for Organic not Duncan Heinz". I'm really curious now to see if I can find a way to do even better....can I figure out a way to make a truly Green Cake?
Oh, almost forgot...our meals since I last posted....
Thursday was ridiculously hot and my kitchen was a mess, so the kids and I ordered from our favourite local pizza joint and had a picnic in the shade of our backyard. We were incredibly thankful for this really good pizza which is made just a short walk from our house.
Friday, we introduced Keith's Mom to our project and tried out some sausage we were recently given, along side Dalew's corn on the cob, and green beans.
Saturday we brought her to ELS to pick up our groceries. She is now addicted to Nana's Kettle corn (AKA: Crack) just like the rest of us!! We ate onion and pepper burgers we found at ELS with some broccoli on the side for dinner.
Today Keith took his Dad and Brother on a chartered fishing boat on Lake Huron to catch salmon and trout. They came home with a feast of fish for dinner, which we ate very simply with perfectly steamed green beans. My daughter Sydney is out of town for the week, and she was so completely jealous when her brother told her we had fresh salmon for dinner, that I had to promise her there was more in the freezer for another day!
I know I've said this before, but I really marvel every day how simple this has all become. So little cooking is involved anymore, the kids are eating anything and everything I put in front of them and my food shopping time is less than half an hour a week! I'm still hearing "Yeah, squeaky beans!" (what we call green beans) even though we've had them just about every night this week. And most amazingly of all...they still ate their broccoli even though they couldn't have Cheez Whiz on them! I felt bad for asking them to do this, because even I love that crap on my green trees, but they understood why we couldn't and took one for the team. I love my kids and I love this project!!!
Looking forward to another great week of eating local!
Shannon A.
I was really proud of myself for thinking this through and sticking to my values. Yes, I still used a ton of refined sugar and the food-miles were hefty, but they could have been a lot worse. I also sent a message to the grocery store chain saying "Hey! Look, I'm voting for Organic not Duncan Heinz". I'm really curious now to see if I can find a way to do even better....can I figure out a way to make a truly Green Cake?
Oh, almost forgot...our meals since I last posted....
Thursday was ridiculously hot and my kitchen was a mess, so the kids and I ordered from our favourite local pizza joint and had a picnic in the shade of our backyard. We were incredibly thankful for this really good pizza which is made just a short walk from our house.
Friday, we introduced Keith's Mom to our project and tried out some sausage we were recently given, along side Dalew's corn on the cob, and green beans.
Saturday we brought her to ELS to pick up our groceries. She is now addicted to Nana's Kettle corn (AKA: Crack) just like the rest of us!! We ate onion and pepper burgers we found at ELS with some broccoli on the side for dinner.
Today Keith took his Dad and Brother on a chartered fishing boat on Lake Huron to catch salmon and trout. They came home with a feast of fish for dinner, which we ate very simply with perfectly steamed green beans. My daughter Sydney is out of town for the week, and she was so completely jealous when her brother told her we had fresh salmon for dinner, that I had to promise her there was more in the freezer for another day!
I know I've said this before, but I really marvel every day how simple this has all become. So little cooking is involved anymore, the kids are eating anything and everything I put in front of them and my food shopping time is less than half an hour a week! I'm still hearing "Yeah, squeaky beans!" (what we call green beans) even though we've had them just about every night this week. And most amazingly of all...they still ate their broccoli even though they couldn't have Cheez Whiz on them! I felt bad for asking them to do this, because even I love that crap on my green trees, but they understood why we couldn't and took one for the team. I love my kids and I love this project!!!
Looking forward to another great week of eating local!
Shannon A.
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