Grocery Store vs Farmer

A nice clean grocery store is a joy to shop in. Everything is laid out in straight rows or stacked perfectly so it is appeasing to the eye. You have multiple brand choices and you see the store brand becoming the dominant brand and the cheapest. If the grocery store has their own butcher shop, you can get some great deals on meat with their store sales.

The real problem with grocery stores is not the store itself but with some of the products they sell. All can goods have BPA and preservatives I can't even pronounce. The produce looks good due to the chemicals constantly sprayed on them because they are usually harvested several days before they reach the grocery store display case. Many times I have witnessed fresh vegetables already becoming wilted and potatoes becoming a little soft and just a day or two from sprouting. We found the eggs with thin shells and light yellow, weak yokes. It made us wonder what they were feeding these chickens. What really gets me is when some vegetables, like sweet red bell peppers are severely overpriced at $2.00 per pepper.  Have you ever experienced any of this?

We started going to a local farmers market on Wednesday and Saturday. We visited each booth to look at their offerings and to talk to them to see if the products came from their farm or if they were buying at a larger farmers market and reselling (grocery store). We connected with a farmer whose farm is about 15 miles from us and he sells in bulk even cheaper than his prices at the farmers market. As an example, we purchased a bushel of sweet red peppers, picked that morning, for $25. This worked out to be about .50 per pepper where that same pepper bought individually at the farmers market would cost $1.00. So, you wonder, what in the world do we do with a bushel of peppers. You know, during the winter, that same pepper will cost $3 - $4 for a single pepper. So, we clean them, chop them up and dehydrate them. Then they are put in a half gallon Ball Jar and vacuum packed. When we need a sweet red bell pepper for soup, stew, chili or pizza we simply take what we need from our dehydrated supply and re-vacuum pack the jar. By the way, we bought 4 bushels and ended up with 3 3/4 half gallon jars.

But that's not all. We buy a bushel of Roma tomatoes for $5 and a bushel of regular tomatoes for $10. These end up as tomato sauce, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, chili and sun dried tomatoes. Then you can dehydrate or can snap beans, peas, sweet potatoes and potatoes. We also bought the biggest blackberries we've ever seen. We juiced these and made blackberry jelly. No BPA and no preservatives.

Now, the greens are ready to be harvested and we can't wait to can and dehydrate them.

Our farmer friend turned us on to a neighbor who sold eggs from free roaming chickens. We went to their house and sure enough, chickens were roaming around the yard and field. We bought 2 dozen of the biggest most beautiful eggs you have ever seen. The shells were thick and the yokes were a dark rich yellow. And, the best part is they only cost us $2.50 per dozen. Now, we do not buy eggs from any other place.

We still shop at the grocery store but for very selected items. Like, sirloin roast when it is on sale so we can cut it into kabobs and can it or ground it into hamburger for canning meatloaf. Watch for the Whole Beef Sirloin Tip which looks like a shoulder or butt to be on sale. We bought 4 this week for $2.98 lb. I cut two up into kabobs for canning and had the store ground the other two into hamburger for canning ground beef and meatloaf. The store does not charge for this service so we end up with ground sirloin cheaper than what you can buy out of the display case on sale. However, we buy our sausage and brats from a local farm.

We grind our own flour for bread and corn for cornbread and we make our own milk from Moos Powdered Milk which can be bought at places, like, CarolinaReadiness.com

If you don't already, learn how to can and dehydrate to take advantage of the plentiful food during harvest. And remember that different produce is harvested at different times of the year. It can keep you pretty busy.

So, by being selective you can support both your local grocery store and your local farmer.

Good shopping and eat healthy.