Foodie Glee

Now, a few days I probably would not have known what these two items are.  Now, not only do I know, I have them!!

Yesterday, Mom wanted to go to the valley so the kids and I went with her.  This time of year, the farm stands are all closed but I thought it would be a good time to go to Ran-Cher Acres.  The last few times, we did not have time to stop since it is a ways in from the main road (as most treasures are).  So I asked her if we could go.  I think she was kind of hesitant since it was more than 8kms off the main road and everyone had to pee (lol!) and when we got there, "it's just a house" but we made it.

Randy, one of the owners, came down and let us in.  I was asking for kefir grains since I knew they had them.  When he was showing them to me, he mentioned something about kombucha.  Well, I nearly jumped out of my skin in excitement and asked if they sold scobys!  He went upstairs and came down with a huge pickle jar filled with brown liquid and a huge scoby on top.  There was one on the bottom and he (ever so carefully with gloves) peeled it off for me!  It was all I could do not to explode when he said I could have it!

He asked how I got interested in this stuff and I said that I have been sick and I'm trying to eat for health, including lots of probiotics (well, it probably didn't come out that way since it was like the first time I got to talk to a real person about these things).  He gave me a Weston A. Price foundation brochure as well as the number and email address of their local chapter leader (it's the closest one to me, over 2 hours away).

As I said, it was so nice to talk to a real live person face to face about these things.  I could tell he was just as excited as I felt.  Mom and the kids probably weren't too happy I was taking so long, lol!  Randy was so nice, I wish I could of talked to him all day and afforded to buy tons of things.  He only charged $3 for the grains and I left feeling so blessed!  I have bought some of their products at other markets and I will continue to knowing that the people who made them are wonderful and kind who love what they do.

I forgot to mention, the grains were used with goats milk.  He told me to divide them by half, half for milk and half for water kefir and they should be fine.  I am so excited to be making real kefir, especially water!  I never thought I would have access to these things.

Usually I come home with a lot more produce (I bought 3 bags of dulse, 4 or 5 squash, bananas, carrots, spinach and a few things I forget in addition to the kefir grains and scoby) but I feel like I came home with a lot more!

Now, I just need to get cracking on doing something with them!  I am a little timid about the kombucha.  Being LDS, we don't drink tea (other than herbal) but I think I will get either green tea or roobios, I'm not sure yet.  I need to clean my disastrous kitchen before I do anything.  Not feeling well and recovering from our trip yesterday (in addition to not being home much for almost three days straight, broken washing machine and some other crisis-es) have left the cleanliness of our apartment much to be desired!

Monday Market Report October 4th

I think this is my favorite market report ever! I had so much fun shopping this week :). I didn't report what I got at Bulk Barn because I decided that from October on, I would be accountable for all the groceries that I buy, not just what I buy at the farmers market. I am trying to build up our storage with healthy food and hopefully posting it all will give me motivation to stay on track.

Good news! This week we are getting our quarter of grass fed and finished beef! It was the last one and I almost didn't get it. I feel it was a great blessing that it was freed up for us, with God knowing how important it was to me and our health to buy it. It is going to the butcher on Thursday so it should be interesting to see how much it is and how I handle placing the cut order (I never know how to do it!).

This is what our kitchen looked like when we got home late Friday night. It was a full day of shopping and buying lots of yummy vegetables (and other things). (don't mind the mess; things just kind of got thrown around and I've been slack in the housekeeping department lately :) ).

I was so happy to go to Meadowbrook meat market. They were having a sale of buy two get one free shoulder bacon and frozen sausages. We got 6 packs of the shoulder bacon and 6 sausages. 3 packs of sausages were breakfast sausages and the others were donair, maple and honey garlic. We also bought a slab of salt pork (Mark loves this fried up but it's also good on bacon and rappie pie), a couple packages of back bacon plus a little pack of goats milk Parmesan cheese. Now I really don't care much for goat milk products so I'm taking a leap here trying the cheese. I think it will be interesting. I don't want to break down the cost of each item but all this plus a $2.50 bag of ice to keep it cold was $49. We've had some of the bacon and a pack of breakfast sausages and it is really good!

I love Forsythe's Farm Market but didn't get much. At this point we already had most of our produce (even though carrots were $3 cheaper a bushel here but we didn't know). 2 spaghetti squash $2.50 and two zucchini for $1.50. Total: $4. They had 2 liter jugs of real maple syrup for $27-something so I may get that our next time through. They only take cash and I didn't have that much on hand.

Here are our Foote Family Farm findings, a gallon of unpastureized honey and a gallon of fresh pressed cider (we had to have some before we got home, lol! It's the one in the red cap ;) ). $26; $5 for the cider and $21 for 12 lbs of honey.

The next two pictures are from Gouchers Farm Market. I wanted to go back and get more! So much wonderful food at great prices. The acorn and butternut squash were 49 cents a pound and I wish I had bought more! 50lbs buttercup squash $15, 4 acorn squash $2.11, 2 organic garlic $2.17 ($10 a pound), 1 butternut squash $1.79, 2 sweet dumpling squash $1.50, 2 pie pumpkins $2 for both, big bag of dulse $1o, 5 cucumbers $1, 3 bunches of green onions at 69 cents each, mushrooms $1.99, romaine lettuce 89 cents, red onions 50 cents a pound (my favorite and usuall $2 a pound! 2.25lbs so $2.25 for onions), bunch of bananas for $1.10 and we each got an ice cream that were $1 each, cheapest around for real local ice cream (Mark and I had Oxford blueberries and cream, so divine on such a hot day!)

This was from a neat farm. The farmer was old, probably in his 80's. He looked like what you expect an old time farmer to look like. I wanted to buy everything he had as his prices were very reasonable and he was pretty nice. The bushel of carrots were $7.75, 25lbs of turnip $7. 50, 2 lbs of green peppers at $2.50, 5 gourds for 20 cents each ($1), tomatoes were 70 cents a pound (3lbs so $2.10) and no spray strawberries were $2.50 a box. The strawberries aren't there because it wasn't until we got home I remembered I sat them down to carry stuff out and didn't go back to get them. Grrrr. I was so looking forward to nice fresh strawberries! Total spent: $24

We usually get a lot more at Avery's but they didn't have much and we didn't want to shop around the other ones. 3 bunches of celery at 77 cents each and two grapefruit at 59 cents each.

These aren't really a farm goodie but they are the best chips! I especially love the burlap bag they came in. These chips are made in New Brunswick (technically in our 100 mile zone even though it is across the Bay of Fundy) and can be hard to find around here (Bridgewater's Appleberry's is the closest place I know that stocks them). They make awesome sweet potato chips! Small hand batches of kettle chips are the best (even though they are made with canola). These were $3.99 at Winners (at Pete's Frootique they are nearly $5 and you don't get an awesome burlap sack with them!).

This is what I got at the Saturday farmers market. Almost 2 dozen pullet eggs for $3.75, 2lbs of grassfed beef for $5 and a pound of ground pork $2 (I think it's pastured but probably fed grains/feed too). I got the meat before I knew we were getting the beef, otherwise I wouldn't of bothered!

And finally, I got this at Sobeys. 2 blocks of cheese ($3.99 each) and a bag of spinach ($1.99). No one had spinach in the valley and I still crave greens. There weren't even any at the farmers market because it was pouring rain and the lady I usually get them from wasn't there. I will buy more cheese when they don't only have skim mozza. I also need to get milk and go to bulk barn again.

So an extremely productive shopping week! If I can remember how, I am going to put our grocery tally in the sidebar so I can keep track of our expenses. Remember that this isn't just for the week, but I am attempting to store up some food for winter. I have been doing a lot of reading on how to store food for winter use, even if it is different in this modern day than it was over a hundred years ago.

Bread, muffins and granola, oh my!

I mentioned the soaked bread I was attempting in the bread machine. Despite losing a lot of liquid, it was a sucess! It rose well, has a wonderful consistency and is yummy. The kids aren't so crazy about it, but they'll live ;). It is good and slices easily for sandwiches.

I made some banana chocolate chip muffins out of the Pharoh's mix I mentioned the other day. Yummers! I actually followed the coffee cake recipe but added an extra egg, 2 cups of mushed banana (there were big chunks of banana in the muffins adding to the yumminess) and a cup of chocolate chips. I put the batter in my heart shaped silicone muffin liners (it made 14) and baked for about a half an hour. So good!! They are moist, tasty and are a definate must make again :). Pretty good for a spelt and kamut muffin! Actually, I was telling DH they are more like a cup cake, but healthier :)

Granola. It is my first attempt at making soaked granola. It has been in the dehydrator for a few hours and I am just now realizing all the things I did wrong, lol! To backtrack, I loosely was following a recipe online. I soaked 3 cups of organic "New found" oats, 1 cup steel cup oats, 1 cup spelt flakes and a cup of spelt flour with 5 cups of water and 6 tablespoons of kefir. I also added a cup of raw sunflower seeds. I let it soak nearly 24 hours then I added 1/2 cup of honey, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, 1 cup of chocolate chips (need to wean the kids into homemade goodies again with some chocolate) and some vanilla. I mixed well, loaded up the dehydrator and realized, I forgot salt, coconut oil and some other things I meant to put in. At least I will know for next time. It was very soupy. Next time I will follow a recipe properly. I won't post what I used for embarrassment of messing up so badly. It may still turn out good so I won't discount it yet. I want to make granola for the kids that don't have nuts since they can't have any nuts at all at school, except coconut.

In other news, we are going to the valley tomorrow, yay! I plan to come home with about 200lbs or more of fresh fall produce. Carrots and turnip/rutabagas to put up in sawdust, squash, pumpkins, kale to dry, another gallon of honey, a big bag of organic sugar and more. I imagine our trunk will be FULL!! I want to go to the place that has pork. I couldn't decide between a side of pork or a quarter beef first, but I think I will go with the beef since we have a ton of pork in the freezer. I will pick up some of their natural bacon and maybe some sausage. I will have to bring a cooler! It's just a day trip, but it will be productive.

As well, I plan on taking part in The Nourished Kitchen's Real Food For Real Families series. It is a low cost approach to real food on a budget. I look forward to it! Our budget is shrinking while our food needs keep growing.

Well, my Monday Market Report should be a little bigger than usual, but it will feed us a good long time!

A Hearty Lunch

One thing I like about the kids being in school is I can experiment with meals for lunch. I had the idea in my head for today's lunch since last week but I wanted to wait for a day that Mark would be home for lunch. He suggested we go to KFC for lunch. I thought about it, but realized that once again, something made at home would be better. In case you're wondering why every Tuesday we think about KFC, well, it's because it's "Toonie Tuesday" which means a two piece meal is only $2.79 or so (It used to be $2, which is a Canadian "toonie" but the price keeps going up). I really want to stop eating junk food and find healthy fast home alternative meals instead :)

This took hardly any time to make, about half an hour start to finish. What is it?, you may be wondering. It is Potato Leek Soup served with onion cheese cornmeal muffins. This meal is 100% local-ish (within 100 miles) and 90% organic!

I started by making the muffins. I used a Speerville "Cornucopia" mix. These are $4.49 at Sobeys, all organic, no GMO's, stone ground and local. I used the basic recipe on the side, 2 1/2 cups of mix, 1.5 cups of milk, a glug of oil (my usual method), I used two eggs instead of one and mixed without over mixing. I added in a half cup of grated cheese (could of used more) and about a quarter cup of salted green onions. I poured into heart shaped silicone muffin liners and baked about 20 minutes while I prepared the rest of lunch. (I also have "Pharoh's Favorite" mix which I hope to use soon. This was more expensive at $5.49 a box).

For the soup, I thinly sliced 4 peeled and washed potatoes. This went into a large pot then covered with cold water and 2 sliced onions. While this came to a boil, I thoroughly washed then sliced a big bunch of leeks (about 6). When the potatoes were tender, I added the leeks, a hunk of butter, a couple pinches of salt then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Before serving I added about a cup of milk. It would be better with cream but I didn't have any. I sprinked with dried herbs before serving (it is a salad mix with garlic, onion, shallots, red onions and parsley). Add a pat of butter on top and serve!

I asked Mark if it was better than KFC and he said it kind of was. The soup was very light but delightful and satisfying to eat. It would be very rich and yummy with cream. The muffins were moist and very tasty. They were very hearty and satisfying. I'm glad we stayed home for lunch :)

As an aside, we have one more store egg before we start eating only free range, farmers market eggs. I know the season for them isn't long so we will enjoy it while we can. The funny thing is that many of the store eggs have much darker yolks than the farmers eggs. Hmmmm.

This post is part of Twister Tuesday at http://gnowfglins.com!!

Monday Market Report Sept. 27th

Well, I didn't have much luck at the market on Thursday. I went but didn't buy anything. I wanted to, but there wasn't anything we needed nor were there any good buys.

Saturday, however, was a much better day! At the farmer's market, I bought two packages of grass fed beef ($5), two huge bunches of organic leeks ($2 each, so $4), a handful of organic hot peppers ($1) a bunch of organic green onions ($1), a big bunch of greens, I'm not sure what, maybe kale? (I usually get swiss chard from this lady but this was all she had, $1), 1 pound bag of dried beans ($2) and two dozen eggs ($3.50 for regular and $2 for pullet eggs). So a pretty good haul for just under $20.

I dehydrated the leeks and I'm really hoping to get more this week as they dry so good and are so Tasty!!

After the farmers market, we went to Wallace Brother's farm for some apple picking fun! We picked a huge basket of apples and it was $7.

I asked about arctic kiwi and they had some this time! Shaylee is showing the container we were filling. He only charged $1 for a 2 pound container! The half pint containers in the store are on sale this week for $2! They are so super yummy! I hope they have more the next time we go.

Market Report

This is something I want to get in the habit of doing. Fresh produce markets probably won't be around much longer so I want to report in what we got and how it was.

At the Thursday market, there wasn't much of interest so we got 2lbs of stewing meat from King Limousin Farm and since we got there early, I was able to get 2 dozen farm fresh eggs. It was $6.50 for the beef and $6 for the eggs.

On Saturday, I got 4lbs of tomatoes ($0.50 a pound! I would of bought them all but I didn't want to be greedy), a bag of dried beans ($2), a bunch of swiss chard ($1) and a big bag of organic greens ($3). $8 is a great price for all that stuff! It would of been way more at the grocery store.

Let's see, it would of been at least $4 for the tomatoes (not local), $3 for the same beans, $2.49 for the swiss chard (not local or organic) and $6 for organic greens, again, not local. So nearly $16 at the grocery store for non local, mostly non-organic food.

So $22.50 spent at the farmers markets. Next post will be how good it was and/or what I've done with it!

Back To School

I have been feeling really down lately because we're poor. I had hoped to make a big market trip to several markets today but when I checked the bank account and saw how low it was, I wanted to find a corner and cry. It has been hard with the kids in school, the extra expense of that, the extra expense of the car, the $625+ insurance bill that's overdue and other things. I didn't want to complain in my main blog because all my family reads it but I don't think this one is as well read. This at a time when I want to invest in healthy food, an investment of health and well being.

It was easy to fall into the trap of buying cheap snacky foods for the kids lunches. They don't take enough time to eat since they want to play so I want things that they can eat quickly. I have been sending thermoses filled with soup or pasta since I know how nice it is to have something hot at school. But I have also been sending snacky food that I want to replace with homemade, wholesome goodies.

I haven't been feeling like doing much this week so I haven't been making much good to eat. I want to start though. I sure can't complain I don't have time anymore.

I had a great farmers market week! We went to the Thursday market in Tusket. There I got two huge bunches of green onions (I am going to make salted onions with these), two bags of delicious organic tomatoes, some cucumbers, lettuce, a bag of carrots (little ones) and some other things we must have eaten and I spent less than $10! All organic, something I couldn't do at that price in a grocery store.

This morning, I got 11lbs of turnip, real turnip not rutabagas like they sell in the store, for $3! One of them was 5lbs! (I got three, $1 each) I also got a few heads of garlic, 2lbs of ground beef, swiss chard and a big bag of salad greens, all organic! This came to about $10 as well. Then we went to Wallace Brothers where we picked a huge basket of apples, which was about 35 or so lbs for only $7! They were soo good, so fresh and crisp, yumm! We ate a ton in the car, I"m surprised we don't all have belly aches, lol! Then we went to the Belliveaus Farmers Market but it was so cold there were hardly any vendors there. I did get to try some chicken fricot. I'll have to try to make it some day. At the Comeau's Farm Market, I got two big english cukes, a big bunch of bananas, a bag of parsnips, a half peck of pears ($1!), 3 packs of natural bacon, a package of Fox Hill Cheese and slushies for the three kids for about $18.

So we have a lot of food around the house, all local and natural. I love eating like this. I must admit it is not really easy for me. I want to eat bad but I know for the sake of our budget and health, I need to eat good food. I want my kids to grow up liking it and appreciating it. They are so picky that it's hard. I must find a way.

My struggles for this week will be:

- cutting down the junk in the kids lunches and replacing it with more nourishing food.

-cooking more from scratch.

-preserving some foods, probably with dehydrating and some fridge pickling

-using what we have on hand and eating down the freezer so we have room

-doing some baking/cooking for the freezer to have some stuff on hand when I don't feel like baking or cooking

-using food up before it goes bad (this is really hard; I had to throw out a lot of good food gone bad because it got shoved to the back of the fridge)

It will be a challenge but something that I need to work on.

Want to Change

I really want to change what we eat. I want to change how we eat. I think about it a lot. Then there is the issue of the food that we store and the amount of money we have to spend.

Catch 22.

With the kids going to school in the fall, I will have more time on my hands to cook and prepare foods. My question is, will I want to? I love reading real food and nourishing food blogs. They make it sound so easy. I could do it for me but I also want to do it for my family. Mark is the hardest sell. The kids are the pickiest. I would hate to spend a lot of money on nourishing food only to fall back on junk again. I have been restraining myself from buying but it can be just so cheap, easy and I hate to say it...good!

So I am still working out in my mind what I want to do about food in our family. I will still share recipes here that may not be so nourishing or even healthy but I hope the trend will swing towards what my core food beliefs are.

I asked the people in charge of the farmer's market is there was any talk of a WAP chapter in Yarmouth. I haven't heard back but I would volunteer help. I couldn't afford a $50 membership right now but maybe in a few months or after Christmas. I hate that money is what holds us back in so many things.

As of right now, I'm planning on getting a half share in the CSA, a quarter beef (not sure from whom yet) and half a pig, pastured if I can sell DH on it. I am trying to find egg sources but they get snapped up so fast. Raw milk is illegal, although I know some places who sell organic raw milk cheese and yogurt (2 hours away though). I can't find shares.

I am running through it in my mind but money is especially tight right now because we just bought the car, we took a big vacation and Mark got a speeding ticket. Tomorrow we are going on our 10th anniversary overnight temple trip and I plan on making a lot of farm market stops :).

I am sure it will all come together.

Loving this time of the year

I feel bad that I have no pictures to post. I am really loving this time of the year. Lots of cheap local food and lots of free veggies from the gardens of our families. I have bags of string beans in the freezer, along with all our blueberries. I have a pile of cukes that I plan to make into pickles.

I found some very yummy grass fed beef at the farmer's market that is only $2.50 a pound! It was so lean, it had no fat at all on it. I made it into hamburger and gravy and 1 pound was enough for two and a half meals (half because I made a sandwich for a snack; the kids don't like hamburger and gravy but Mark and I ate enough for two). I had to add lots of water to be able to make gravy and it was delish!! On Saturday I am going to ask if they sell beef by the side or quarter.

They are starting CSA's in our town! Community Supported Agriculture is something I have been wanting to support, unfortunately right now, it will still have to be a dream as it's kind of expensive. I may look into a half share though. From the news article :"One full share (vegetables only) will provide a family of four and cost $680 for 17 weeks. Meats and eggs can be selected in their premium full shares packages at a cost of $1,400 for 17 weeks. Half shares are also available for both."

Tonight for supper, we had a beef roast cooked all day in the slow cooker with some montreal steak seasoning on top and onions (Red and White claims their beef is local but I'm not 100% sure). It was served with garden fresh green beans and the driest squash I've had in ages. I love squash! If someone in my family says it's "Good and dry" you know it's the best! Fred Kingsbury usually has the best squash so it was a welcome treat, especially slathered with butter.

I am going back on a lower carb diet but I am not going to hold back on fresh fruits and veggies. They are just too good when they are so fresh. It would be a shame not to enjoy them while they are at their peak of goodness since through the winter veggies can be a bit boring and I am trying to be more seasonal in my eating. I hope to preserve a lot this summer/fall through alternative methods. I definitely could use a bigger freezer (although I don't regret giving our other one away).

Off Track

I kind of fell off track with this blog again. It's too bad. It has been a delicious time of year. I take the kids weekly to the Farmer's Market . There are always lots of goodies there. I let the kids get a treat and they always go to this one lady who is selling cupcakes and donuts. Last week, Shaylee dropped her donut and the lady gave her another one for free. Everyone is so nice there :)

I lucked into a dozen eggs last week. Someone was dropping off a load just as we got there. They go so fast and we never get there early. If you look at the carton, one was a monster egg in comparison to the others. The carton would hardly close, lol! Ethan got to eat it for supper tonight :). My yolks were the darkest, but honestly, they weren't much darker than the eggs we get in the store. They were yummy though.

Last week we went to the Valley for an overnight trip. I think I hit every single farmers market there was, lol! Forsythe's, a couple Averys, Stirlings, Noggins Corner, Hennigars and a bunch that I can't even remember. We got lots of good food. It tastes so good when it's farm fresh. I am really appreciating fresh food this year.

Something good I made last night was I sliced a couple of little zucchini and the greens off a bunch of onions plus a handful of garlic scrapes. I sautéed it in butter and it smelled so creamy. I was going to add a can of tomatoes but it smelled so creamy that I just topped it with cheese and let it melt. It was so yummy and gooey good!

I bought some more beets with the greens and onions with the greens. I'll have to think of something creative to do with them :)

Monday Market Report

I am still hoping to do the Monday Meal Plan but I thought it would be a step in the right direction to have a Monday Market report. If I do my marketing on Monday morning, then it will start my week off with a full larder. Then in the summer, I can do the Farmers Markets on Saturday and that will be less to buy when I do my Monday Marketing (or I will be less tempted to buy in the store when I've already bought locally at the market).

I made three stops this morning. First was Dayton Fruit and Vegetable. There I picked up the following:

Spinach: $2.00

10lbs bag potatoes: $1.99

10lbs bags onions: $2.97

cabbage: $0.67

sweet potatoes: $3.28 ($0.79/lbs)

garlic: $0.48

2 small english cukes: $1.50

Bananas: $1.30

Total: $14.17

Then I went to Sobeys. There I got:
1.5kg bag of blueberries (craving!): $8.49

1 container natural yogurt (need for the cultures): $2.49

8 cans coconut milk: $5.25!! (it was signed wrong so I got one free. It was regular $3.29, ringing in at $2.50 but it was signed 2/$1.50)

Total: $16.23

I went to Superstore next. I wasn't going to but I knew they had some things I wanted:

2L Mac Nut Frozen yogurt (I told the kids I'd get it for them to try): $4.00

2lbs mussels: $3.00

small carton sauerkraut: $1.59

900g bag brown rice: $2.39

pack "natural" cheese strings: $3.00 (with coupon)

3pack large english cukes: $3.00

omega eggs: $1.99 (half off)
free range, farm eggs: $2.39 (half off)

4L Cooks milk: $6.93

Total (including cents off for using cloth bags): $28. 14

So $58.54 isn't too bad. We have a lot on hand and a lot of this will last longer than one week. I got mostly whole foods so it was a good trip in my opinion. I am seeing some stew in my very near future as well as some blueberry smoothies. I have really been craving veggies lately and need to get some more greens growing.

I hope to later get a meal plan up. I have a lot to do from our trip including lots of laundry and dishes, plus even though we left with the apartment clean, it seemed to spawn filth overnight.

Aw, Honey, Honey

I was up early and thought I would write. We are in Dartmouth right now and I've been up for a while. We had an interesting day yesterday on our way up. It was raining buckets and often dark. We made a few stops. I got a couple of big bags of apples (one red delicious and the other crispin) and parsnips from Noggin's Corner. We got lost looking for honey. Mmmmm, yummy raw honey. I wanted to get our bucket filled since it was cheaper but the man there seemed kind of rushed to get lunch so we just bought a bucket off the table at Foote Family Farm. I guess the kids explored a little bit outside and saw the hives and other farm stuff but I didn't (otherwise I would of got some pictures). Since we felt like we were intruding, we kind of hurried along. The kids were so fascinated with the honey they wanted to play with it. Not the honey, but the bucket to pretend they had a honey store. While I was out, Ethan managed to accidentally pour out about 1.5 or so cups of honey. I wasn't too impressed by that.

In the city, we stopped at the Real Canadian Wholesalers on Connaught Street in Halifax. Wow, I can see why metro saints can build their storage on the cheap! There was so much stuff but we contained ourselves, lol! Dad's car has a much smaller trunk than ours. I could not believe milk was only $5.29! That's about $2+ cheaper than the price at Sobeys home (I never pay that price though). If we had a portable cooler with us, we would of been stocking up on a lot of stuff but it's probably a good thing we didn't. We did buy a 20kg bag of whole wheat flour and managed to only pay $7.50! (there was a tiny hole in the bag so half off). I also stocked up on coconut milk and some other things. I wanted to get more flour but the 20kg bags of regular Robin Hood weren't much cheaper than what we have home and as I mentioned, we have limited trunk space.

Last night Mark took the kids out for supper while I was at the temple. When I was done, I was starving and was craving veggies. I went to Sobeys and man the salads and fresh to go foods were awfully expensive. I went looking at the frozen foods and it took about three passes through the frozen dinners to find any that had even a minute amount of veggies. I ended up getting a General Tao Chicken entree and a small sweet potato to cook in the microwave. I really wanted asparagus but I didn't have anything to put it on to heat up (although I after thought I could of used the empty food tray).

Today, among other things, we are planning to go to the Halifax Farmer's Market. I have heard that is an awesome experience and can't wait. I know there is local spinach growing and I am regretting not getting some in the valley. I am craving greens! Must be spring, lol!

Giving Up On Wheat

I mean that in a number of ways but mainly in that I am giving up my make everything from home ground wheat. I love the notion of grinding all our wheat but I can see it's not feasible for me. If I want to make everything from scratch, I am not going to drive myself crazy doing it the most natural way possible. I woke up this morning and realized that it doesn't mean I love my family any less. If I weren't making everything myself even with store flour, they would be eating store bought, which isn't as healthy. Sure, I know flour doesn't have as many nutrients as it does when it is freshly ground and it is isn't as flavorful. It is one of those "Choose your battles" and I can't see myself grinding 200lbs of flour and having every loaf a chance. After 3 or 4 bad loaves of bread and one successful one with home ground, I'm going to go with what is almost always successful.

On a related note, we are possibly going for a weekend away next weekend (not the one coming up but April 9-11). I have been scouring places to find out what is in season in the valley. I found a place that has honey for $1.75 a pound! I'm getting a bucket, lol! I am also trying to find places that sell maple syrup. Last fall we got it at Forsythe's and it was about $12 a liter, cheap when you consider that at Sobeys it is $22 a liter. Real Maple Syrup goes a really long way too. I think we were using that liter from September to December and using it regularly. I want to get about a gallon, at least.

I checked and saw that many of the farm markets were either open or will be open. I know there isn't a ton that is in season now but I'll take what we can get :)

I am also going to be doing a meal plan Monday but I need to get my thoughts together on that first. We have used up more storage and there is some we have to toss so my freezer list has changed.