Buying Local: Week 2

K was gone over the weekend, and I spent some time at home with my mom for Mother’s Day, so I missed out on Saturday’s farmers market.

Luckily for us, Green City Market also runs on Wednesdays and since I work from home, I can easily pick some produce up during the week.

Fortunately, we also have other options besides the farmers market. There is Local Foods, which is not far away, and our nearby Mariano’s does carry numerous local options.

For the past week so far, we have basically been cleaning out the fridge and our cabinets, eating whatever random stuff we have left. I have basically been eating steel cut oats every single day because that is all we have left. I am not complaining about that though.

Since K is going to be gone again over the weekend and I will be pretty busy, we did not need to load up on groceries this week.

I accompanied my cousin and her toddler to Mariano’s and picked up a few things:

• Oberweis milk from family farms around IL and WI
• Greenridge Farm lunchmeat from Elk Grove Village, IL
• Today’s Temptation Bread from Chicago
• G.H. Cretor’s cheese popcorn from Waukegan, IL

Oberweis milk in our super empty fridge

After that, I skipped over to Local Foods to get the rest of this week’s necessities:

• Veggies
• Hot dog buns
• A container of walnuts
• Tortilla chips to compliment the rest of the salsa we have left

We are going to be gone again over Memorial Day weekend, so hopefully, this won’t be so sporadic once we are actually home for a weekend!

Buying Local Food: Week 1

Our own local food challenge started over the weekend. While we still have non-local food in our house, anything that we purchase from now on should be from within our radius.

For instance, right now I am snacking on some Wheat Thins, and once they are gone, they will be gone. Goodbye, my sweet, crunchy snacks.

We hit the ground running Saturday morning at Green City Market with an idea of what we needed. After an initial lap of checking out what vendors were there and what was available, we narrowed down what we were going to purchase based on what we already had at home.

We purchased:

• Eggs
• Spinach
• Spring Onions
• Ramps
• Bread
• Pork Country Sausage
• Asparagus
• Potatoes

For a grand total of $42.00….

We obviously have other food in the fridge to supplement our farmers market purchases, so do not think that is all we are eating for the week.

Stay tuned!

Starting Tomorrow: Local Food Only

Since making the decision to purchase a CSA share this summer, K and I also decided to take it up a notch.

We figured we were already devoting ourselves to local produce, why not add in locally sourced dairy, meat, and other staples? Since I will have to walk over to the farmers market every week to pick up our share, we might as well grab some eggs and meat too.

How we are defining local:

350 miles from Chicago

(Basically, it is about how far a truck can travel in a single day)

What is included:

• Produce
• Meat
• Dairy products & eggs

What is not included:

• Going out to eat
• Eating at other people’s homes

Potential Benefits:

• An increase in vegetable intake
• A decrease in meat intake
• A decrease in processed foods
• A decrease in food packaging, so less waste
• A decrease in GHG used to transport our food around
• A decrease in our  waistlines

Potential Costs:

• $$$$

While our CSA share does not start until June, we are starting when our local farmers market returns outside tomorrow.

HRC telling us how it is on Sesame Street 1993.

 

I Still Drive the Same Car From High School

When I was a junior in high school (2006), I got my first car.

It was a 1998 Toyota Rav4.

And today in 2017, I still drive that almost 20-year-old car.

That car, affectionately named Gomez, has been the perfect car.

It got me through all 5 years of driving back and forth to school in Indiana. Gomez hung out in storage for a bit while I lived in DC, and now is an amazing city car. But since my car is so old, I don’t get concerned about any new bumps or marks from everyday street parking.

At first, it may seem a little silly that I still drive the same car I did when George W. Bush was President and when I could not legally vote. My friends’ have all gotten new cars since high school (for the most part), and my brother has gone through what feels like eight cars.

But ultimately, I think it is kind of neat that my car is still around and running.

At this point in life, I don’t need to replace Gomez. I do not rely on my car for work and am not traveling copious miles each day on my commute, but there are definitely some drawbacks to driving a car that was designed and built when I was 6 years old.

Pros of Driving My Super Old Car:

• No monthly car payments
• No obsession over keeping it scratch free
• Gomez is very recognizable (that could also be considered a con)
• Tiny SUV makes parallel parking easy
• Can fit a lot of stuff in it

Cons of Driving My Super Old Car:

• Probably not Is not fuel efficient
• Probably lacking in safety technology (there are at least 2 airbags)
• Lacking in all technology (it was upgraded to a CD player before I got it, but that serves as a reminder that it originally came with a cassette player)
• It’s showing its age and those repairs cost $$$

Even if I eventually replace Gomez, it won’t ever be with a new car straight off the lot. A used car will work just fine.

How do you feel about driving old cars? Is it better to drive them til the end or upgrade to a more efficient model?