A little over a year ago, I made my first real shopping trip to the South Bend Farmers Market. The market has been around pretty much forever, but I'd never really considered doing my shopping there until I realized how much better it is, for me, the economy, and the environment, to buy local produce. Since then, with very few exceptions, I've bought my chicken and produce exclusively from local farmers. I've also learned to can and freeze my own produce, cook more from scratch, and make my own jams and sauces. This year I started gardening and just harvested my first "crop" of broccoli. My next project is to learn to make my own pasta.
I've come a long way from the Lean Cuisine entrees I used to live on. Now there isn't a single frozen dinner in my house. Not many processed foods, either. I wonder what the cashiers at Meijer think when I go through the checkout with a few gallons of milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, some baking staples, and a few boxes of cereal.
Most of the time I love buying only fresh/local produce, but right now I would really like to go take a nap. Instead, I'm heating water to blanch a dozen ears of corn for canning and freezing. Then I'll have to clean the chicken I baked. And I bought more black raspberries, since they were on sale at the market; those need to be made into jam. Since I have so many fresh veggies on hand, maybe I'll make a stir-fry for dinner... So much for the lazy days of summer. Lots of fresh produce + weekend = BUSY!
And I just realized that the reason my water was taking forever to boil is because I had the wrong burner turned on. Duh. This is why I need a gas stove, people.
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