Different Grocery Shopping

We've had our first harvest of spinach from the stuff the Huz and kids planted in the garden last fall. I now see the importance of getting new plants started in late summer/early fall. The only other spinach or lettuce showing up in farmers markets so far this spring has been grown in cold frames or greenhouses. I won't be able to harvest a second batch for about a week or so, but at least we got one meal from our own garden.

My Amish paste tomatoes are beginning to flower, and I'll be putting them out in the garden probably later this week. They've done fine for the last few nights out on the patio; they're inside right now only because there was quite a stiff breeze blowing outside and the kids were worried the plants would be wrecked. Soon enough, though, the tomatoes will have to go out and stay out, wind or no wind.

It's funny; with this locavore focus, when your weekly grocery shopping is limited to Saturday mornings and you have to be somewhere by 9:30 a.m. or risk missing out on a limited amount of produce available, it changes your perspective. Before, under no circumstances would I have pried myself out of bed in the throes of a bad head cold and headed off to shop for food. I was careful to touch only the food I was going to buy and have minimal contact with the farmers so as not to pass on the cold virus, but shop I did, despite it being the most miserable shopping experience I've ever had, bar none. The part of my brain that loves going to the farmers' market was the only part of me that enjoyed Saturday, with the colorful food, stalls and vendors and beautiful weather. The rest of me was just doing whatever it took to get through and get back home. After the farmers market, I needed to pick up some plants at a nearby greenhouse, during which time I stumbled around in a sort of stupor while trying to remember the names and varieties of the plants I needed. When I finally got home in the early afternoon, we put the food away and I headed straight back to bed. Today, I'm somewhat better, though that's not saying a lot. But at least it was Mother's Day, and if I wanted to spend the day in bed, I could--and did.

Our haul from the farmers' market yesterday included two bags of mixed lettuce greens, a bag of spinach, a bag of arugula, two bundles of bok choy, and a bunch of green garlic. That came to $26.00. I also bought another bag of spinach at a different stall for about $4.00, a loaf of spinach, ricotta and mushroom bread for $6.00, and a jar of marionberry jelly for $5.00.

Last night's dinner was a chef salad composed of one bag of spinach, one bag of mixed greens, and the bag of arugula, plus some sliced baked chicken left over from the previous night's dinner. Tonight since it's Mother's Day and I'm still too sick to go out to a restaurant, we're ordering pizza. Tomorrow it's back to the locavore program.