Eating For Less

Food and the art of feeding a family, whether locavore or not, is a big deal. We want good, healthy food. We want organic or at least pesticide-free food, and heirloom varieties would be greatly preferable. But some people have reported that when they switched to locavore eating, their grocery bills went up. There are various legitimate reasons for this, but I won't go into them just now. Instead, let's look at just how much local food costs, anyway. I have to feed a family of four, so how do I do that on an extremely limited budget?

For one thing, we do not buy boxed cereals anymore. What we do buy is 3 dozen eggs a week, and organic oatmeal in bulk. That, plus local organic whole wheat bread usually suffices to feed us breakfast. We have lots of jam and jelly left from what we canned last year, so that makes toast more exciting if you like jam. I usually have tea and buttered toast, and sometimes eggs. Sometimes I vary that by having tea, eggs and oatmeal instead. It's not five-star dining, but it works as a breakfast, and it doesn't pack a lot of weight on. The oatmeal is way more economical than boxed cereal, and healthier, too, as it doesn't have sugar in it. If you really want to spice it up, you can put cinnamon or maybe a dab of butter and a little milk instead. It's a little bland in taste at first, but you get used to it and then overly-sugared food starts to taste horrible. The last time I tried putting white sugar in my oatmeal, I didn't like the taste of it. When I was a kid, I didn't eat oatmeal without a liberal crust of sugar on top. We're spoiled, we Americans. We don't need half of the sugared-up substances we are currently mistaking for food, and in most if not all cases, we'd be healthier without them.

Lunch can be salad from lettuce and spinach purchased at the farmers market, maybe a ham sandwich (the ham is from less than 200 miles away, bought in the form of a buffet-style ham and then taken by the deli for slicing--it's less per pound that way than just buying the usual brand of deli ham.) Sometimes there's soup started in the crock pot the night before--Idaho grows several different kinds of beans, and they're not too much per pound. Then you add just a bit of rice or barley, which is not local, but necessary if you want your soup to contain a complete protein. The soup might also be something else like potato soup, or carrot, or at this time of year, asparagus.

Now, here's a couple things I learned that I used to be unaware of. You know how most carrots are sold with no tops, even in the farmers markets? Well, that's a shame, because those green tops are completely edible. You just grate the carrots and chop up their tops and put them into the same soup. The tops are good for you and you do not have to waste them. How much did the carrots cost me for the latest batch of soup? Less than $.25, probably, because I grew the carrots myself last year from a $3.00 packet of heirloom seed. They overwintered very well, we got several pots of soup from the carrots in this very small patch, and I just pulled the last few because I need to reclaim the bed so I can plant my beans in a few days.

Asparagus stems are something else that you can get double duty out of. Most people only eat the tender tops and the softer part of the stems, but the tough parts are edible too, if you just simmer them for a few hours until they're softer and can be pureed and then strained. We made an awesome soup from the tough stems of the asparagus that I pickled the other day. The only parts that we threw away were the very bottom of the stems, the part that is whitish-purple and extremely tough to cut even with a sharp knife. The rest of the asparagus, we used in one way or another. How much is the asparagus? Currently $1.59 per pound, and a couple weeks earlier in the season it was only $1.39 per pound. But I've pickled ten pints and still have a few pints left over from the dozen I did last year. I'll get a little more of it to freeze, but right now we're also enjoying it fresh.

Greens: right now the farmers markets are selling bags of spinach, lettuce, arugula, etc. for around $4.00 per bag. I'm not sure how much this comes to in pounds, but we've eaten salad several times this week, and I still haven't gone through all the salad greens I bought yet. We'll do stir fry tomorrow (Friday) for a change, and Saturday's the farmer's market. Last week I spent about $26.00 for various things at the market including greens, leeks and green onions. At a store with local produce, I spent another $15.00 on asparagus for pickling and eating fresh. We've eaten off this food all week long. A few items we've eaten, like the organic bread, is not purchased at the market, and the Huz has been buying pre-shaved cheese to make pizzas and calzones, but so far this year, the farmers market has provided over half of the main ingredients for our dinners and some lunches, and we have not spent more than thirty dollars there in any given week. I'm estimating our weekly food budget at less than $100.00 for four people, so far. Remember that the asparagus wasn't all for eating this week; some of it was pickled, so not all of that $15.00 was part of this week's food budget. In budgeting for food, a locavore has to remember to get some to put away for when the food's out of season. If you don't freeze or pickle asparagus in April or May, you won't have any in November. Our grandparents used to know this, but many of us have forgotten. It's time to remember.

On a side note: I can't believe the WinCo is shipping in asparagus from Mexico when right now asparagus is local and in season, and cheaper per pound. It makes no sense at all. (Local asparagus: $1.59/pound. Mexican asparagus: $1.99/pound. Do the math.)

I guess the main tip for today is to find out which parts of a vegetable are actually edible, and not throw away anything that might be food. Cut down on the wastage in any way you can, and you'll have more options for things to feed your family. Who knew asparagus stem soup or carrot top soup could be so good?