January Locavores

So some of you might be curious how the attempt to eat local went. The goal was to eat as much from the house, freezer and garden as possible in January and reduce the grocery bill. I've just tallied up the receipts and the sad truth is- we still spent $400 at the grocery store which seems to be our general average through out the year. Oh well. We did eat a lot of food out of our freezer and our garden and our pantry. The biggest expense- coffee! We have a pound and a half a week habit and since we only buy sustainable, eco and people friendly coffee, which runs about $12 a pound, it really adds up.

Next biggest expense was cheese and milk- almost $70 for the month. This is a major protein source, and lots of milk goes into all the coffee that we drink too. The milk is local from a dairy just up the road and so is some of the cheese. We save a lot by baking our own multi-grain, nutty, crusty, chewy bread, which is the perfect platform for much of the cheese that gets consumed around here.

We spent about $100 on fruits and veggies, mainly apples and citrus- including a half case of the sweetest, juiciest honeybell tangelos direct from Florida that I have ever tasted. (Tip for those in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area, second Sunday of the month- 11:00-1:00 in the Fitch Lumber parking lot- truckload of citrus by the case, cash and check only- totally worth checking out).

The only veggies I bought were onions, garlic, celery, carrots, cauliflower, one giant beet and lettuce. We continued to eat veggies from the garden right through January, all the stuff I harvested on January 1st is consumed acccept for a few turnips that might become soup today and I am still picking a few greens, kale, swiss chard and spinach and harvesting brussel sprouts too.

I'm going to re-dedicate myself to this goal of eating more from home because there is still a lot of food in the pantry and the freezer that needs eating up. Mr. D can work on all those frozen homemade soups while I'm down in Mexico and when I get back we'll be planting lots of veggies, so in about 6-8 weeks we should be able to begin harvesting our own home grown lettuces and greens again. I can't wait.