The general theme for week 10 was definitely You’ve got to shop around. In my short time residing in Southern California I have been told at least once a month, “how lucky I am to live here” since California has such an abundance of farms, fresh food and organic options to choose from. I can tell you, I am thankful for the reminders. It is true, us Californians have it good when it comes to organics and produce. For this very reason Cameron and I were able to price out different CSAs, Co-ops and farmer’s markets, all in close proximity to where we live.
Our new CSA, J.R. Organics, came highly recommended by a vegetarian friend. After visiting J.R.’s tent at the local Sunday morning farmer’s market Cameron and I agreed that we would give it a try. We learned that J.R. has offered subscriptions to lucky San Diegans since 1985, just one year after I was born; this farm knows their produce and their customers. On top of all this new excitement we picked up a few staples including lemons and squash.
J.R.'s tent at the Farmer's Market in Hillcrest.
This week seemed full of new places to pick up produce and staple items. In conjunction with signing up for the CSA, we also stumbled upon a local Co-op, Ocean Beach People’s Market. You have never seen two happier organic raw vegan’s than Cameron and I upon entering this store. Not only did they have an enormous bulk section of nuts, seeds and dried fruits, but most of the bulk section was cheaper than Whole Foods. We decided to sign up for a membership and reap the benefits of having such an amazing sustainable store nearby.
Ocean Beach People's Market, a new favorite. Photo by Nancy Casady
Even though we were sometimes thrown off by the produce in our weekly CSA box, we managed to get our food preparation time down to just four hours. This was an amazing triumph considering that when we first started ten weeks ago our total time was about six and a half hours. Working together, we have developed a well-oiled system of searching Google and making a checklist of the week’s recipes. This has also dropped our grocery shopping time down to about 45 minutes from an hour and a half.
Our CSA box full of green goodies.
As day 90 rapidly approaches we continue to find ways of cutting time in the kitchen and saving money on our produce. These are both huge challenges we are excited to overcome, not only for ourselves, but to show other people that there are solutions out there. We took the time to investigate and seek out alternatives and the rewards we’re finding are sustainable, beneficial and achievable. I can only imagine what the final week’s efficiency will bring.
May 21, 2009
