Benjamin Gardening: 1 Year Of Eating Locally - Weekly Meal Plan + Food Cost: Week of June 3, 2018

Some of this week's veggies purchased at our farmer's market

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food. You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not. Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines. Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time. You can read more about meal planning here.

Read the entire series here.

Well, we have started our eat local challenge! Smack dab in the middle of asparagus season means we are eating a LOT of asparagus. We do grow some, however, our asparagus bed is not large enough to give us enough of this delectable plant for more than one or two meals each week. So, we buy some at the farmer's market. I'm also planning to try pickling some asparagus this year. I've never tried it but am excited to see how it tastes.

We are very fortunate to have vegetable farmer's who grow a variety of plants - I was shocked, for instance, to see kohlrabi available this week! We love it so I scooped that up right away. It's not quite time for strawberries (about 1-2 weeks away) but I had frozen strawberries that I processed last summer, and paired with fresh rhubarb I was able to make a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie. It was sooooooo good. Recipe coming soon!

Because not many fruit or veggies are available, I've supplemented with what we were able to put up in the freezer last summer and fall plus purchased a few things from the grocery store. We will be freezing and canning again this year so that we have a bit of variety next winter and spring.

J decided to go back to purchasing milk products from our local source. Unfortunately, we do not have an organic dairy (that I'm aware of at least) local, so, it means purchasing non-organic products.

So let's talk about this week's $24.00 chicken. I know it sounds crazy, right? You can buy a whole chicken from the supermarket for anywhere from $4.00 - $12.00. Why in the world would someone pay $24.00? And it's not even certified organic! My husband and I have discussed it at length and I have conversations frequently with friends regarding exactly this topic.

It all goes back to voting with your food dollars.

You might (might) be able to find a chicken in the grocery store that is the same quality as a chicken purchased from a local farmer, but it's all about animal welfare. How was that chicken treated? I truly believe that all living beings should be treated with respect, and that includes those born and raised purely to feed us. I believe that it matters how they are treated while they are alive, and it matters how they are treated when they are harvested. Unfortunately, animals are just not treated with respect when they are raised in feed lots. Not when they are growing up, and not when they are harvested. Never. When you find local farmers who raise animals for meat in a way that you can respect, then you vote with your food dollars by purchasing from them. And that's exactly what we've decided to do. Additionally, we've raised chickens for meat in the past. It's expensive. I can see exactly how they must charge what they do in order to make a living. (**We are in no way suggesting that this is for everyone. I understand that this is a lot of money to spend on one item.**)

So, we've purchased a $24.00 chicken and plan to buy more.

On to the menu!

Weekly Meal Plan:

Sunday

Breakfast - Breakfast Burritos

Lunch - Cashew Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Greens

Dinner - Homemade Pizza (me - arugula, mushrooms & roasted red peppers, J - burger, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, & mozzarella)

Monday