Local Eating in January: One Year Later

Billy hauls animals and Chris raises grass-fed beef and lamb

Remember when our family did 30 days of change last year?  We exclusively ate from the farmer's market in January.  I was walking down memory lane a few days ago, and came across that post.  That 30 days was a big push for us.  Here is the breakdown how we ate last January (2013)



1.  Anything that was already in the cabinet was fair game.  Not going to retroactively screen my cupboard for store-bought items.

2.  We were able to purchase grains at the grocery store if we made our own bread.  We could buy bread at the farmer's market if we wanted to.

3.  We did not eat out.  Our entire eating out budget was devoted to the increased grocery bill.

4.  This meant we spent $200 per week on groceries, plus $36 per month for cow boarding so we could have raw milk.

5.  I had wanted to push for making all the kids' snacks, but they didn't like how much weirder my fruit bars looked (like a snuffalupagus had a baby with oatmeal).  I ended up eating them with butter (delicious) and eventually broke down and bought fruit bars and fruit puree pouches.

The bottom line: we were able to purchase all our coffee, meats, milk, fruit, vegetables (yes, veggies in January!), some bread, and eggs locally.  Also we made all our food for every single week!  I was able to render lard and tallow, which was extremely easy and quite fun.

Here is the breakdown of how we ate this past January (2014):

My larder at the end of January. 

1.  I had some home-canned goods from the bounty of the garden from this summer (first time canning and I have not died yet!).  My Grandma was proud!

2.  I officially stopped eating gluten and try to eat as few grains as possible throughout the week.  My two exceptions are oatmeal and white rice.  This comes from a local grocery store.

3.  We eat out about once every week.  It's usually Chipotle, the Wine Kitchen, or the food from my work (we have a restaurant there).  This costs us $50 per week for a family of two adults and two small children.
4.  We still spend about $150 on groceries each week, and $39 per month on cow boarding (those cows needed more hay so they upped it $1 per share).

5.  I now give my kids Jaye Anne-approved snacks!  I make them homemade applesauce bread, yogurt, cheese, cut up apples, celery, carrots, and bacon.  Every so often they get fruit puree pouches and homemade cereal.  Xavi won't eat anything in a stew but eats all the meat he can get his hands on.  I find myself washing stewed meat a lot, thinking "what the heck am I doing?!"

6.  Meal plans really do make this easy.  I start with dinner, which sets the tone of the week.  Then, lunches are usually leftovers; breakfasts are snacks as above and then whatever I feel like eating.

The bottom line: we bought all our meat, eggs, apples, milk, and coffee locally.  Then we get the rest (veggies, salt, other fruit, some grains) organic from the grocery store.  We spend about $100 per week locally and $50 per week at the grocery store.  Supplements are not locally sourced and fall under a different category from food, budgetarily speaking.

Left: duck egg.  Right: chicken egg.

Recap: Last year I wanted to do this to feel stable in case of some emergency.  I wanted to prove that my farmers could support me if I really needed them to.  And they could.  It was so freeing and inspiring!


What's more is I made some excellent friends.  Seeing people every week in the bitter cold bonds people together.  I learned more about where my food comes from by going to my farmer's market in one month than I could in a whole year of reading.


Could your farmers support you?  What do you know about where your food comes from?

This post is a part of Simply Natural Saturdays, Wellness Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays.