Zero Is The New Black

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One area I’d love to lighten up on would be our family’s food budget, both in the area of environmental impact as well as dollars spent if possible. After all, who wouldn’t like to save a little money? Even though we live in the breadbasket of America with possibly the greatest concentration of agriculture in the world, it’s a lot more difficult to eat locally than you would ever think.

Oh, sure, locally raised beef / pork / chicken is everywhere (especially the first two). But there’s only so much meat you can eat before you, well, die. Try to find any local vegetables outside of onions, tomatoes, or sweet corn (bleh), and the pickings are slim indeed. Even hitting the local farmers market doesn’t yield much more: red and white onions, maybe a couple varieties of tomatoes, soon enough all the god awful sweet corn you can stand; if I’m lucky, some carrots or cucumbers of maybe even a green pepper or two might make an appearance. Heck, if I’d stumble on some asparagus or broccoli or salad greens or even garlic, I’d wonder if I was in the right place. No doubt my experience is tied to the quality of my particular farmers market (because I’ve been to many that are excellent; just not our local one ), so all you farmers market proponents out there can relax!

I’d love to get a local CSA subscription. But the closest ones I’ve been able to find leaves us quite a distance outside their delivery range. And far enough away that driving to pick up weekly deliveries makes no economic sense.

I’m personally looking forward to setting up our own garden - I’ve got too many ideas for what I’d like to attempt - once we settle a bit more at our new home. But considering that it’s almost June already(!), I’m not sure there is time this year to plant all that much. But future years will certainly see quite a bit of very local produce!

So I am a little bummed that I can’t pull something off like Rebecca Blood with her Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget series - Nebraska just ain’t California, I’m afraid. Our little family of three will just have to continue to spend a fairly ridiculous amount to eat. We go out of our way to avoid as much overprocessed food as possible, and unless I’m missing out on some cost savings that haven’t occurred to me, eating healthy is expensive.

I see via Lighter Footsteps that this week is National Vegetarian Week. When I first saw the headline I thought someone was taking a page from the Buy Nothing Day book by scheduling it during an especially meat-centric time: the opening of the grilling season AKA Memorial Day (Yes, I know that that is not the purpose of the day! Yet, many many grills will be making an appearance that day…). But I see the Vegetarian Society is UK-based, so I’ll excuse them from fighting the uphill battle here in the U.S.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of the week, I am going to be bringing a few extra veggies to any get-togethers I hit this weekend.

And I don’t just mean ketchup…

The wife came in this morning, amazed at the cost of the latest trip to the gas pump: almost $55 to fill up our minivan’s not-particularly-large tank. While the vehicle doesn’t get phenomenal mileage, we’re content not to wander far from home, so a tank will last us awhile. Oh, and least it’s no Escalade. Nevertheless, Ouch!

I’m probably one of the very few, but whenever I see the gas prices go up dramatically like they have been lately, a part of me feels more than a little hope. Not that us gluttonous drivers will finally get a clue, because, apparently we just don’t get it. But that greener alternatives might finally see some serious investments as the higher costs associated with their development get a little cheaper, compared to the cost of more mainstream energy sources.

There’s no telling where the next game-changing energy resource will come from. But motivating tens of thousands of scientists and engineers to look for it increases the odds of finding the path to a happier, maybe even cleaner, planet.