Confessions of a Coupon Clipper
Groceries are priced like luxury goods – they might as well taste like it.
It’s so annoying to hear that local farm-grown food tastes better, but it does. Strawberries are supposed to be red in the middle. Honey is supposed to taste floral, not like glorified corn syrup.
I’m the most hesitant local food shopper. I am a born and raised bargain hunter, so shelling out extra money for meat and produce doesn’t appeal to me. It wasn’t until my boyfriend started cooking delicious meals with high-quality ingredients that I began to change my mind.
Much of my life, I’ve accepted a conventional, semi-processed beige diet. I ate shredded chicken, rice, and beans for almost a full calendar year, and although this helped my wallet in a time when I lived in an expensive city on an entry-level salary, it didn’t spark joy.
“Eating healthy” or “shopping local” always seemed like status symbols to me. Growing up in the Seattle area, there were farmer’s markets everywhere. Friends’ parents got farm boxes dropped at their homes and did their own canning. Although I could enjoy the stray meals I had at their homes, I mostly accepted that the way I was raised — laughing at organic eaters over my Slurpee and Cheetos — was the right way. For the same reason, I rejected designer purses and a Lexus as aspirational, I rejected the farmer’s markets.
I assumed people at organic foods or went to farmers markets, because they were afraid of chemicals or of getting fat. I thought that was dumb so assumed that life style wasn’t for me.
But I’ve realized there are fearless life-affirming reasons to shop local.
This morning 60-something strawberry grower gave me tips about how to keep her berries fresh longer.
Last week we talked to rancher about how she finished her cows. This I learned has to do with how cows spend the last few month of their life. Apparently many cows spend a good part of their lives grazing on open pasture, but it’s hard to get them fat without pumping them full of soy and corn at the end of their lives. She explained the regenerative farming practices they use, such as feeding the cows soaked walnut husks, that are cast offs from the orchard.
Even the little tropical plant, I had previously purchased on Amazon, from the market came with a charming experience with the grower who was enthusiastic about her plants and their longevity.
I can’t help observing how enlivening, even enjoyable it is to shop at a market, compared with the grocery store. Instead of overwhelming options, flourescant lights, and miserable cashiers, there were stalls of goods, money pouring into a local economy, and tons of people acquiring nutritious and surprisingly affordable produce.
Since moving to Sacramento, interacting with sellers at the farmer’s market has been a regular Sunday highlight for me.
I’m learning to slow down, appreciate the food I’m eating, and the process of acquiring and preparing it. This might not solve all my problems, but it’s definitely adding happiness to my previously beige-slop-consuming existence.
P.S. Because of inflation, you might be surprised how comparable (or even less expensive) the market price is to your grocery store. We bought salmon at $8 a pound! That beats even the frozen price of salmon at the store.
Yes! I also thought the emphasis on fresh organic local food was pretentious … until I started eating it. Now we get our meat from a local butcher and in the warmer months our veggies from farm stands. Like you say, not only does it taste better but the experience of getting the food is so much nicer.
Amazing.