More Inevitables
Saturday, 24 May 2008 15:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsGroceries
It's not, of course, "just" gasoline.
Mrs. Dr. Phil returned from the grocery store and indicated that the reasonably normal load of things crossed the $200 mark. We've still been griping about regularly running bills of $150-$175, but of course the trickle-down theory of economics means that higher fuel costs result in us getting trickled-on. Dammit.
Good Groceries
There is, however, a silver lining to living amidst the farms of Ottawa County in West Michigan -- it's living amidst the farms of Ottawa County in West Michigan. Mrs. Dr. Phil stopped at the end of the road where there's an asparagus farm. They used to only sell to commercial buyers, but last year I think they began to do individual sales. My father grew asparagus at home for a number of years, so I knew a little about the funny spiky plants and that the beds (or fields) have to be rotated every couple of years. But living around here and watching these little electric carts that seat several people side by side to cut the fresh tender young asparagus shoots as it inches along was something of a revelation.
Mrs. Dr. Phil had been annoyed to find that none of the asparagus sold in the Spartan Stores owned Family Fare in Allendale MI was local. Seems that the big Meijer's chain had locked up all the local suppliers, so Spartan was buying from California. There's something not right about that.
Anyway, she decided to see if the farm 2-1/2 miles from us still was picking -- and came home with three pounds of lovely asparagus picked this morning. We'll be eating, and having smelly pee, like kings this weekend.
Fruit? Strawberries? Blueberries? P-E-A-C-H-E-S ??? All to come this summer, if summer ever gets here and the 25degF killer freeze a couple of weeks ago which might've damaged the apple crop doesn't prevent us from getting our West Michigan farm fresh fruit fix.
Dr. Phil
It's not, of course, "just" gasoline.
Mrs. Dr. Phil returned from the grocery store and indicated that the reasonably normal load of things crossed the $200 mark. We've still been griping about regularly running bills of $150-$175, but of course the trickle-down theory of economics means that higher fuel costs result in us getting trickled-on. Dammit.
Good Groceries
There is, however, a silver lining to living amidst the farms of Ottawa County in West Michigan -- it's living amidst the farms of Ottawa County in West Michigan. Mrs. Dr. Phil stopped at the end of the road where there's an asparagus farm. They used to only sell to commercial buyers, but last year I think they began to do individual sales. My father grew asparagus at home for a number of years, so I knew a little about the funny spiky plants and that the beds (or fields) have to be rotated every couple of years. But living around here and watching these little electric carts that seat several people side by side to cut the fresh tender young asparagus shoots as it inches along was something of a revelation.
Mrs. Dr. Phil had been annoyed to find that none of the asparagus sold in the Spartan Stores owned Family Fare in Allendale MI was local. Seems that the big Meijer's chain had locked up all the local suppliers, so Spartan was buying from California. There's something not right about that.
Anyway, she decided to see if the farm 2-1/2 miles from us still was picking -- and came home with three pounds of lovely asparagus picked this morning. We'll be eating, and having smelly pee, like kings this weekend.
Fruit? Strawberries? Blueberries? P-E-A-C-H-E-S ??? All to come this summer, if summer ever gets here and the 25degF killer freeze a couple of weeks ago which might've damaged the apple crop doesn't prevent us from getting our West Michigan farm fresh fruit fix.
Dr. Phil
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no subject
Date: Sunday, 25 May 2008 05:04 (UTC)http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
I haven't officially joined one this year, but I'm buying a lot of produce from a local farm rather than the grocery.
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Date: Sunday, 25 May 2008 18:02 (UTC)But yeah, local growing is good. I just don't want to do it -- I'm a little inside mole person who has two black thumbs as far as growing plants goes...
Dr. Phil