Grocery frustrations

Today, in between various other errands, I had to go buy food. I am sort of fortunate that there are a lot of farmer's markets in the area (though they are winding down now) but I also have a nutso work schedule that doesn't allow me to get to them. Like, weekends are a huge problem for me. But my fridge was mostly bare, and although I have a bunch of things from the garden, I did not have leaf lettuce that was quite ready yet. I ended up driving out to Abma's Farm in Bergan county. Its probably a 12 mile trip or so, and yeah, I wrestled with the whole do I drive 12 miles or go to the Stop N Shop, and I decided that it was better for me to drive 12 miles.

Abma's Farm is a big place, and they have a little farm store where they sell their own produce, as well as stuff from other places. They can tell you immediately WHERE everything comes from, so its OK to ask. They do put "Freshly picked" signs over everything they actually grow. They also have chickens so the eggs and poultry are from the farm. They had a freaking ton of tomatoes, but I am out of freezer space for sauces and have not gone adventuring into canning just yet (maybe next year) I ended up with lettuce, eggs, broccoli, radishes (my radishes this fall are a miserable failure for some reason) and I got NY state apples because I absolutely needed some fruit.

I then got home and harvested what was left of my carrots. Dinner tonight will be some of those with roasted beets and greens (also from the garden) and chicken breast with basil. The chicken breast I got earlier this year at a farmer's market from Hoboken Farms...unfortunately, Hoboken Farms gets their meat from a "USDA facility" meaning that the chicken could be from anywhere. Well, I can't waste it, and its still a dinner mostly from the garden.

I'll blather on about this later, after I've thought more on it (yes, I should have been more organized in starting this project!) but one of the things about the 100 mile diet idea is that it is very flexible, and you can make your own exceptions for things that you can't find locally and can't live without. Spices usually fall in this area. For me, I am looking for locally farmed meat (beef, pork, etc...I am a fairly enthusiastic carnivore even if I don't eat meat every day) and milk and I would LOVE to find a mill for flour (I do bake my own bread) but these seem hard/elusive so far....