Yearly Archives: 2012

What $30 Buys at the Farmer’s Market

Farmer's Markets, The Food

These photos reflect my typical haul at the farmer’s market (this is from July before our move). I have found that fruit is more expensive than veggies. The peaches (above) cost $6 (my most expensive single item purchase) and the tomatoes and cherries were $5 each. With fruit alone I’m looking at an outlay of $16. Yes, I consider those tomatoes to be as good as candy…and fruit. While the green beans were a bargain at only $3.

How do I justify “costly” fruit? Fruit is a snack, a lunch side, or a dessert, depending on the meal. For me fruit replaces salty, fatty, or sweet snacks that I like too much.

Some vendors sell corn for $0.50 per ear. That’s $2 of corn. I need to write down how much everything is next time — I don’t remember how much the potatoes cost me. I’m going to say $4.

Beets are dirt cheap. I find them for $3 a bundle. Same for the carrots. I like to roast veggies, even in the summer. I love beets way too much. They are even better pickled. I haven’t been able to find a pickled beet vendor this summer, but if you find one at your market, buy a jar. I gobble them down. I guess I exclaim this is “to die for” a lot because Charlie will take a bite of something and say “this is to die for!” When I heard him say that the first time, I almost spat out my mouthful of food. We do enjoy eating around here. But pickled beets? They are “to die for.” Now I just need to screw up the confidence to learn how to pickle something!

Total (rough estimate): $31 (Any random cheese or lemonade purchases not included!)

The produce works for multiple dinners and leftovers. Normally, fruit is a snack. Yep, I call that a bounty.

Mrs Q’s News: Laws, Summer Food, and Teens in Action

News

Flower in my mom’s yard last summer

1) Interesting study found that states with laws against competitive foods (junk food) in schools have students who weigh less.

2) Photo gallery of summer foods deemed unhealthy. It might be a little extreme, but it does add up.

3) Three teenage girls started a petition to get a female moderator instated for a presidential debate (for the first time in 20 years) — and they did it! Proof positive that teenagers and kids are powerful advocates for change.

Taking your questions: Advice from Mrs Q and you

Questions

One of the great things about a blog is that it’s an exchange of information. Even though I don’t respond to comments because I’m time-strapped, I read them all and they have been invaluable to me. Admittedly, I like giving advice — that’s probably because I’m a “first born” in my family (Side note: I totally buy into the theory that birth order determines personality characteristics). But I also like getting advice — I need help a lot of the time, especially when parenting.

To encourage even more of a give-and-take on the blog, I’m going to start up a feature where I take questions on school food, food and kids in general, mealtime help, basic cooking questions, blogging questions, food politics thoughts, etc. I’m going to do my best to answer the question(s) and then I’ll leave the rest to you. Commenters can support or criticize my response or add their own perspective and opinion.

Feel free to comment on this post with a question for next week’s post or email me directly at fedupwithlunchATgmailDOTcom. If I don’t get any questions, then I’ll ask my own. So today I’m going to ask MY own questions. I have two questions related to food and kids:

Q1: My son has stopped eating as much dinner as he usually liked to eat. He’ll eat maybe a third of his plate and he’ll ask to leave the table. We don’t force him to stay. I don’t care if he doesn’t finish his dinner — that’s not the issue. What he’s doing is that just before bed he claims that he is hungry. Of course he is! We explain to him that he needs to eat more dinner at dinner time, but we know that he is legitimately hungry. So we have let him eat a little food right before bed and more recently we have saved his dinner and he has eaten some or all of what’s left. The amount of food that he eats varies from a little to a lot. Is this about control? Do we have to be more firm and let him not eat before bed? We’ve had two nights in a row where he ate better dinners and didn’t request a bedtime snack, but I’m not going to assume anything. What would you do?

_____________

Q2: Charlie helps me cook in the kitchen. At our old house we just pulled a dining room chair into the kitchen for him to stand on and participate. That worked pretty well. At our new house we have a step stool on loan from my mom and he’s bee using that. It’s sturdy, but smallish so the stool is not a long-term solution. What do your kids stand on when they help out in the kitchen?

 Thanks for your input!

How to Save Money at the Farmer’s Market

The Food

It sounds terrible to think about scrimping at the farmer’s market, but I think some people avoid going because they consider the farmer’s market to be expensive. I never went to the farmer’s market regularly until I started blogging about school lunch, which raised my awareness about food in general. I might have gone twice a season, but I usually just bought flowers and maybe a little fruit. Weirdly, I thought that it was easier to just go to my grocery store and get what I wanted all in one spot. I have learned that the farmer’s market and the grocery store are not equivalent. Now I know that taste and freshness are sacrificed at the grocery store. If you make it to the farmer’s market most weekends even if it’s a bit of a drive, I think it’s worth it in so many ways. I’m not going to enumerate why because we already know the reasons, but here’s how to save some money when shopping at the farmer’s market:

1) Don’t buy peaches from the first vendor you encounter — Even though you may end up making friends with “the peach guy,” walk the entire market before spending a cent. Who is selling what? How does the produce look? Some vendors are better than others and you may spot a deal at the last stand.

2) Bring reusable bags — I bring two large Trader Joe’s bags and when they are full, I am done. I easily overfill them after spending $40 in cash.

3) Carry a fixed amount of “Market Cash” and spend no more — Some stands are now taking credit, but I’m a firm believer in using cash (and I know I should do it at traditional grocery stores, too). Every Friday I take out $40 in cash from the ATM and put it in my wallet. It is dedicated to market spending. Somedays I wish I had more money, but frankly we can’t eat any more fruits and veggies on a weekly basis.

4) Take your kid with you — In any other shopping setting having your kid(s) with you can be a big hassle. Personally, I find that having Charlie by my side at the market keeps me on task. I probably would stand around a lot more if I didn’t have my little guy to worry about. Many farmer’s markets offer kid-friendly activities from face painting to simple games to a plain old playground nearby. Your child will help you prioritize what produce you want because he/she will want to keep moving. Hopefully, your kids will be excited by all the food available. Last weekend when I left the farmer’s market with my son, I asked him what his favorite part was. He replied, “The cheese.” (I bought some amazing hard goat cheese from a cheese stand and we both enjoyed it.)

5) Resist the pull of the specialty food stands — If money is a big factor in why you don’t frequent the farmer’s market, avoid the honey, cheese, breads, jams, nut or (god forbid) the kettle corn stands. I buy cheese maybe every other weekend, a nice jam two or three times a season, and honey a couple times a summer. I stock up on my honey though — once you have eaten local honey, you can’t go back to store-bought (In fact, store-bought honey is often from China, is laced with antibiotics or heavy metals, and might not even be honey at all). If I stopped by the specialty foods stands every week, I would spend more money at the farmer’s market. Choose one to visit each week or skip them all together to focus on the much cheaper produce ($1 per eggplant? Yes, please).

6) Subscribe to your favorite market’s email newsletter — Many markets put together a weekly email newsletter showcasing their vendors, like a weekly featured vendor, activities for kids, a chef or restaurant demonstration occurring at the market, or just a simple list of the seasonal produce available at the Saturday market, etc. The place to find these newsletter sign-ups is at the volunteer-staffed information booth. If your favorite market does not have a newsletter, many farmer’s markets also have a webpage with a list of participating farm vendors. I get a weekly newsletter every Wednesday, which helps me plan my Saturday morning.

I hope that you have learned that shopping at the farmer’s market does not have to be financially draining. In fact, I find the market to be invigorating and even fun. I’m always disappointed when October rolls around and markets are over. I believe it’s money well spent.

Next week: My farmer’s market purchases in pictures…

Mrs Q’s News: Drought, School Food Laws, and Being Smart Means You Live Longer

News

I took this picture of a rose late last August…so pretty in its natural state (not store bought)…

1) Drought, drought, and more drought: I really wish this would get even more press. What does the drought mean for food prices this year…and what’s going to happen in future years?

2) Laws limiting the availability of unhealthy foods at school result in children less likely to become or remain overweight. Better laws protect kids.

3) “The lifelong relationships of education and its correlates with health and longevity are striking.” Article links education with a long life.

Surprise, I’m pregnant!

Mrs Q

Picture I took from a hot air balloon race we attended in June. 

I guess I’m good at keeping secrets. I’m pregnant and due around Thanksgiving. Just this week I passed the “viability” mark of 24 weeks so it feels like this just might turn out well. Call me suspicious or paranoid (wait, you already did that back in 2010!), but I’m just one of those people who doesn’t always think things will go according to plan. It took awhile to achieve this pregnancy and so I’m not taking it for granted.

What am I having? We didn’t find out. In fact, if you elect not to find out at my OB/GYN practice, they don’t even note it in the anatomy ultrasound report. So no one knows! It’s a little maddening for me, but my husband loves surprises. Why take that from him?

Hot air balloons are pretty, but I’m scared of heights — no thanks!

Where’s the belly picture? I’m not ready to publish one right now. Because it took me a bit to get here, I’m sensitive to women like me. Last fall it would have been a little tough to read a pregnancy announcement or see a surprise belly — I’m not ready to do that to anyone. Also, being pregnant is not exactly flattering. I’ll be sure to put up a picture in the next month or so — before I really swell up.

That may explain my occasional flakiness in blog posting over the past months — sometimes I just had to go to bed. In general, my symptoms this time have been more mild than before, but I’m more tired than I was the last time. Chasing Charlie accounts for that, I’m sure.

Nutrition continues to be at the forefront of my mind — in fact, it’s more important than ever. I’m sure to blog about that a bit in the future as well.

So there you go!

Big changes coming for this little guy (Enjoying the hot air balloons)

2012 CSA Week 12: Candy tomatoes

CSA Boxes

The last week of our CSA came and went in July. It was sad, but it also meant that our move was pending. Change can be good, too. The end of our CSA means that I can focus on shopping at local farmer’s markets and choosing produce myself. While I love the challenge of the CSA, it’s nice to go to a farmer’s market and buy what I see. Sometimes surprises can be overwhelming. CSA blog posts may be ending, but farmer’s market posts will start up soon!

These tomatoes taste like candy. This is coming from somebody who has never been a tomato person. In fact, like I’ve mentioned before I started forcing myself to eat them when I was 25 to increase my overall daily vegetable intake. I think these little tomatoes would make a tomato lover out of anyone who tries them. I think they are called “Sun Gold.”

 Lettuce

 Sugar Snap Peas

Rainbow Chard 

 Broccoli

 Onions

 Zucchini

 Our awesome 2012 CSA was through Tomato Mountain. I highly recommend them. For reference, last year’s CSA was through Angelic Organics. I loved them, too.