Farm Food and Fridge Day!

Good Morning, Thrillerati!




It is Sunday! It is sleeting outside! And guess what is happening today! Guess! Guess! We are having a full sized refrigerator delivered today!!!NEW! IN THE PACKAGE! I don't know if a fridge has a package, but if it did, our fridge would be in it!

 For the past few months, we have been using a little dorm sized fridge. Sequoia named it "Gregorio",  because we thought our little fridge was very "continental". We have been going to the store for food almost daily, but unlike in a cute imaginary italian village, the store is an eight mile car ride, and is called, "Walmart, The Store of Economic Destruction".  Oh, the gas we have wasted!

**Has anyone else noticed that Walmart's prices are not good any more? They took over the world with their cheapness years ago, but now, I find myself shaking my head at two and three dollar price increases on uninspired items. For example, a christmas card...FIVE dollars, a christmas stocking, poor quality, same as they have at The Dollar Store...SEVEN dollars. **

There are a lot of beautiful places for gorgeous local food in this area, cheese, raw milk, grass fed meat, apples, icecream, pies, jams, corn, soda pop, pretzels, pumpkins, cider, vegetables, wine (dare I say, asian pears...), but none of it is convenient when cold storage is an issue. These gorgeous foods are hidden in different hidden spots around the area, and all have different hours and different locations. The farmer's market is only open Sunday afternoon,(I recommend the Mediterranean). The farm stand is open weekdays, but not in the winter, and there is a unique cheese place that is actually like, a closet on the actual farm, five feet from the cows. It is self-serve, leave your money in the box. Another farm stand has sold everything this year but their kale. Their sign says, only..."KALE".

There is a farm that has gorgeous, pasture raised eggs, but you have to find the Amish lady to take your money, and she could be doing anything anywhere on the farm, so you have to look. Don't go to the guy who has free-range eggs, he just has his chickens in a giant room and they never go outside, and they are just fed soy, same as at a factory farm. Go to the Amish lady, if you can find her. See? It is not simple.

One thing that I really miss about living in the city is takeout. Sometimes I like to yell out,"Oh, I'll just run down to the deli and pick up some matzoh ball soup!" for no apparent reason, because there is no deli, there is no matzoh ball soup. Actually, I have never had matzoh ball soup, but someday I will live near a matzoh-ball-soup-having deli, and I will run down for it! 8 miles in the opposite direction of Walmart, we have a pizzeria that has GREAT authentic Mexican, so we aren't bereft.

The only photo on the internet of Bill's Produce

There is also Bill's Produce, which was a shock to me when I first moved here. When I first got here, I was like,"Wow! This is how people survive here with very little money!", which happens to be one of my specialties. I don't think there is a sign, someone has to tell you where it is. Bill's Produce is a plywood shack on the side of a country road. Inside is the littlest, tiniest grocery store with EVERYTHING YOU NEED. No more, no less. They make a cranberry sauce there that is kind of like a chutney...minced cranberries and apples, sublime. Insanely cheap prices, but you have to eat or preserve the stuff right away because it always ready to eat. Crowded, get there early. Cash only. No website. No paint on the walls. Handwritten signs on the walls. No scanner. $14 christmas trees. Kind of like shopping in 1932, but overall good stuff.

I am very much looking forward to stocking up my fridge!

Love and light,
Your friend,
Hil