GO TO YOUR FARMER'S MARKET

For those of us who are not lucky enough to have our moms buy all of our groceries for us it's common knowledge that food costs a shite-load of money. I myself have spent entire paychecks on groceries for Brian and I (that's it) so you can understand how happy I was to find the 5 Points Farmer's Market the other week. I didn't have time to visit it until today and I'm so glad I did. It wasn't just veggies and fruit, but meat products, baked goods and lots of other things (plant seeds, a restaurant, canned and jarred foods). Most of the vendors are Virginia farmers and the produce is very local, some of it organic at half the price of organic produce from other places (I'm looking at you Harris Teeter...). There is a farmer's market in Virginia Beach, but it had gone downhill since I was a kid when we'd go every weekend to get our fruits and vegetables, but it's going through a sort of revival because of all these organic hippie people wanting more and more local produce. I love it because it's cheap. I got valencia orange for $0.26 A PIECE. I had to stop by my chain grocery store to get cereal and they were over a dollar a piece. I got a giant tub of homemade granola for $2 whilst the chain store sold Kashi granola (which is still processed despite the logo being green) for $4-$5 for a box that was smaller than what I got.

I don't really understand the high price of food. I understand organic food being more costly because I'm sure they lose some of it to animals eating it, but places like Trader Joe's (my spot) sells organic produce for what you'd pay for non-organic. They also sell cereals for $2 to maybe $3 whereas in BIG chains my favorite cereals are sometimes $5 a box. They're frozen fish is also half the price that these chain stores sell them. I just don't understand how a small, almost specialty store, can price their products so reasonably, while they're "competition" jacks the prices through the roof. The point is, take advantage of the local sellers around yu because since they are competing with big grocery stores, they're willing to give you a good deal on something that hasn't been shipped from Argentina or Saipan. I'm sure the selection at my farmers market will get even better once the weather warms up, but I'll be trying to buy the bulk of my groceries from there now on.