Grocery shopping can be a daunting task…Especially for those individuals who have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to do it with me. For most day to day situations, I can be quite indecisive but that quality comes as no surprise to most young adults trying to figure out life. However, my indecisiveness is at its peak at the grocery store — The place meant to be visited once a week to stock up on the staples, and/or to pop in to pick up a 4L of milk before continuing on home; it is by no means the place where you’re supposed to “hang out,” or take twenty minutes observing the firmness of the tomatoes. Well my friends, I have made that place the latter.
My parents used to send me in on a time limit…AKA “Tate I’m going to grab the mail — You meet me back at the car in 5!” My old roommates used to leave an hour before me if we were going shopping together so that we would be done at the same time. Let’s just say, it could be seen as quite the problem. Especially in the bread aisle.
As much as I love bread, it’s hard to justify purchasing a loaf that was made in a factory in Timbuktu, which then was thrown into a large semi truck where it travelled for miles to end up in a storage unit in the back of the store waiting for its turn to be put on the shelves to then sit in its own condensation hoping to be picked up by the next passerby. I just can’t bring myself to be that passerby.
However, put me in front of the person who mixed the flours, cracked the eggs, and kneaded the bread and I’ll buy eight of them. I find it almost impossible to say no to the producer of any good…Regardless of it being bread or bracelets. If you say you made it, I’ll buy it.
My weekly trips to the Farmer’s Market always result in a few too many items that were clearly not on the list, nor in the budget and yet still make it into my refridgerator.
(Fresh apple butter was one of the “no need for/no budget” items this week. But boy…It is to die for)
But bread is always on the list, and always on the budget which is why I came away with an incredibly doughy multigrain sourdough loaf last week.
I am lucky to have the Dufferin Grove Market across the street which makes it easy to replenish my produce and bread stock weekly. But for those of you who don’t live near a market, I urge you to go to a bakery for bread, a fromagerie for cheese, and a local butcher for meat…It really makes all the difference.
And if you don’t think so…Well then return to the supermarket!
But seriously, take a bite; just try to resist it.
Are you a one stop one shop kind of person? If not, which grocery items do you go out of your way to get?
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