Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Adventures in Local Shopping

My car is on its last leg, or wheel, or whatever. I took it to the doctor and the prognosis was that it had somewhere in between one to two months before it became a danger to me and those I share the road with. Eventually I will have to take my plastic blue beast out back ol-yeller-style. For now I am in denial.

While the car was at the doctor I decided to play at being super-green. On Saturday Morning I rode my bike down one side of the bluffs and up the other. I tied my bike to a parking meter (are there really no bike racks at the Saint Paul Farmers Market?) and went about shopping for a weeks worth of produce. I had $22 dollars and this is what I was able to get.

1 Big bag of Potatoes
3 Heads of Lettuce
4 Heads of Garlic
1 Bunch of Radishes
1/2 Dozen Ears of Sweet Corn
6 Tomatoes
1 Bunch of Scallions
1 Big bag of Mixed Beans (yellow, green and purple!)
1 Big bag of Bacon (Otis Farms- the best bacon we've found yet)

Not Too Shabby.

I stuffed it all in my backpack and pedaled very slowly back across the bridge to the West Side. I decided I had to stop by Burrito Mercado since I was a handful of cilantro and one jalapeno away from some local Pico de Gallo.

At Burrito Mercado I was happy to discover that my herb and pepper were locally grown by a group of kids at a nearby community garden. Well, that's what my half-assed spanish told me anyway. I acknowledge that the sign I was reading may very well have said something different but I was feeling like a good green consumer so that's what I took away from it. I found La Perla Flour Tortillas (complete with local hydrogenated oil, I'm sure) and a 6 pack of chicken tamales that I've been having for lunch ever since. That was another 15 Dollars.

Then I had to pedal with a huge, heavy backpack and a plastic bag dangling from one hand up Cesar Chavez Blvd. When I finally got to the top of the hill I considered throwing up and throwing my food and bike over the bridge and crawling home. I decided that just for that day Mother Earth owed me one.

Tonight I made BLTs and I consider us even. A haiku:

Bacon sweet Bacon
Crispiest Love of my Life
Be mine Forever

1 comment:

nano said...

Can any poem, song or other work of art ever do true justice to the glories of bacon? Kudos for your contribution.

I think I will now apply the "half-assed Spanish" approach to buying local. Sounds like it could be very convenient for "understanding" life in general, really. ;-)