As I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I've been pondering many of the things my good BFF Barbara Kingsolver has said about heirloom vegetables and meat.
Does an heirloom cucumber REALLY taste better than one I get at the grocery store? Well, actually (and much to my surprise), it really does! That golden egg of a cucumber from last week actually tasted sweeter than its grocery store counterpart. I have to admit, I was shocked myself. Who knew? Well, I guess Barbara knew...
So would the same hold true for chicken? I wasn't sure. Several years ago, when Jim and I still lived in Detroit, Jim bought a chicken from the Arabic grocer down the street from us. He went in, picked out the live chicken he wanted, the grocer took it in the back, killed it, plucked it, and brought it out in a plastic bag, ready to go. THAT was a little too close to my food for me. And to be honest, I couldn't eat it.
So last weekend, as evidenced by my photos, I got myself this lovely little free range, antibiotic and hormone free chicken. It has been staring at me from my refrigerator since Saturday. I swear I saw it wink at me once. Except it has no head, of course. So tonight we cooked that little sucker up for dinner and I'll be darned, that thing was TASTY! Tender, full of flavor, and sincerely different than the bag of frozen breasts from Walmart to which I've become accustomed.
Don't get me wrong- I realize how ridiculous it is for me to be so intimidated by my food. But when you've lived as long as I have not knowing how to even debone a chicken, stuff like this can be a little intimidating.
So now I'm over this whole idea of eating this sweet little chicken that lived a full, glorious life, flitting around on some bucolic farm in Indiana. But this raises a whole new issue of eating local. Cost.
This was one pricey little bird. At $3.65/lb, she topped off at $10.91. There's enough of our meal left for lunch tomorrow but that's because both the kids are at their grandparents' for the week (I can hear my ears ringing it's so quiet around here).
So the issue I'm grappling with is the affordability of eating local, organic, and HEALTHY food options. I hate to admit it but a similarly sized chicken at Walmart would have cost less then $4. And it would have been already cooked. So when I sit down to pay my bills (and there's never quite as much in that account as what I think I need) it makes it difficult to justify an additional $6.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not bailing. In fact, I'm more committed than ever. I'm just trying to work out the financial aspects of all this. What can I cut from our monthly budget in order to make healthy choices for my family? It's pretty tricky, this little issue of finance! What hints and tips do you have for buying local on a budget?
I keep hoping that if enough people buy local, the cost will come down. You know supply and demand has everything to do with cost.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could afford to buy EVERYTHING organic, but there are some items that are essential organic and others that would be nice.
The thing is: to eat healthy (even non organic) is more expensive than to eat unhealthy. Look at McDonalds (a great example it seems), you can get a super-sized meal for each member of your family for around $20. If you were to go to a healthy restaurant (which we have a few options here) it would be at least twice that if not more (our last Seva bill was $100, but that also included my sister and her daughter). Yes, I feel better when I eat better, but the cost is just difficult to swallow financially.
You are an inspiration!
We rationalize the cost of organic, free-range chickens by roasting one in the oven at the beginning of the week and, instead of having the chicken as the main meal, we use it for several meals throughout the week (chicken burritos with beans and brown rice, homemade chicken pizza with pesto, chicken on salads and, most recently, New Zealand-inspired chicken pies with potatoes, veggies and homemade gravy....yum!). We also make a pot of stock from the bones, etc., and make homemade chicken noodle soup (a favorite with our kids). That way, we get many meals from the one, very expensive, bird.
ReplyDeleteI second what Alison says above, eat less meat and it goes further. I am finding it easy to eat local vegies here in Chicago, and that you can find good deals on them. But, It's really difficult to find (I haven't yet) local, organic fruit. And since eating organic fruit is very important (the pesticides love to build-up in the peaches, strawberries, cherries and apples), I'm ending up buying mostly California grown organic fruits - but they are tasty!!
ReplyDelete