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I think it’s commonly assumed that “going green” will cost more — in cleaning products, wooden toys, organic foods, bio-diesel for the car and alternative energy electric bills! I’ve even been told that to stay on a budget, I should skip organic produce for awhile. (Maybe I’m just being picky, but I just don’t have a keen interest in chemical laced foods…)

Well, there are a few ways to go green without dishing out the extra dough for specialty “green” products and services, including:

• cleaning the house the old fashioned way (hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, baking soda, borax, etc - with cleaning towels and an regular ol’ mop),
• using cloth napkins instead of paper towels,
• buying natural, wooden toys used (or on extreme sale)
• joining an organic farm co-op or grow some of them yourself
• use a car-sharing program, mass transit, carpool, or walk and bike when possible.

I shared last week how tight our budget has been and how my grocery bill tends to be a little higher than I’d like. Well a sweet friend brought my attention to these local workshops regarding living a sustainable life on a budget! This lady has managed to feed a family of 4 on only $65 a week and has eliminated her trip to the grocery store all together, which is really quite impressive when you add that she does so while feeding them all organic, natural, sustainable foods. I hope to take the introductory class with some girlfriends and begin to reduce my grocery bill. If I could manage to spend only $60 a week, it would be a savings of $150 a month, which could go towards debt/savings/health care. I also can’t wait to learn more about canning, since our yard last year was literally SQUISHY with cherries, figs and apples while we wondered what to do with it all! If I get to one of these workshops, I’ll definitely report back with any great tips I learn.

In the meantime, we have been a lot more cautious of where our money is going, particularly if we are out as a family for the day. For example, we normally go to lunch of some sort on Sundays after church, and often this bill is anywhere between $15-30 bucks! This week we went to Cha Cha Cha’s and split a huge grilled veggie burrito, and chips and salsa, and waters between the three of us, for a grand total bill of $5.50, and it was plenty to hold us over until we got home for snacks later in the afternoon. (I wonder just how much that annoyed our waiter, lol!).

And I’m out of creamer for my coffee as of yesterday, but instead of going out to get creamer, I’m just switching to tea for awhile, lol. Baby steps, baby steps…

Pescatarianism (more on Wikipedia and Pescatarian Life) is similar to Vegetarianism in that the meat of land animals (beef, pork, chicken, etc) are avoided, whereas a Pescatarian will allow for the consumption of seafood, and maybe eggs, dairy and honey as well. Perhaps more similar to Pescatarianism is the Mediterranean Diet. In the article, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition explains the following typical Mediterranean eating habits:

The diet is characterized by abundant plant foods (fruit, vegetables, breads, other forms of cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts, and seeds), fresh fruit as the typical daily dessert, olive oil as the principal source of fat, dairy products (principally cheese and yogurt), and fish and poultry consumed in low to moderate amounts, zero to four eggs consumed weekly, red meat consumed in low amounts, and wine consumed in low to moderate amounts, normally with meals.

Growing up in southern Florida, our meals fairly frequently consisted of a very similar food pyramid, one that was low in processed foods and sugary carbs, while high in fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh-caught fish (thanks to my dad, fisherman of the Gulf!) I’m sure most of us have heard about the numerous health benefits provided by healthy fats (omega’s and other essential fatty oils) found in things like olive oil and high in certain seafoods. From brain development to heart health, studies of those in the Mediterranean have shown amazing health records when compared to the typical American diet.

I have one grandmother suffering from serious heart problems, another suffering from both Alzheimers and, just found out this week, terminal colon cancer. My grandfather has struggled with high cholesterol and heart problems as well. Hubby’s grandpa battles Diabetes. Sure, we kinda assume that such things come with the inevitable advancement of our lifespan on Earth. But what seriously gets to me is the quality of life so many are living, when studies show that changes in diet and exercise early on can play a vital role in your health for years to come.

Now, please note: I’m not a band-wagon kinda girl (at least, I like to think I’m not!). I don’t usually pick one specific, rigid way of believing something and then stake my whole-hearted little flag on it. I think life demands a little more flexibility than that. That is, a life involving relating to other odd human creatures. But I have really been giving veganism/vegetarianism and the various versions thereof some intentional consideration, and at this point have “decided” that the above mentioned food lifestyle is a smart choice for me. Why?

Fish/seafood significantly lowers risks to a variety of known illnesses, particularly cardiovascular disease. Olive oil, nuts, whole grains, and a little wine each day also prove beneficial to your health and well-being (fatty oils which lower the BAD cholesterol, flavanoids containing antioxidants, etc etc). While I did wonder about including seafood in with an Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian diet, I found that, for me, the benefits far outweigh the threat of toxins such as mercury and PCB. In this interesting article, Charles Santerre, a “foods and nutrition associate professor who specializes in chemical contaminants in food” explained what the proper intake of various seafood is:

The safest seafoods are farmed and wild salmon, along with oysters, shrimp, farm-raised channel catfish, farm-raised rainbow trout, flounder, perch, tialpia, clams, scallops and red swamp crayfish. These have the lowest level of mercury and can be eaten more than once a week. Canned tuna, crab, cod, mahi-mahi, haddock, whitefish, herring and spiny lobster have slightly higher levels of mercury and should be eaten no more than one meal per week.

Some seafood should be limited to just one meal a month: tuna steaks, red snapper, orange roughy, pollack, halibut, northern lobster, marlin, moonfish, saltwater bass, wild trout, bluefish, grouper, croaker and sablefish.

In another article, I find yet another reason my Lil’ E is such a smart young whipper-snapper:

For infants and young children, the authors found that omega-3 fatty acids from seafood likely improve early brain development; children could obtain that benefit from pregnant or nursing mothers who consumed fish.

In addition to the health reasons, there are, of course, environmental/ethical ones. I’ve written before about the “cost” that the livestock industry has on the environment, and this 12-year-old girl wrote an informative, concise article about it in the Vegetarian Times!

So, there it is, not the entire exhaustive concordance to the way-Vivian-operates-with-food, but a basic bloggy style explanation of my big, definitive “decision”.

Yep, one Gold Sex-Link, one Maran, and one Rhode Island Red. I got them at two weeks old so they won’t be in the brooder (a box with heat lamp) in our kitchen for more than about 4 weeks. Yay! What should I name them???

Here’s what I’ve designed for a portable coop and run so far. It’s using the old rabbit hutch as a coop for them to lay, and then building a predator proof run from 2×4’s and wire mesh walls against it. Exciting stuff, huh?

We’ve got a great little backyard, as you can see from these photos of Lil’ E and his new bud from the “child-swap” situation, Finn. All it needs is a few chickens!

Why raise chickens in your backyard? BackyardChickens offer these reasons:

• Easy and inexpensive to maintain
• Eggs that are great tasting and nutritious
• Chemical free pest control
• Fun and friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)
• Free fertilizer
• Weed Control
• Uniqueness- Be the cool person in town that grows their own eggs!

For more information about raising backyard chickens, check out the following links!
BackyardChickens.com
MadCityChickens.com
Livingscape Nursery; Chicken Fest (where we got our chicks!)
Urban Agrarian blog
wiki-How; Keeping Chickens in the City
The City Chicken
My Pet Chicken

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday surprise (okay, okay, I COULD have, but I’m finding pleasure in simple joys, got it?)

After dinner tonight I decided to try this box of No Pudge Fudge brownie mix I got for 2.50 at Trader Joe’s. Supposedly, this stuff makes yummy brownies at ZERO fat, and all you do it mix the stuff with non-fat vanilla yogurt. Hmm, too good to be true, it seemed, but at $2.50, it was worth a try. (It was that or continue eating non-fat meringues for the rest of my life- I’ve been trying to sage my sweet tooth lately with slightly less guilty pleasures).

Boy, oh boy! I was so happy to find out that the brownies were certainly good enough to get me through a baked chocolate craving! MMMM! So if you happen to see this box at your grocery or health food store, snatch it up!

Now where did I put my birthday candles… (that’s right, people, the BIG TWO FOUR )

I was delighted with the information shared with us by Aaron and Joelle (who I have affectionately nicknamed “The Pretties” on Lost night: $3 dollar wine!

Am I the last to know about this??? While I dish out 8-20 dollars a bottle, there’s this extreme cheapo wine that’s really not half bad! Charles Shaw, you’ve saved Lost night (because Lord knows I can’t keep up with the goodies offered at the premiere!)

So we’re headed out to Trader Joe’s today for groceries (first time!) and I can’t wait to see if they have any other hidden cheap gems!

Gotta love a bargain!

EDIT*  OHMYGOSH I am a new BIG FAN of Trader Joe’s. How come so many people told me it was expensive!??! Since my nearest grocery store is Whole Foods, I found Trader Joe’s full, FULL of cheap foods. I mean, organic apples for 69 cents a pound?! Avocado’s for 75 cents each (this was the cheapest they ever went in central FL and that was at a produce stand so they were over ripe!) A quart of maple cream top yogurt (I normally pay $4-5 dollars for) was only about $2.50. Just about everything I found was 25-50% cheaper than I usually pay for it. This is my new grocery store, without a doubt!

Sorry about that last post- it was a little bit of a breakdown! Sickness sure can make you feel like that, can’t it? For busy moms, (and whether you “work” for a paycheck or not, there’s really no such thing as a mom who is NOT busy!), if mom goes down, the whole house goes down with her! Luckily, my cold only lasted about two days total and I want to plug once again in the way of homeopathic medicine and good ol’ fashion nature.

What Goes In Must Come Out
Ew, nasty, that’s not what I was talking about! However, studies show that eating junk, particularly foods high in sugar, weakens your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to whatever buggies are floating around. I SUCK at this. I love food, I love healthy food, but I luuuuv me some sweeties too It’s amazing though, that the moment I know I’m sick, sugary or refined things become the last thing on my list of cravings. All of a sudden I’m paying attention to my body, which means I can’t ignore what it’s saying to me. If we’re going to get through this so I can get on with my life, we’ll just have to work together. Soup, tea, water, and nutrient rich foods can make a big difference nursing you back to health. (Note to self: Eating REGULARLY from the pool of immune-boosting foods will also PREVENT many of these little “common colds” too. Maybe I need to put this on sticky notes all over my house!) So, I don’t mean to be gross, but let me bring the point home: if you’ve got some funky lookin’ junk oozing from your nose and throat, some of the funky junk going IN lately could be one of the culprits.

The Quick List of Nature’s Medicine
You can look up the WHY’S of these on your own, all I’m saying is our medicine cabinet does lack a few things, namely, advil/tylenol, nyquil/dayquil, sudafed, Vicks, and so on. What’s there instead?

• Vit. C
• Zinc
• Echinacea (drops and tea, and in some of the other immune boosting chewables we have)
• Goldenseal
• “Chestal”; Ingredients here
• “Umcka” Cold Care; Active Ingredient:Pelargonium Siloides
• “Wellness Fizz”; Ingredients here
• “Kids’ Cough” liquid drops; Ingredients: Wild Cherry Bark, Fresh Osha Root, Fresh Yerba Santa Leaf, Mullein Leaf, Licorice Root, Pleurisy Root, Fresh Labelia Herb
• Catnip (dried, for tea) (fever reducer I would have never known about- thanks Diane!)
• Elder Berries (dried, for tea)
• Fresh ginger
• Free range, organic Chicken Broth

There’s probably a lot of things I’m missing, but with the above, our colds are always well managed. What I like, in a nutshell, about going this route is that you are giving your body some of nature’s stimulants, if you will, to boost its immune system and fight the cold itself. You are not taking chemicals to make you “feel” better while you wait it out, you are being proactive about your illness and reducing the likelihood that you’ll catch that strand again because of your stronger immune defense.

Neti Pot, My Little Miracle
I really can’t say enough about how much this little genie lamp concoction has reduced my sinus problems. According to wiki, this is used in India as often as brushing one’s teeth! It is not hard and it does NOT hurt, btw. All I’m gonna say is this: you know that feeling during a sinus cold/infection that there is something up there that you just cannot blow out without your brain coming with it? The Neti Pot gets THAT out. Yeah, nuf said. (As an aside, the neti pot is also supposed to work wonders for those with outdoor or pet allergies.)
—————–
So as I battle off the second cold of the flu season, poor Lil’ E’s is sticking around, mainly because he doesn’t get the BLOW aspect and continues to keep that mucous around like a bad relative, and Hubby reports today that something is creepin up into his nose too. I’ve stripped the bed linens for a good hot washing and opened up the window to air out the house (thanks for the reminder, mom-in-law!) I’m really, really hoping that this will be the last health invader for this year’s winter!

Technorati Tags: Sickness, busy, moms, house, cold, homeopathic medicine, nature, immune system, refined, nutrient, health, immune-boosting, PREVENT, Medicine, Zinc, Echinacea, Goldenseal, Catnip, Elder Berries, ginger, Broth, chemicals, proactive, illness, defense, Neti Pot, sinus problems, infection, flu season, mucous, health, winter

I’m beginning to wonder if I’m suffering from multitasking overload. You know, that familiar feeling that there is so much to do, you don’t want to do any of it? I’ve come down with an illness for the second time in the last month, which is very frustrating because of how much I feel it holds me back. My energy is lower, my spirit feels “off”, I can’t sleep well, so on. But I also notice that when I’m sick, my body is done begging my lifestyle to change: It’s forcing it to!

Yesterday, I asked Hubby to pick up cinnamon buns at Whole Foods for breakfast. After a diet of coffee, scones, wine and cheese for the last two weeks, I began to wake up craving something sweet and having a low desire to cook and eat fresh foods. Hmmm. Last night after dinner I began to feel funny, went to lie down, and woke up 3 hours later with a fever and swollen throat, aching back and neck, so on. When I got up this morning, what was the LAST thing I wanted to eat? Cinnamon buns! Yuck! I’m sick now, all I want is fluids and warm soup and vitamins! (Wish I woulda thought of that preemptively!) I remembered something Diane posted over at The Mommy Spot about fevers, (though I have no idea where I might find catnip, save the pet store, but I’m sure if I poke around at the Co-op I’ll come across it!) But mainly that, duh, the body is trying to heal itself when things like this happen. I’m not at all surprised I got sick, after the diet, lack of sleep, and Wednesday out in the cold; I was a walking germ-magnet.

But I particularly want to get to this point of multitasking overload. I was telling my mother-in-law today that I wish I could just do both; that is, work very hard AND remember to take my vitamins, drink water, read books, yoga, pray, whatever to take care of myself too. For some reason these things become mutually-exclusive for me!

So I’m spending some time while practically couch-ridden to think over my lifestyle, which is not at all unlike most young American working mothers, and ponder just what might be making me sick, literally.

I’ve read before that multitasking is actually bad for our brains. We actually aren’t multi-tasking when we think we are, it is simply a series of very short consecutive thoughts that tend to leave us forgetful and absent-minded, not performing one job very well, but several jobs, if we are lucky, satisfactory. This was brought up again on the Today Show this morning and I found it very interesting. I honestly do not know how to NOT multitask. I can’t tell you when exactly it began, probably around the time I started caring about my grades in school, but since then I’ve just been one of those people who studies with the tv on and intermittently checks my e-mail, and now a mom whose on the phone in a staff meeting with my laptop open doing some work while some one else is talking, and intermittently changing a diaper! Same ol’ Viv, just different tasks.

It’s very frustrating for me sometimes, the way my brain is constantly thinking through all the things I want to do and learn and be. Not a week goes by that I don’t think seriously about scrapping this random blog and trying to start a few that are more focused on a particular niche- in the end, I just cannot decide what that niche would be! It’s disheartening but very true that I am a “jack of all trades, master of none.” That works great sometimes. It certainly makes me available for a variety of non-expert jobs! But in the end, I’m, well look at me, I’m working three jobs! My brain is like my livingroom, switching between Work 1 to Work 2 faster than I can plug in the second laptop chord (there are a total of 4 laptops in my living room!)

I suspect a large percentage of twenty-somethings feel a bit like this, so I’m not at all implying I’m alone in this. In fact, I’d say my generation is one very susceptible to believing they can “be anything” and therefore TRY everything. So you’re like me: you know a little about writing, a little about nutrition, a little about marriage, a little about parenting styles, a little about html, a little about wine, a little about religion, a little about movies, a little about books, a little about politics, a little about finances, a little about just about everything- but you aren’t known for being good at any one thing. I envy my friends who are good at certain things: Editors, web designers, accountants, so on. They KNOW their craft. I mean, I got my degree in Journalism but I would never actually say I KNOW my craft.

Now I’m going on several tangents here but I feel like they are all a little bit connected. There’s this feeling in me for the past several years, something sort of, lacking rest. I’m sometimes wonder if I can even hold a conversation in a social setting because my brain is running speeds ahead of what the other person is saying!

So I was thinking, when was the last time that I wasn’t feeling like this? And I pinpointed the time period after Lil’ E’s delivery. Granted, a new mom is CERTAINLY multi-tasking a million baby things for which they are grossly unprepared for! But something about it, how it was JUST baby things, and that’s all, made me feel like a whole different person for a couple of months. I remember thinking I’ll never be that old Vivian, the one running at a million miles a minute and able to handle all kinds of deadlines all the time. I could make it out to check the mail, and that would be my big accomplishment for the day! But my brain was there, all there. I slowed down, took care of myself while I tandem nursed our co-sleeping infant, and the rest was sorta take-it-or-leave-it. It was a nice feeling, when a friend called with a burden, to actually feel for them and be present enough to listen to what they were saying, if that makes any sense. I was slow, steady, present.

Of course, it wouldn’t be long, just about 8 weeks, before I resumed my mostly at-home internship and started watching a second child from home and adding all kinds of layers to my life above and beyond my family and I. This is necessity, right? Financially, at least, it is. And on top of that, I don’t think we live in a society that looks highly upon single-task people, unless of course they are incredible musicians or engineers- certainly not just plain ol mothers! For sure, there is something internal or external that tells me it is lazy to do my life any other way.

Which typically plays out for a couple of weeks until I burn out, get sick, and am forced to sit around thinking about it (and in turn, writing excessively long blog posts to my poor and unsuspecting readers!)

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: multitasking, illness, energy, sick, lifestyle, vitamins, multitasking, working mothers, brains, Today Show, blog, mom, baby

Just a neat tidbit while I scour Powell’s for used nutrition books. Think I might try “The Best Life Diet”, watcha think?

Dear Diary,

8:45am: I woke up later than I wanted to, for I had to be at work by 10 am which is like SO early for a WAHM to be decently dressed and walking 1/2 mile to pick up the #4 to downtown, ready to pull off my first ever Podcasting experience. It was all the windows fault. There was too much light coming in last night and I couldn’t sleep. So I did what all of us po’ folk do- I grab the nearest blanket I could live without and stuffed it up around the top of the mini-blinds so as to create makeshift drapes. That was about midnight or so, I suppose. So in the morning, when I normally get up by at least 7:30, it was nice and dark and quiet (just so happens Lil’ E ALSO slept in … thankyoujesus.)

9:15am: Catch the #6 instead so I can make a stop at the Starbucks for a quick po’ folk 8 oz. coffee, then catch the MAX from the convention center into downtown. Wait for the MAX for what felt like forever, coffee already cold, and a few sightings of snowflakes. It was a very rainy day and I was cute dumb enough to wear little gray ballet looking slip-ons. Real good, Viv, real good.

9:59am: Arrive to the office with one minute to spare, having bounded through the rain and puddles downtown with my purse and digital camcorder on my shoulders and my laptop case trailing behind me on wheels. Office is still dark and locked up- I’ve beat the boss! Dang I’m good.

10:20am: Call my boss. Realize I missed the e-mail that he wasn’t going to be in until after 11am.

10:45am: Finally get my STUPID VISTA OPERATING SYSTEM to connect to the unsecured network of the ground floor’s coffee shop to plug in to work and enjoy some HOT tea while I wait.

11:45am - 3:00pm: Podcasting 101.

3:00pm: Dismissed from work but its pouring. Sit down at the coffee shop once again and have my lunch- I’m told the “Stinky Hippie” is a soy chai latte. “Ah, that’s a wholesome po’ folk lunch”, I think. I order. I taste. Nope, this is a soy latte. No Chai. (You know, if you can’t get a drink right, how about try NOT naming it things like, oh I don’t know, STINKY HIPPIE, when all it is is a soy chai. Might that clear up some confusion? Just a thought.) But I am really a-okay with soy latte’s so I drink anyway. I forget about my problem of espresso on an empty stomach. (And no, I’m not referring to the BM’s… that is not to say this isn’t also a problem, but for now I simply mean the shaky hands and queasy stomach feeling.)

3:45pm: Waiting for MAX again. Once on, I must decide which way to turn my nose… to my right is a man in black leather with a long gray beard who smells something awful of cigarette’s, while periodically laughing at himself for no reason in particularly. To my left: a fairly normal looking, just-over-the-hill-aged man who must have a cat hoarding problem; he smells like PAH-IS! Naturally, I pick the powerfully odored urine man with the slightly less creepy disposition.

4:00pm: Getting more nauseous from the urine smell and praying I don’t pass out completely. Some one has got to guard my purse, digital camcorder and laptop.

4:15pm: Home again, home again, clickity clack.

5:00pm: We needs diapers, eggs and yogurt. What does a car-less family do in such circumstances? Layer up, walk the mile to the grocery store. Dark outside? Raining? Cold? Minor insignificant details. We are tough cookies, yes we are.

6:00pm: Eating a po’ man’s dinner for a family of 3 with no time to prepare a meal: Cheesy bread - $2.99 (an actual pizza is too expensive). Family dinner? Priceless.

6:45pm: Lil’ E to bed. I tried to think of something witty for this one but I’m at a loss.

7:30pm: Yoga night!

8:30pm: Ouch! The Scorpion. I point out to the yoga instructor, “this is the type of stuff they do on the magazine covers”; Little ol’ noobie Vivian cannot do this. But try, little engine, try. Does any one know about this stuff? Why is it that from this position on I have had some crazy lower back feelings of an almost maternal nature? Some powerful mothering feelings, almost like some deep seated tension from carrying a belly with a hyper-extended back for 9.5 months. Who knows.

9:30pm: My new hobby of skyping (and I’ll have to blog about that another time!) with my best friend for several hours, where I get to practice all of my comedic lines to blog about later. If they fly on her, they are in.

12:00am: Shower. Lay down in bed. The whole room is a-quiver with Hubby’s snoring- his body a 215 pound subwoofer.

12:20am: Up again. Grab some rice milk and cookie dough and start blogging.

12:30am: Dang this cookie dough is da bomb diggity. And 70% organic ingredients too!

Yep, that’s right ya’ll: Organic Fat. Only the best fat for this ass.

(Chat-practiced that line too. Might copyright it, whatcha think?)

For the record, no, this is not my typical diet!

With the rainy season upon us, its not always easy to bus it to the farmer’s market these days. With the sale of our car impending, and no bike trailer to carry groceries, getting produce and grocery items will be a bit difficult, to say the least. But I’m really apprehensive about the trailer, for irrational fears of having the most precious thing to my heart trailing around behind my bike on the side of a busy road. Anyway, I typically bring $40 to the Portland Farmer’s Market each week. I look for the best deals (which aren’t always organic but at least local) and then I spend a little at the grocery store for items not produce related. The market runs every Saturday from May - December.

All of these complications lead me to look into the home delivery service, as I often see various vans outside the doors of houses in our neighborhood, dropping off groceries and bins of food.

Several full-fledged grocery stores, such as New Seasons Market, offer this service for a fee, and many local farms offer “drop off” sites for a seasonal membership (Sauvie Island Organics, for example, rounds off to about $25 a week, from my math, which is pretty good, but you have to pay $805 for the 8 months of service, and you still have to go to the drop off sites on the right days.)

What I want is something without a fee, that tells me what I’m getting each week, and that provides more than just produce. Oh yes, and if you could just leave it on the door, thanks. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not! Organics to You offers home delivery of fresh organic produce from several farm locations, and all you have to do is schedule for the size bin you want (one person, small family, large family, etc) including extras such as “Juicer Bin”, “Kids Bin” etc. To top it off, they offer an ever expanding selection of high demand grocery items, such as bread, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, coffee, - even Chai! (Meats are coming soon!) You see the price (and, by the way, the brand) for what you’re checking off and it all adds up to one sum which you can either pay in advance with your credit card or leave cash under your door mat! The prices, compared to non-discounted items at, say, Wild Oats (prices I am most familiar with) are by and large comparable, if not cheaper, (although for the time being, I do have Hubby’s 20% discount) PLUS you are not paying for gas OR the time/chore of getting your groceries each week.

Pro’s: esp without a Hubby discount: no travel and very little time invested (takes two minutes to fill your order). Price is reasonable, and best of all, it makes it very easy to stay within your grocery budget, as most of us would do if we actually saw the total adding up AS WE WERE SHOPPING!

Con’s: If you are not concerned about organics AND you are not a big produce eater, then obviously its cheaper to go to your local grocery chain.

Below was this week’s bin for a “small family”, which costs $30. I think its MORE than enough for us and I might go down to the one person bin every other week, and with the savings buy some grocery items such as my milk, bread and eggs.

SMALL BIN

Hello, For the week of October 22nd. ENJOY!

1 Pomegranate
4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2-3 StarKrimson Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct
3-4 Bananas
1 bunch French breakfast Radish - *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2lb. Red Potatoes - *LOCAL, farm direct*
6oz. Crimini Mushrooms - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1/2lb. Green Beans - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Lettuce - Some *LOCAL*-’last of the local lettuce’
1 bunch Chard/Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Broccoli - *Local*
1-2 winter Squash-(Gold Nugget) - *LOCAL, farm direct*

*LOCAL* = locally from supplier
*LOCAL, farm direct* = Locally direct from farmer

I’d like to add that even the website for this organization is impressive to me- with recipes, community pages, so on. I will get my first delivery next week, and I’ll let you all know how it measures up!