SHOPPING HABITS

Photo source: Ebay

To start shopping more locally actually requires a bit of planning I've been surprised to discover.

If you're anything like me you whizz around the supermarket once a week to do The Big Shop with the same list week in/month out with a bit of spontaneous shopping along the way and the odd 'special'. I can tell you how long it will take, how much it will cost but have scant idea of what I'm going to cook apart from the usual roster of Spaghetti Bolognese, Roast Chicken on Sunday and Pork Chops Once A Week.  I rarely look at prices, seldom change brands and never try to innovate too much. That would require some actual thinking, which supermarkets seem to leach out of me.

With the local thing, it is useful to know what produce is coming down the track and what's likely to be available any given week so as to avoid food mountains. We've had a few of those already. At one stage we had a three cauliflowers - one for each person. I've started to make a few changes to my shopping patterns which seem to have made a difference:

1. Change the day you shop: I now do my Supermarket Shop on Mondays. We get our vegetables on Thursday. I top up again at the supermarket on Friday and go to farmer's markets on Saturdays. I no longer buy many vegetables, diary products, jams, chutneys, fruit or meat from the supermarket anyway just  'exotics' ie out of season things (perfection is not achieved in a day). 
2. Find local suppliers for most of your food shopping: I've sourced an excellent butchery (One Stop Mooi River) where the meat is butchered properly. Brisket for example this week was R48.99 at Mooi River and R68.99 at Pick 'n Pay. They also mince for you on request, so no more Mystery Mince. Again this is cheaper than the supermarkets, so a real no-brainer. I also like to actually talk to the butcher as well as choose my own cuts. 
3. Collect seasonal recipes: I'm starting to think ahead of how to use the produce. Recently we had a glut of cauliflower (see above) now it seems to be cabbage. I'm thinking coleslaw, colcannon, Bubble & Squeak, braised butter cabbage and that's all before we even hit up Epicurious.  Of course I do lots of this retrospectively too, but planning recipes ahead seems to take the pressure off a bit. We still seem to end up eating a hell of a lot of vegetable soup on Wednesdays however. 
4. Buy Less: I buy a lot less than I used to. I hate throwing away food. Starving kids in Biafra and Wartime austerity definitely have something to do with this phobia.
5. Keep an eye out: Since I never seem to stop thinking about food I've always got the little foody hard drive whirring away at the back there. I'm much more likely now just to buy the one good thing to go with what I already have in my fridge or see something that suddenly sparks an idea. Because I knew we were getting mushrooms in our veggie box this week, I remembered to get some Arboria rice to make Mushroom Risotto (Georgie's idea of complete hell). It's a bit like playing a game of foody 'Snap'. 

When all else fails - start a good compost heap. We have!