Saturday I decided to work a little harder on my Go Local Challenge. The local farmers’ markets have been up and running for a month or so and the quantity of produce is increasing. I thought it would be a great way to stock up for a few days.
I left Mission Hills just after 6am on my bike and took a tour down Executive and then out Paisano and McNutt to Santa Teresa before riding back to Ardovino’s Desert Crossing for the 7:30am opening of the market.
Since I was on a bicycle I had to be careful how much I purchased. I had a small pack on the back rack and a messenger bag to fill. I filled them well with 3/4 lb of purple beans, 2 yellow squash, 2 green squash, 5 peaches, a brick of cheddar goat cheese, a jar of chipotle goat cheese spread, AND a dozen eggs and a whole frozen chicken!
Some of it was organic, some was hormone free and it all looked great! El Paso’s roads are not very bike friendly, so the ride home was pretty rough. I was happy to see that my huevos were intact when I got them home (and so was my wife!).
The big breakfast burrito that I had before I left the market got me home and the yellow squash, sauteed with onions and garlic were the best part of lunch. Later in the week I’ll tell you how the rest of the food turned out.
I also saw some friends at the market and one offered to take my purchases home in her car so I didn’t have to carry them all the way. It sounded like cheating. The sense of community that comes from seeing friends and civically active neighbors at the market are also a great benefit of going local.
I’m starting my official week today. I can’t report many purchases since I’m also a part time minimalist. I ate all three meals at home – produce from JR’s and meat from the grass-fed, hormone free 1/2 cow in my freezer. He may not be local but he is from near Carizzozo – we get one every year.
I did stop in 2 local businesses: a visit to Little Diner in Canutillo to say hi to the owner and get a glass of tea to go – it’s hot. And, for later, BEER! I went to the Cowtown Liquors on N. Mesa. I looked at the prices on the everyday stuff – Budweiser and Lone Star and I’m pretty sure they beat anyone else’s price.
A beer and a buck saved – what could be better. I promise to spend more money tomorrow!
I found a blog post from the Editor of El Paso Times today. Apparently, Chris thinks that El Paso Downtown needs is a Cheese Cake Factory. A quick internet search on Chris and I was able to find out that he’s lived in El Paso for only 9 months (it is incredible what you can find on the internet, isn’t it?). We will give him the benefit of the doubt, but my guess is that he has not fallen for El Paso yet (hopefully he will).
Continue reading The Time(s) of the Cheesy restaurants…
Yesterday, I finished my pre-”Go Local” Challenge. I did the challenge before the proposed date during Independent’s week, but I did it to learn if it is feasible, and to gain enough experience in case someone needs help during the actual challenge. As far as I can tell, I succeeded to buy everything local. Here are some thoughts about it.
Continue reading Going local experiences
I am the other guy Don mentioned in his post the other day. We took a “trip field” to JR Produce to get ready for the challenge. I don’t know about you but we consume A LOT of milk at home, and during our trip field I had a clear objective, buy and compare the price of milk.
Continue reading Local Store = Savings
