This week's food: Farm and Co-op Order

I thought it might be fun to chronicle the foods our family buys for a week. This doesn't reflect what we actually eat for a week, since I stock up when I shop and we also eat lots of food that I have canned or frozen.

So...without further ado, our first stop is Whole Circle Farm, where I picked up a few things from the farm store as well as our natural foods co-op order. We order from Ontario Natural Foods Co-operative once a month. I have been a member of an ONFC buying club for about 14 years, now. My orders vary widely so that some months I get lots of staples, like dried beans and bulk grains. Sometimes, like this month, there are more convenience foods such as crackers and pastas. (I always order Steve and I a nice chocolate-y treat, too.) While our philosophy is to eat whole foods, we aren't perfect and we do what we can to try to buy fairly high quality when we do get non-whole foods.

I think one important thing in our view of food is that while we eat convenience foods sometimes, like crackers and pasta, we don't convince ourselves that these are as nutritious as whole foods. It is simply not possible to outsmart God. Only He knows why he put foods together the way He did and we can't begin to be smart enough to take them apart, rearrange them and expect to get them better than (or even as good as) He did.

What was in my order this month?

• a 25 lb bag of long-grain brown rice
• 4 boxes of nut/rice crackers
• mango-passionfruit herbal tea
• ginger-peach herbal tea
• two packages of firm tofu
• a small block of raw milk parmesan cheese
• a small block of goat's milk feta
• a 1 kg. bag of millet
• a bag of ginger snaps
• a jar of mayonnaise (I like this one because although the oil is still canola, which I am not big on, at least it is expeller-pressed)
• 2 boxes of kamut/quinoa pasta
• 2 boxes of parsley-garlic pasta
• a yummy bar of milk chocolate - fair trade -- just trying to help out...not because I love chocolate or anything. ;)

Also at the farm, we picked up:

• 4 dozen eggs
• a package of ground beef
• some pepperoni for pizza night on Friday

I thought you might also enjoy this picture, taken by my oldest daughter, of the happy chickens at Whole Circle. I think it is hilarious how Johann and Maggie, the farmers, use a school bus for a chicken house!! Johann just moves the bus when he wants the chickens to have fresh pasture.

Photo Courtesy of Brianne G.