Sustaining your body costs money!

Boy doesn't it ever! Because I am a budding chef every time we go somewhere where there are food ingredients for sale I go a little wackawacka in the head.  I just want to buy it all and bring it home to experiment with.  Alas my fantasy world is far from reality at the moment. Grocery shopping on an extreme budget is challenging to say the least.  So when you go to restock on stuff, you quickly reminded how easily money slips away at the grocery store.  Today in my shopping trip, my card consisted of 90 percent veggies. I was a bit shocked at the end of the check out when the bill totalled up to as high as it did...why is it that the very things, nutritious things are the items that cost the most.  Processed foods are cheaper than ever and going to get cheaper if farm bills are passed, not to mention there are coupons for most of the processed foods on the shelves. Last time I checked there were no 50 cent off a head of Kale coupons.....
This is one of the reasons we have decided to grow our own food in the spring, as well as shop local for all the things we can not provide here at the farm.  I am saving my grocery bill from today for a comparison of this time next year to see what the difference in the bill will be.  I am excited to see what it is.  Being able to store away all the food we  will need for the year will be such a great accomplishment. From seed to fruit to table it will be a project that needs tending everyday, but nothing satisfies me more than a day given to the earth and her abundance.  I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning to come.  I go out to check the garden every morning, anxiously awaiting the first sign of green poking through the dark brown earth.  I do a garden dance when the first flowers show themselves on these closely watched plants.  Its such a wonder!  Most people will think that what we do it way more expensive in the long run given the time and effort that is taken in producing your own food.  In hindsight however you should look at the rewards in all aspects not just the reward of the food at the end of the season, but the reward of exercise and being out in nature.  Of accomplishments in the simple act of gardening that lots of people respect.  Having a skill that not all people posses is a virtue. Gardening is a gift, one I intend to use to reduce the cost of my grocery bill.
Not a bad payoff really!
Have a wonderful night ya'll
the friendly female farmer.