Grocery Shopping at the Restaurant Supply This Week

Last week I wrote about grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, primarily for milk and eggs (I also bought cheese, orange juice, bananas, and a box of marked down granola bars). That was the first time I'd shopped in a month, and I spent about $55.

I have a list of items I want to pick up before September, some of which is stocking up stuff for this coming winter and spring. In particular, I wanted a 50-lb sack of bread flour, 50-lb sack of sugar, a case of canned tomatoes (6 X #10 cans), a case of canned tomato paste (12 X 29-oz cans), 50-ln sack of whole onions,  and a gallon of lemon juice.I had been waiting to buy the onions until I could get new crop ones, so I wouldn't find myself with several spoiling onions within a few weeks. And this was that week! I've stored about half of the bag in our spare fridge and the other half I tiered in a cardboard box between layers of brown paper then stored in the coolest room in the house. I was out of bread flour and substituting regular all-purpose with less than stellar results, so it was time to buy another sack of the good stuff (expensive at 54 cents/lb, but less than the cost per pound in small bags). The tomato products are regular items that I buy every winter (good prices on both -- 3.8 cents/oz on canned whole tomatoes, 6.5 cents/oz on tomato paste). Canned tomatoes and tomato paste have jumped up in price in regular grocery stores in my area this summer. I've been completely out of lemon juice for several months. A gallon sounds like a lot, I know. It keeps in the fridge for many months and in the freezer for a few years. The gallon size was the most economical, and from my experience with cooking for my family, we easily go through a gallon of lemon juice in a year in lemonade, tea, desserts, Greek cooking, and as a milder acid in salad dressing. The sugar is to get us through jam and preserve-making season, the fall baking season, and all of those Christmas goodies. While at the restaurant supply store (we call it Cash & Carry because that was its name when we first began shopping there), I picked up a few more bananas too. My total came to about $136.

what I noticed

The prices on everything are increasing. I paid $5 more for this bag of sugar than I did the last time (a few months ago). Lemon juice is $2 more per gallon than a couple of years ago. While Cash & Carry's price on onions is better than what I'd pay at Fred Meyer, at 36 cents/lb, that's a lot more than what I paid in a 50-lb sack about 5-6 years ago (about 20 cents/lb back then). The other thing I noticed was the empty spaces on the flour shelves. I mentioned this at the check-out and the cashier said that shortly after a flour order comes in, it flies off the shelves. As this is a restaurant and bakery supply, I am guessing that small eateries and bake shops are making sure they have a good supply on hand.

I had thought I might also go to WinCo, but I changed my mind. The prospect of some peaches was tempting. I rethought that idea. We have so much fresh produce ripening every day right now that I just can't bring any more into the house. I also felt I'd spent enough for one day's shopping.

so where I stand with my stocking up

I was thinking about what else we might need. I keep a running list on my computer's notepad. I still need shortening (pie pastry), a turkey (for Thanksgiving), a 25-lb bag of carrots, and some nutmeg. Then I'd consider myself very well-stocked except for a few perishables that I will need to buy somewhat regularly, milk, eggs, cheese, a little meat (still have a lot of meat in the freezer, though), bananas, and a couple of seasonal items. If it turns out my garden potatoes did poorly (I won't know until October), then I will also add those to my need list. Otherwise, my fall stock-up is almost complete. 

Two years ago, I realized how nice it was to not need to go grocery shopping very often in winter. After that year, I decided I would try to minimize grocery shopping in future winters. This has worked very well for me. 

why I shop at a restaurant supply

There are a few main reasons why I like to shop at a restaurant supply for about half of my groceries. I pay roughly what I would at a warehouse store (factoring in the cost of membership to a store like Costco) without the temptation of lots of convenience or junk foods. (Restaurants don't buy jumbo boxes of Pop-Tarts or Oreos, but do buy jumbo bags of flour or cartons of cooking oil) I don't have to wait for sales to get a great unit price on pantry staples and some produce items by buying in institutional sizes. The convenience of buying a product in a super large package so I don't need to buy it again soon. Despite all of this, I still find better prices on some foods (like milk) by shopping in regular grocery stores. So I try to shop at both kinds of stores.

I think that's the end of grocery shopping for August. I'm glad to have it out of the way.

Walk Into My Woods

Beyond the manicured back yard is a mostly untamed area still on our property. There's a large 3-season pond that attracts a pair of ducks each spring, a stand of 50-foot evergreens, and a sunny spot where the blackberries grow. This natural area is my husband's "man space." He comes out here to chop wood, cut back canes, dig a bit, visit the mountain beaver in his den, and just chill. When we get our honeybees, this is where the hive will go. As you might guess, this area attracts a lot of non-human visitors. 

This afternoon, I knew I needed more fresh berries for tomorrow's breakfast, so I took a quart container and headed out to our woods. We eat fresh blackberries with both breakfast and dinner this time of year. In addition to picking the morning's breakfast berries, I also picked another 3 quarts to freeze on a large tray to add to our humongous zip bags in the freezer.

Walk with me.

When you first leave the manicured area of the property, trees shade the walkway and provide good cover from the sun's heat. One daughter has used a couple of trees out here to suspend a hammock for summertime evening lounging. 

In a moment, the walk opens to the blackberry patch, a sunny spot nestled between our yard proper and the woods.

If I walk just a little further and to one side, there's a large pond. It's almost all dried up now but will fill again beginning in September. 

Beyond the blackberry patch and the pond is the woods. Part of the woods is on our property and part is on other neighbors'. There's another house back behind here, but the large trees block our view of those neighbors, and likewise, their view of us.

My husband has cut paths into the wild blackberry patch, so we can get to most of the berries. If I don't find a lot of ripe berries down one path, I simply walk down another. 

My daughters have been picking wild berries in a couple of public spots around our community, as those always ripen earlier in summer than our property's berries. With the berries on our property, we run the risk that rains will return before the berries have ripened, and the berries will be lost. So we pick around the community early in the season to guarantee a good supply for winter. The other draw to foraging around the community is we can find more ripe berries in one shot at the public spots (due to the expansive areas of some of those public sites), compared to our own patch.

Our own berries are now ripening and the public places have been mostly picked over. The ones at the local school will be cut back later this week in preparation for children returning to the playfield and playground nearby. And the other patches are not looking as good now -- too much sun, too much heat, too many pickers. Because our woods is private property, there's no chance of our berries becoming picked over before we can get to them, so we leave the ripening berries on the canes until they are big and juicy. 

Last weekend I made 1.5 quarts of blackberry jam with our berries. I'll enlist the family to pick for me on Saturday and make another 1.5 quarts plus some pancake syrup over the weekend. Our two large zip bags should be full in the next day. I'll begin on the 3rd bag this week and hope to fill it half full (that's about all of the freezer space I can give to berries.)

Blackberry season is short. Right now we are inundated with fresh berries. But in just the wink of an eye, the berry harvest will be a pleasant memory of warm summer days and sweet, juicy berries.