[I'm sharing on this blog things I wouldn't post on social media because it might be insensitive . Many people are struggling right now and they don't want to see pics of my extensive shopping trips. I get that. I also love seeing pictures of what people are buying in making. If you don't, I won't make you look!] Americans of means are in crisis. What the f do you mean there is no flour? Flour! This morning was the first time I've been at big supermarket in a couple months. I did a peapod order on Feb 29th and was worried then that I wouldn't get a spot. I had a 10lb bag of King Arthur flour in my cart and then put it back because it seemed like crazy talk. What is there going to be a nationwide flour shortage?!
So now I'm carefully rationing my last 5lb bag and stretching it with a bag of gluten-free baking mix and a bag of cornmeal. So far I've baked multiple batches of corn muffins and popovers and one batch each of morning glory muffins and brownies. I also made red velvet cupcakes for my birthday.
In addition to my peapod order (lots of canned beans, tomatoes, and shelf-stable milk, which is all getting used at quick clip and pesto and capers and such), I went to the butcher and bought 10lbs of ground beef, 5lbs of sirloin flap, 5lbs of chicken breast, a whole chicken, a dominican salami, a pack of bacon, and 2lbs of shrimp). I did a big shop at my local asian supermarket (like h-mart) and got curry pastes, rice noodles, frozen dumplings, fish sauce, lots of garlic and ginger and a napa cabbage), mochi-all the essentials.
Since then I've gotten a couple local food deliveries, which is great for dairy, apples, and greens. I've gone to a locally owned food coop that has a good mix of nice fruits and vegetables and staples (that's where I got the gluten-free mix). My goal for today's trip was to get some basics and some items specifically requested by LB (corndogs! rufffled potato chips! ice cream cones! pepperoni!). The fresh vegetables were looking pretty sparse (no fresh spinach, cilantro, or parsley, limited lettuce) but I got all the things on my list. And, maybe I should add that I still don't have a car, and I'm avoiding public transit, so this was a walking trip. It's about 1.5 miles to the big grocery store. This trip was definitely hitting the limit of what I can carry!
In terms of thinking about others with fewer resources, I've been donating to a few community-based mutual aid orgs. Food banks are good too, but I think lots of people are giving to them. With mutual aid, I feel like the money gets to people quicker, many times through cash apps, and often as cash so people can get what they want and need. I also went through my cupboards and donated a couple boxes of things we were very unlikely to use to our neighborhood free table (snacks now out of favor, canned fruit with artificial sweetner, pie fillings, some of those boxes of Life cereal that I bought on sale when LB was really into it and now she isn't).
The first stash-only things still out on the table are the coffee and dehydrated potato shreds
Kimchi!
First biscuit, they were not rich and flaky like I wanted and I forgot cream of tartar again!
Dumplings, now eaten!
Local potatoes shredded, yum!
Fresh salsa
Dried apples
