Extreme co-op-ing

Today Megan and I took the training course to become certified Co-op volunteers! Now our organic fair-trade hemp byproduct granola hippie sandals are 15% off! Kidding aside, I have grown very fond of our co-op and found out that it is the only co-op left in the metro area that runs on volunteers since the recent shutdown of North Country Co-Op in Minneapolis. Our lesson tonight gets us the discount and the exclusive blue card for this month. I am signed up to cook on Wednesday morning and that will take care of December.

Megan and I have been trying to seek out as much locally grown food as we can lately, mostly from Minnesota and Wisconsin. We are not that strict but this summer we ate lots of corn and tomatoes, and now things are moving on to potatoes, yams, and squash. It is really very interesting to watch what changes in your diet with the slight restriction of what we see as normal - having anything we could ever want whenever we want it. Ironically it makes you try new things. Like yesterday we had Kale instead of mixed greens and it was great! And today I saw the local cranberries were in and got excited because it was something new. Never mind the 20 lbs of apples hiding in the back of the fridge. Living where we live in the concrete jungle the seasons can kind of slip by if you let them. But if you are eating tamari covered pumpkin seeds and curry with stewed onions and yams you can't forget! We will see how we do when real winter gets here and "local" will be Florida, but it has been going good so far.

And as for why we are doing this, that might have to wait for another post but eating local just keeps coming up as one of the best things to do if you want to live a low impact life, and improve the economy around us. The food is also fresher and tastier in my experience, since they can harvest it closer to when it needs to be on the shelf rather than calculate long shipping time and spoilage.

One more note, today is our six month anniversary of moving into our dream-come-true apartment. That seems like no time at all, but then Northfield feels like a lifetime away too! Things take time, but we are definitely settling in here well.