At the co-op
I like my oranges deep inside an adult beverage.
Shortly after Miss Cupcake was born we began seeking out healthier food choices. We started buying more organic and local produce from the farmer’s market, Costco and the local grocery store. Eventually, we found our way to the co-op.
A co-op is owned by its members. You can be a member. I can too, but I don’t see the point really. It ends up being sort of a tiny little grocery store, like a Trader Joe’s, but with really healthy, usually locally sourced food.
Many times if you shop at your local supermarket they’ll offer a small selection of organic food, or maybe label some things as local. In my experience, this food still sucks. It’s bland, really expensive, and often either picked too soon or rotting on the shelf. See, the big grocery stores still get lots of their organic stuff from halfway around the globe, and that makes it hard to keep it in good shape.
The co-op is a little bit different. The price is still higher than the non-organic, or non-local, version, but the difference is the quality. The quality of the things we buy at the co-op is simply out of this world.
- Oranges – So good that the hairs on your arm will jump up and switch follicles with other hairs on your arm. True. Ask a doctor.
- Coffee – locally roasted, no more expensive than Starbucks brand beans, and strong enough to make me want to run. For fitness. With nobody chasing me.
- Chestnuts – Years ago I spent thanksgiving with a friend whose family had chestnuts. I loved them, but was never able to get chestnuts of the same quality at the local supermarket or even Whole Foods. This year I got some from Iowa at the co-op and Miss Cupcake and I roasted them over the flame of the gas stove and devoured them.
- Zucchini – Not gigantic sized, but absolutely packed with flavor
- Tomatoes – It’s easy to forget what a tomato is actually supposed to taste like when you get them from the supermarket. The co-op, even in November, has tomatoes that I could just eat whole.
- Avocados – Think about it: how often do you get a good one at the supermarket? 50% of the time? I’m talking about an avocado that is soft and velvety, but not yet bruised and brown. So far I’ve got a 100% success rate at the co-op
- Tortillas – local, organic tortillas are the new crack cocaine
- Beef – Local, grass-fed beef is the new crystal meth
- Breakfast sausage – If you were next to me and I could get some of this sausage just by punching you in the face, you would be promptly punched in the face. Even if you are my mom.
- Bulk teas – Yeah, okay, not the most masculine thing to purchase, but I do love me some tea. Once you have a tea ball, buying in bulk is the only way to go.
The co-op definitely costs more, but I’m okay with that because I know that my money is supporting local farmers, good wages for the workers throughout the field-to-shelf cycle, and sustainable farming techniques. I’d rather pay a small premium for that than to feel guilty because the apples I bought (while apples are in season locally) came from Chile, have been treated with a million pesticides, and have an almost undetectable layer of wax coating them to keep them from turning bad. I want to buy cereals that aren’t packed with corn syrup from a government subsidized mega-farm.
But mostly I just want that damn sausage.
