302: Keeping all the Veggies

My Cousin asked me how I keep all the veggies we’re eating, and how often I shop.
I probably shop 2-3 times a week. We usually go by the grocery on Sunday after church, and on Tuesday or Wednesday I pick up a
Happy Family Box from Fresh Abundance, which forces me to get creative with whatever rolled in.

The very first appliance Michael and I bought new was a fridge, because old ones always kill veggies.

I run the fridge slightly warm, for the veggies. This time of year, I also store veggies in the hypen (the unheated foyer that connects the house and the garage). I lost a bag of potatoes this winter to a deep freeze out there, though. The night temp had dropped into the single digits, and the hypen froze. (Frozen potatoes are gross–it’s like instant rotting–and rotten potatoes are hard to top on the “ick factor” scale).

If we run out of something, we either change the plan, or whomever is out and about in town picks that item up. (We have four adults in the house, so that’s a lot of drivers. My mom gets a little stir-crazy up here, so she’s forever going out for this or that). Michael also works from the office when he’s in town, and, although he completely struck out on last night’s grocery list:

raw cashews
tofu (unflavoured)
nutritional yeast
chickpea flour (probably Bob’s, if they have it)
black rice vinegar (don’t sweat this one: they have it or they don’t — probably not crucial)

. . . he’s usually happy to run by and get stuff. (It’s not his fault Safeway is dull–it turns out I had the black rice vinegar in the pantry, which worked out for the Sichuan Tofu).

My other “secret” is to use whatever looks like it’s not going to last first. (Which I know seems really obvious, but sometimes it’s hard to shift away from what you wanted now to what you were thinking of for later). The internet is good for this . . . google your two main ingredients and the word “recipe” for ideas.

If I have too much all at once, I’ve also gone ahead and cooked two or three meals (thus saving the produce, and the work tomorrow!), and refrigerated them as finished product.