Someone recently asked me where we’ve landed with food. That is, what kind of food, how to keep within the budget, etc. after a year of following the Food Stamp Challenge. It’s pretty much gotten whittled down to this: Eat real food for fuel and fellowship.
As life gets full, I’m finding less and less time for elaborate meals or even extensive meal-planning. Our grocery list has gotten very short, our budget has stretched a bit (up to $250), but all in all it works for us. If you’re interested, here’s the gist of it:
- My goal is to have a mindset that food is fuel. How often do we use food for things other than what it’s met for? To nourish our bodies for God’s service. But secondly, food is for fellowship too — we’re meant to break bread together and enjoy each other, so I never want to whittle down so much that we don’t have room for hospitality and the joy of a good ‘ole BBQ!
- I switched to just meal planning per week because it’s easier to take advantage of sales, specials, and seasonal peak-picked produce. I only cook about 4 nights a week, the rest is leftovers.
- We quit drinking milk altogether (just a preference & cost thing). We stick with Tillamook cheese and stock up when it’s on sale. (my kids eat lots!)
- For meat we buy Draper Valley or other high-quality/local/or organic poultry and grass-fed beef. (*more on that in a moment…) Still making lots of chicken stock!
- We quit sugar and bought a gallon of raw honey and use it whenever we need sweetener… yum.
- I haven’t made bread for a few months. Not cutting out all wheat, I just wanted to re-train my kids to eat a variety of foods besides bread! That’s helped so much!
- We’re plowing through the organic eggs for breakfast every morning. About 10 dozen a month. Yikes! But it’s still a fairly inexpensive protein source and kids love it. I still make them oatmeal each morning as well, with applesauce, frozen blueberries, and a touch of raw honey.
- Lots of organic peanut butter from Costco.
- I still buy most my produce from Azure Standard or Spicer Brother’s Produce.
- I still aim for the under-$2/lb. rule on everything except meat.
- Treats: uncured nitrite-free hot dogs and the occasional 1/2 gallon of ice cream. There’s just nothing like a hot dog and ice cream on a summer’s night…
Now, onto Afton Field Farm. On my long search for a good grass-fed beef source I came across Afton Field Farm. I read all about how Tyler & Alicia Jones are proteges of Joel Salatin (Food Inc.) and how their multi-generational family farm in Corvallis, Oregon is committed to providing Food for the Health of Neighbor and Nation. Then, imagine my joy and surprise when I realized that Alicia was one of our dear college students when we worked in college ministry at OSU! Her blog, High Heels in the Barnyard, provided a fun glimpse into her life and the awesome work they are doing.
So while Corvallis is quite a jaunt for groceries, they have a Metropolitan Buying Club where you can order their products and pick up at one of several Portland-area locations. Yay! How fun to use our food dollars to support such wonderful people, using their farm to do so much good.
Happy Friday & thanks for reading!
2 thoughts on “F is for Farm, Afton Field”
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Tyler and Alicia bought my grandparent’s estate and turned it into a farm! (Kind of hard to see it change so much, but I LOVE what they are doing!) Josh and I almost got married there 10 yrs ago, but I chickened out because I was worried about rain in May! Anyway, fun to see your connection with them!
Yay for Afton Field Farms! Their chicken is AMAZING! It’s too bad they don’t deliver to Southern California. 🙂 (We did buy a frozen chicken from them once, and bring it back to CA with us. Wish I could do that all the time!)