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We spent years dreaming of this time. We wanted to grow our own real food and live off the grid and off the land. We saw visions of fresh chicken eggs, a possible milking animal, fresh pork from our own pigs, and of course all of the free vegetables and fruits we could eat from our own lush garden and orchard.
Back in reality… we buy almost all of our food from the grocery store one month after arriving to our land. We’ve had to put all of those things on the back burner as we made a roof over our heads, a sink that drains, and the ever-important outhouse.
Perhaps someday, Lord willing, we will see our food production dreams come true, but right now we are having to make priorities about what we will and will not spend money on in our real food budget. Here are some of our priorities.
Animal Products Always Come First.
This means that if we are going to buy anything organic or local it will be animal products. Organic carrots aren’t nearly as important to us as knowing where our meat, lard, butter, etc. came from. We are blessed to have neighbors that produce their own grass-fed beef and lard, so we start there. We still don’t have a milk source, so we just aren’t drinking it right now.
Buy Cheap What You Can.
If I have to rely on the grocery store for food then I’m going to look for a bargain. The problem with bargain-hunting is that most things on sale are just junk that comes in a box. But I stock up on canned beans and salsa (since we eat a lot of that right now) and buy produce that is cheap rather than spending $.50 on a single grapefruit.
Buy Organic Produce (Only) When It Matters.
Whenever I have the money to buy organic produce I only spend it on the things we eat often that I know are full of nasty pesticides and herbicides – things like lettuce, carrots, apples, and potatoes. Everything else I try not to worry about and just get whatever will give us the most bang, nutritionally, for our buck (think cabbage).
Always Make Or Produce What You Can.
Just because you can’t find a local farmer’s market or aren’t set up to produce all of your own food doesn’t mean you can’t spend a little time and make a big difference. My friend Carol makes homemade tortillas for a fraction of the cost (and preservative content) of what you’ll find in the store. I found some decent cream at the health food store and plan to make homemade cultured cream since that is one of the easiest ferments I know of.
The bottom line for us is to move towards more home-based food production while balancing our current need for nourishment. For us it is a means to an end, but any grocery budget can benefit from a few mindful priorities.
How do you prioritize your real foods budget?
Hi.
I’m a stay at home mom of 5 (8y and under), who tries to eat real food on a sparse budget. I just read your post about Ma Ingall’s way of thinking/doing things, followed by this post. You’ve got my gears turning again.
I have a very black thumb. (Ok, I can actually grow things, but the animals eat it all!) Usually my wildlife eats the flowers off the vines long before any produce is produced.
Maybe it is time to really put extra effort into protecting my garden, even if that means I have to do the hard work myself… Maybe come spring I will have thought of how to get my garden animal free, and found the time to finish up the chicken coop.
Thanks for posting.
Meg Logan
Loved this article and how you prioritize your food. Organic meat is always at the top of our list that I won’t sacrifice substituting. Local honey is also important in our budget. I make as much from scratch as possible so I at least know what’s in our food. Love all your posts as always
You’ll get there…a lot can be said for taking things slower even if you have the choice/ability to move faster. Looking back, we probably jumped into things a little too fast. We moved to our new home on 2+ acres just over a year ago and the only farm animals we had were 8 chickens…by late spring of this year we had 5 LaMancha goats (2 of whom required twice daily milking), 8 turkeys, 25 meat chicks, and an assorted bunch of nearly 40+ laying hens! Then we started a garden which ended up being primarily a squash & cucumber garden because well, we had a lot on our plates (hubby works a lot & I’m home with our 1, 3, & 5 year olds…and did I mention I started homeschooling this fall?). We finally stopped ourselves a couple months ago when we were about to buy 1-2 calves & 2 piglets. I’m guilty of looking at where others are in their sustainability/healthy eating journey & comparing which nearly always leaves me feeling like we have so much to do and are not doing enough. But, often those families have older children and have been doing this longer, etc. So, we’ve reduced our numbers of poultry (some naturally because it was butchering time), are down to 3 goats (of course come kidding season that will all change, lol), and are holding off on our pork & beef aspirations a bit…hopefully the garden will be more fruitful this coming year, but I’m thankful to have lots of homegrown/organic produce easily accessible to me in the event the garden doesn’t produce what we want/need. I’d say get chicks/chickens soon since they are such easy keepers…then weigh your options and consider bartering. If you are having trouble finding a source for fresh raw milk, then perhaps a dairy animal should be a higher priority than a huge garden or meat animals (especially since you have a good local source for the meat). You may be able to trade fresh milk or the products you make from it for fresh produce or meat. One interesting thing we have learned along the way is that even though buying organic, pastured, grass fed products is expensive, sometimes it still cheaper than raising your own that way…larger operations often have huge pastures so they don’t have to rely so much on expensive commercial hay or they can buy their organic feed a lot cheaper (in bulk) than we can and so for example, our meat birds easily ended up costing us 2-3x the price of what I can pick up whole organic chickens at Costco for…and that’s not even factoring in the extra work involved! Since we started all this, I definitely have a whole new appreciation for the time, effort, & money that goes into producing food in an ethical & humane & healthy manner. As always, so enjoying reading your journey and always look forward to your posts.
Could you share your recipe for cultured cream? I need all the easy I can get these days.