[pf] D's weekly shopping.

· As I was struggling home from the bus after doing all the family's
shopping on my own this Saturday morning (Bera's at The Greens' Summer
Gathering at the Outward Bound camp at Anakiwa), carrying 91 lbs (41.4 kg)
of mainly green-groceries, I started running through them in my mind and
realised that, since /I/ was the chooser, they were almost all -essentials-.

· Since almost everyone on this list doesn't buy just the essentials, I'm
reminding you, by difference from what /you/ buy, that in your grocery
shopping there's a lot of opportunity to both save money and live more
lightly on the earth. My list:

· Potatoes - 3 kinds of organic, incl. desiree
· carrots - organic; enough for a week, while less fruit (which Bera buys)
· cabbages - 2, organic, with a lot of dark green outer leaves which I eat
· apples - 2 ~1 kg packs, called "special". New seasons Gala: too expensive
· bananas - 2 hands: Equadorian organic, and "special"
· watermelon - 1 whole medium, & 1/4 large, both organic
· milk - organic, 7 litres (4 of which from Foodtown supermarket)
· bread - 2 loaves unsliced wholewheat locally baked, & 1 factory-made white
· dates - 2 400g packs
· toilet paper - pack of 4, unbleached, "basics" brand
· facial tissue - 1 pack, "basics" brand
· cat food - several weeks'. Our 1-kidney cat's head's healing after a fight
· Vitamin C - bottle, 250 mg tabs
· Iron+ - bottle of tabs (expensive) (*)
· blackstrap molasses - bottle. Maybe it'll do instead.

   (*) "Each tablet provides 12 mg of elemental iron from mineral and
herbal ingredients" (Yellow dock; Gentian; Nettle; Kelp; Molasses powder;
Ferrous fumarate; then a number of vitamins, minerals and folic acid.)

· And that's all. We do buy peanuts & peanut butter every few weeks. And a
few other things, but Bera does almost all of that.

· Does anyone know how much blackstrap molasses a woman should take per
day, during the week she particularly needs iron? What are common
alternatives to swallowing down a "teaspoonful" (or making bran muffins)?

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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