The best gadget I’ve ever purchased came early in Covid: our 6 quart instapot. It made dried beans truly usable (dried > chili in an hour!) and makes eating healthy, filling, flavorful food faster, cheaper and easier. I’m a long time CSA member, so that was also lovely - but also ordering food for curb side pick up has made me (somewhat) better at planning meals and reducing waste. And a first time Costco membership has made stocking up easier! And while I wasn’t cooking a ton of meat before, we halved it (or more) this past year. Mostly because of concerns with poor regulation/food borne illness and the horrific working conditions.
Emma and I were always modishly interested in eating what Instagram reminded us was in season, which was consequently slightly cheaper in the supermarket. But in March it no longer was prudent for us to buy groceries more often than every three weeks, and in July, the Invisible Hand made us a single-income household. Besides the modest unemployment support from the District, Emma's had solace from her weekly shift at our neighborhood farmer's market — which began as a volunteer gig distributing produce to families on food assistance, but has become a weekly sales job paid in (minimal) cash and, more importantly, unsold vegetables. (Lately, she’s begun playing at a higher difficulty setting, trading her take-home greens for other vendors’, say, mushrooms.) As our neighborhood market closes this weekend, she’s been confirmed as working through the winter for the same farm at the year-round Dupont market. This experience has strengthened our awareness, not just of what’s available this week based on the seasons and the weather, but of realistic economic proportion: here’s just how much cabbage and beans are out there, compared to the rare and precious onions or carrots.
The best gadget I’ve ever purchased came early in Covid: our 6 quart instapot. It made dried beans truly usable (dried > chili in an hour!) and makes eating healthy, filling, flavorful food faster, cheaper and easier. I’m a long time CSA member, so that was also lovely - but also ordering food for curb side pick up has made me (somewhat) better at planning meals and reducing waste. And a first time Costco membership has made stocking up easier! And while I wasn’t cooking a ton of meat before, we halved it (or more) this past year. Mostly because of concerns with poor regulation/food borne illness and the horrific working conditions.
Emma and I were always modishly interested in eating what Instagram reminded us was in season, which was consequently slightly cheaper in the supermarket. But in March it no longer was prudent for us to buy groceries more often than every three weeks, and in July, the Invisible Hand made us a single-income household. Besides the modest unemployment support from the District, Emma's had solace from her weekly shift at our neighborhood farmer's market — which began as a volunteer gig distributing produce to families on food assistance, but has become a weekly sales job paid in (minimal) cash and, more importantly, unsold vegetables. (Lately, she’s begun playing at a higher difficulty setting, trading her take-home greens for other vendors’, say, mushrooms.) As our neighborhood market closes this weekend, she’s been confirmed as working through the winter for the same farm at the year-round Dupont market. This experience has strengthened our awareness, not just of what’s available this week based on the seasons and the weather, but of realistic economic proportion: here’s just how much cabbage and beans are out there, compared to the rare and precious onions or carrots.