Trading

We're at day 16 of the "buy no food" farm challenge, and so far, so good. We were a little worried because the boys and Mark are off on a camping trip this weekend, and that usually means at least one trip to the store. The boys and Mark are all gluten-free and dairy-free, and camp food is usually noodles, meatballs, pancakes and all sorts of stuff we have to put and replace with fussy GF versions so my kids feel like they're eating somewhat the same food as everyone else.

however, we've lucked into a great Boy Scout troop that has realized that if our three campers plus three other campers can't eat gluten, that's one-third of the people going. So they put them all in one group and they're bringing GF food for everyone and we don't have to worry about it. That's the first time in ten years of Scouts that food hasn't been a serious issue.

We have a ton of food, still,​ and we're eating lots of veggies from Gleaners. I've had people emailing me and asking what I have to trade. Pecans are a hot commodity. My aunt sent me a 30-pound box of pecans for my birthday, and I'm very happy at the bargaining power pecans have.

Clearly, we still have plenty of eggs, too. 

I got one pound of organic coffe last week, and someone else is bringing over another pound this week.

Mans someone emailed me and said they were looking for strawberries. No dice, I said. We've been out since September.  he said he had blueberries for me I came across them.

i thought that was a funny thing -- to keep on the lookout for strawberries. As if that would happen. 

Then another lady emailed me. "I have three gallons of frozen strawberries," she said, from their garden last year. "Got any pecans?"

So today, I gave up some of the strawberries and kept some. And now we have a gallon of blueberries in the freezer as well, and the kids are having organic fruit smoothies every morning. 

I almost feel guilty that this isn't harder. 

Maybe in two weeks,  when the meat starts to runs out, I'll be changing my tune.