My grocery date (awww)

Back in the days of whirlwind romance -- back when everything about me-and-him was revelation, exploration,  hope of confirmation -- I didn't realize how much I ought to look forward to a future in which I'd have grocery store dates.  And yet, here I am; here we are, and I just melt a bit with happiness that I say "I'm going to do a Miller's Run" today, and he responds, "When? I can go with you".  

I have friends who are in uncomfortable marriages, so I am well aware of the gift this is, that I like to be with my spouse and he with me.  I refuse to let hedonic adaptation rob me of the ordinary joy of spending time with someone who loves me.

Miller's is the name of an Amish-run store that sells locally grown, organic produce. I go there only 3 or 4 times a year, but when I do, I stock up on a bunch of dry goods, enough to tide me over to the next trip.  After a few such trips, because I am a card carrying member of the List Lovers Club, I of course made a Miller's shopping guide, which includes a roster of items to buy, how much I bought of each on previous trips, how much the trip cost, and how long the process of shopping and putting stuff away took.   It's lovely to be able to refer to this quickly (20 pounds of oats was a bit much, so this trip I decided to buy "just" 15 pounds).

I knew it was time to go to Miller's again because the basement canisters were getting emptied out.  I keep my flour and oats in 5-gallon buckets that were repurposed (and cleaned well!) from kitty litter containers.  When the containers are empty, I store them upside down so I can tell at a glance how much I still have left. 

Lots of full jars, but the black and yellow buckets
are almost all upside down, so they're all empty
except for a bit of oats in the top left bucket.

I store nuts, trail mix, dried fruit, and beans in glass or metal canisters.  Those were running low, too.

More upside-down containers that need refilling.

The drive to the store and back, plus shopping in the middle, takes an hour an a half.  I buy a lot at once: 50 pounds of flour, 15 or so pounds of nuts, a similar amount of cheese, etc.  The store sits along one of my husband's bicycle routes, and we often banter about what it'd be like to throw the food into a bike trailer and haul it home -- there are a lot of hills that would make it a really hard trip! 

On this last trip, we calculated that we got 130 pounds of food.

It usually takes me another hour to put everything away.  That includes making a bunch of large batches of trail mix, and also cutting up and wrapping cheese that we can store in the freezer.   This store has some yummy cheese (again: local, organic) at incredibly reasonable prices -- for example, muenster for less than $4/pound and swiss for not much more than that, so it totally makes sense to stock up.  

Putting stuff away is definitely something I do solo.  My guy loves being in the same car with me and walking around a store with me, but when it comes to organizing, he gives me lots of space and heads out on his bike; we each do what we do best!

Me being me, I have to add that a side benefit of this form of bulk shopping is that the trash output is minimal.  When I was done packing stuff up and putting it away in my own containers, what was left of the store-based packaging was two large paper flour bags and a small roll of food-grade plastic bags that I reuse for other food storage as needed.  We'll recycle the flour bags along with our newspaper, so nothing goes (for now) in the landfill-bound trash; the plastic bags will go there someday, but not before they do further duty.  (The plastic around the cheese isn't pictured; that'll go in the trash eventually too, but it's currently wrapping cheese in the freezer).  

Two large paper flour bags and a
small roll of food-grade plastic bags
that I will reuse for other food storage as needed.

I'm figuring, based on past experience, that this shopping trip will keep me stocked in dry goods until March.  I've got a stash of trail mix that I can take on my upcoming train trip across the country; I'll have food in the basement all through the season of winter storms.  I don't do this kind of bulk shopping because of believing I'm some kind of a "prepper"; I do it because I dislike shopping and want to go to stores infrequently, even if they're fun Amish stores with horses tied up outside.  Still, the side effect of being prepared for snow emergencies (or even global pandemics!) is a welcome one.  

And better yet that I get to share all this joy with family and friends who I love and who love me.  Happy Thanksgiving, one and all.