For a long time, for whatever random reason, I was apprehensive about venturing to my local Farmer’s Market in Beverly Hills. I guess apprehensive isn’t necessarily the right word, I was more dismissive than anything else. I thought, what could be so much better about an outdoor market than the regular grocery store? I also had misconceptions about the cost of the produce—I figured everything would be expensive! As it turns out, shopping at Farmer’s Market is significantly cheaper than shopping at the regular grocery store, despite the high quality food.
Buying your groceries at a local Farmer’s Market is a wonderful treat. While browsing the many tents of gorgeous local fruits and vegetables , I feel a sense of peace. A Farmer’s Market shopping trip is a very uplifting experience for more reasons than one. A feeling of exhilaration comes with acquiring quality food for a super low price, in addition to knowing that the purchase benefits local farmers! For example, I went to a particular vendor that had heads of romaine lettuce, basil, Chinese eggplant, cucumbers, and broccoli. I came out with four cucumbers, one zucchini, and a head of Chinese broccoli for just $5.00. I later meandered to a vendor that was selling romaine lettuce and bought two heads for only $2! These are extremely low prices; sometimes I can only buy three cucumbers for $5.00 at the “regular” grocery store!
Unfortunately for us, we had arrived on the later side to the market, so did not complete our whole shopping trip. (Remind me to get more sleep the night before next time!) We moved on to Whole Foods, to complete our grocery shopping.
Contrary to popular belief, Whole Foods does not solely carry exorbitantly priced items. When you go shopping, you sometimes have to pick and choose what you buy where. For example, I often will get beans, rice, and staple items such as Soy Milk at Whole Foods (Or Trader Joes), but will purchase a bulk of frozen items, oils, vinegars, and pastas at Trader Joe’s. Often Lauren and I find all kinds of crazy bargains at the 99 cent store–yes the 99 cent store. Also–always look out for coupons! Whole Foods has recently been keeping coupon books at the front of their stores, that offer extreme savings. The Almond Milk I purchased at Whole Foods had been about $2.00, but with the Whole Foods coupon it was less than $1.00! Sometimes these sorts of coupons are not even available at a “regular” grocery store.
Here is what I bought at Whole Foods with price listings:
Almond Milk: About $2.00 w/o Coupon- $0.75 with coupon
Organic Baby Carrots: $1.99
Organic Firm Tofu- 2 Blocks- $3.00
Organic Container Blueberries- $2.99
Organic Container Strawberries $2.99
Organic Frozen Butternut Squash $2.79
Organic Frozen Kale $2.20
Organic Large Yellow Onion $0.69
^^^These prices are steals!^^^^
So that was Sunday morning and afternoon in a nutshell! Many more tasty recipes to come! 🙂
xo,
nadya & lauren
govegetarianista86