Our First Trip to the Grocery Store

Sunday is shopping day, and we went prepared, even more than usual, laden with clean used plastic and paper bags for bulk items. Truth is we'd picked all the low-hanging fruit a long time ago: we've long been in the habit of avoiding plastic packaging as much as seemed practical, and bought a lot of things in bulk already, nearly always with our own re-used bags. Here are the changes we are making:

* I am throwing over ready-made soup in asceptic containers (because it has a plastic pop-top) and planning to make my own soups. Ask me in a month how that's going; I need to leave for work in an hour, and the barley is simmering away, hard as tiny pebbles, as I write.)

* Polenta is one of our staples but we always before bought it ready-made in plastic tubes. Now we are buying uncooked polenta in bulk and preparing it ourselves. Preparation involves boiling it in water. I think we can handle it.

* Tortillas are another staple and of course they come in plastic bags. We bought bulk flour and are going to endeavor to make our own. Ask me in a month...

* The third staple that traditionally generates a lot of plastic is feta cheese. It's the only dairy product either of us eat, and it's spendy and comes from French sheep, and I have to say it is one of life's deepest joys. I was prepared to go to some lengths to get it. Normally we buy it in those flat round plastic containers, recyclable, yes, but we get one every week and they add up. So we talked to the deli guys about our project, and they were great. The feta comes from France in honkin' huge blocks, in buckets of brine, and the deli guys can cut it into chunks of any size and dimension. So I asked for a chunk, like so, to be wrapped in brown waxed paper. Then I popped it into a pyrex container of my own I'd brought from home. No problem. This method is a variation on the pot-pie approach: it's not a violation of state law for the deli guy to simply hand you your food unpackaged. What you do with it after that is your own business.

* We screwed up a little, too. Peanut butter in a glass jar with a metal lid seems a paragon of virtue, but in fact it has a little protective ring of plastic around the outside of the lid that we didn't think about. Of course you can get pb in bulk, grinding it yourself, but it's not nearly as yummy as Adam's. We'll have to give that one some thought.