Food in the time of a pandemic

[Shelby]

Just now, rotuts said:

CkQrts  2 0.49 c / lbs

 

make fine slow BBQ

 

or fine stock w the iPot.

Yep, and we like them just simply done in the CSO.  If they have enough I'm sure I will buy at least 2 bags which is 20 lbs.

[kayb]

22 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Im very pleased that your local Kroger

 

has found a fine place 

 

to donate what they can

 

so many store have not looked into this

 

and thus are not able to help their communities.

 

Kroger gives away daily its deli, bakery and meat items that are about to expire. A different charity picks up daily, measures the donation by weight, and reports to the Food Bank, which keeps up with it and gives Kroger the donation credit for its taxes on a regular basis. Whatever the agency was that used to pick up on Fridays recently dropped out of the rotation, and the Food Bank, where we'd been buying our stuff, contacted us to see if we wanted to pick up. We did!

 

Two weeks ago (I was traveling and someone else picked up last week), we had the largest donation I've ever gotten -- more than 400 pounds of food. Fortunately, as I was dialing for assistance (usually its a little more than 200 pounds, and I can handle it by myself), some friends came in and I drafted them for help. They're going to help on a regular basis. They don't have a lot of money, and a BIG family, so I make sure plenty goes home with them. I'd guess today was in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. Would have been about normal sized if not for the mega-load of chicken.

 

Arkansas does have a good system of distributing donated food. There are five regional food banks spread over the state, coordinated by the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. They receive donations of bulk food from processors, etc., and coordinate delivery of them to the banks where they're needed. Those banks also take donations from groceries and processors in their area. Several different churches have food pantries, which can buy food (for like 10 cents a pound) from the Food Bank, as can charitable programs that provide food (senior centers, day cares, summer kid feeding programs, nursing homes run on a non-profit basis, etc.)

 

Works pretty well.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by kayb (log)

[dtremit]

22 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Here is this week's box.  Pretty similar to last week.  Honey, apples, mesculin mix, ciabatta, red cabbage, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, popcorn, turnips, daikon radish.  I am taking my glut of apples from the past few boxes and making applesauce this afternoon.  I also have a glut of carrots--6 pounds, to be exact.  I am still thinking about what to do with those.  My Mom is taking the next two boxes as I am going away for Easter week, so no more updates for a couple of weeks.

 

I'll try to post pictures of the box the next two weeks to fill in the gap! Though the pictures won't look nearly as nice, as it'll be the last week in our old kitchen and the first week in the early '90s grandma special in our new house.

You might find some carrot inspiration in this thread I started when we started the Clover root vegetable share last fall:

 

Sadly that share ended up being about 40% carrot. We have eaten a lot of carrot sticks lately.

 

[KennethT]

On 3/21/2021 at 3:04 PM, Anna N said:

I wonder if you can dehydrate the sauce and get the salt. 

@blue_dolphinI was cleaning out my pantry and came upon an OLD bottle of Tiparos fish sauce (I used it before switching to Squid brand). Lo and behold there was a ton of brown salt at the bottom of the bottle. 

[Toliver]

"Ketchup shortage hits restaurants, fast food chains across the U.S."

Quote

Prices for ketchup packets have gone up 13% since January 2020, according to data from Plate IQ, a restaurant industry technology platform, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. A shortage of America’s favorite condiment is the latest to hit the foodservice industry amid an increased demand for takeout amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

I can see why this happened what with the line of cars at every fast food drive-thru as I drive past them. Don't people cook anymore? 

The article also mentions the shortage of pepperoni because apparently everyone and their mother was ordering pizza during the pandemic. 

I believe I did hear about the aluminum can shortage. Perhaps the customers should consider buying their libations in bottles as an alternative. 

Back to the ketchup...the shortage seems to be just in the restaurant packets. Thank goodness my three jugs 'o' ketchup I buy at Costco seems untouched by the shortage. 

[weinoo]

4 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Thank goodness my three jugs 'o' ketchup I buy at Costco seems untouched by the shortage. 

 

Right?!  Yesterday, I popped into the grocery store to pick up a few things...giant display of ketchup on sale.

 

But - I want old fashioned (Heinz) ketchup in a glass bottle; I despise those upside down squirt things.

[BeeZee]

Lets not forget the multitude of plastic take out containers. The vast majority of restaurants in my area don't use eco-disposables and I cringe at the styro and plastic which isn't recyclable. At least some of the online ordering platforms give you the ability to specify no plastic forks, etc. be included with your order.

[liamsaunt]

It's been a couple of weeks since I have uploaded a CSA box, but nothing has really changed.  This is the boring time of year for food on this part of the planet.  Sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, onions, spinach, a ciabatta loaf, Jerusalem artichokes, popcorn, apples, carrots, and flour. You can't really see it because the potatoes are covering it up, but there were two shoots of green garlic in this week's box too.  

 

[gfweb]

On 4/6/2021 at 1:16 PM, weinoo said:

 

But - I want old fashioned (Heinz) ketchup in a glass bottle; I despise those upside down squirt things.

Because part of the joy of ketchup is conquering the damned glass bottle.

[heidih]

1 minute ago, gfweb said:

Because part of the joy of ketchup is conquering the damned glass bottle.

Or if you waited tables the joy of filling them along with the salt and pepper shakers.I do have a fondness for the mini ones you get from room service- glass and classic  shape 

[ElsieD]

10 hours ago, heidih said:

Or if you waited tables the joy of filling them along with the salt and pepper shakers.I do have a fondness for the mini ones you get from room service- glass and classic  shape 

 

They were such cute little things you almost didn't want to use them.

[Kim Shook]

12 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

They were such cute little things you almost didn't want to use them.

Along with the room service salt and peppers.  I still have a few of those rattling around the kitchen cabinets.  I imagine that the pepper is utterly tasteless by now, especially considering how long it's been since I've had room service.  😁

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I wish I had ice cream.

 

[Kim Shook]

@ElsieD - I could only find the salt one:

😁

[ElsieD]

40 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

@ElsieD - I could only find the salt one:

😁

 

I remember the ones that looked like mini versions of the ones you see in diners with the metal screw-on caps.

[TdeV]

19 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I wish I had ice cream.

 

 

With pepper?😨

[JoNorvelleWalker]

22 minutes ago, TdeV said:

 

With pepper?😨

 

Actually I have made pepper ice cream.  However that was not what I had in mind.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

SupermarketItaly had a sale.  Perhaps I should not order food while sipping mai tais before dinner.  I received notification that the shipment has been delivered and is awaiting me downstairs.  I am appalled at the list of contents:  cans of tomatoes, jars of artichokes, bottles of olive oils, packages of exquisite pasta*.  Six large boxes of Familia**.  I don't want to have to deal with it.

 

 

*not to mention two pounds of artisanal gemelli that came yesterday

 

**yes, we all know that doesn't come from Italy

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I forgot the marmalade, sausages, and flour.  Thankfully the shipment wasn't all in one container.

 

 

[liamsaunt]

This week's box was boring again, but here it is for the record.  Green garlic, apples (lots), ancient grains bread (my favorite), dried beans, spinach, coffee (I don't drink caffeine anymore so I will end up giving this away), onions, a ton of potatoes, chives, and sorrel.  The email from the farm said we were getting carrots this week too, but there were not any in my box.  It's warming up and things are sprouting so I am expecting more variety soon.

 

[Duvel]

10 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

ancient grains bread (my favorite)

Like grain picked by the elderly ? What kind of grain is considered „ancient“ ?

[Duvel]

On 4/21/2021 at 8:06 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Perhaps I should not order food while sipping mai tais before dinner.

I noticed that alcohol consumption tends to shift my purchasing behavior towards the slightly insane.

When I was living in Hong Kong, there were a couple of instances where we received the odd package of Mentaiko (cooled) or some weird Koji mold from Amazon Japan. There might have been some whiskey highballs involved, but who wants to follow up ...

When we moved back to Germany, I canceled my account. Better safe than sorry ...

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, Duvel said:

I noticed that alcohol consumption tends to shift my purchasing behavior towards the slightly insane.

When I was living in Hong Kong, there were a couple of instances where we received the odd package of Mentaiko (cooled) or some weird Koji mold from Amazon Japan. There might have been some whiskey highballs involved, but who wants to follow up ...

When we moved back to Germany, I canceled my account. Better safe than sorry ...

 

On 4/21/2021 at 2:06 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

SupermarketItaly had a sale.  Perhaps I should not order food while sipping mai tais before dinner.  I received notification that the shipment has been delivered and is awaiting me downstairs.  I am appalled at the list of contents:  cans of tomatoes, jars of artichokes, bottles of olive oils, packages of exquisite pasta*.  Six large boxes of Familia**.  I don't want to have to deal with it.

*not to mention two pounds of artisanal gemelli that came yesterday

 

**yes, we all know that doesn't come from Italy

 

 

But Supermarket Italy is so great...

[liamsaunt]

17 hours ago, Duvel said:

Like grain picked by the elderly ? What kind of grain is considered „ancient“ ?

 

Khorasan, apparently (I thought that was a planet in Star Wars 🙂 )

 

https://iggysdelivery.com/products/ancient-grain

 

[chromedome]

It's just a marketing term. It's applied to ancestral wheats (khorasan/kamut, spelt, farro, emmer, einkorn, call 'em what you will...), as well as millet and some pseudograins like amaranth and quinoa that were historically used by specific cultures.

Basically everything other than barley, rye, corn, oats, buckwheat and modern wheats.