Friday Five: Trader Joe's

Sophia at RevGalBlogPals has temptation coming her way! She reports:

"Gals and pals on the West and East coasts, and a few spots in between, may know of Trader Joe's--a quirky, well-stocked, well priced semi-gourmet store that attains near cult status among some. I discovered it through my Aunt Judy, who always brought a couple of their desserts to holiday parties....The best was a chocolate ganache torte that had my four year olds begging for it (and among the only four year olds on the planet to know what ganache is, presumably).

My family has happily Trader Joe'd in southernmost California, up to the Northwest, and back down to southern Cal. And now we're really excited because today a brand new Trader Joe is opening up across the street from our apartment. Wahoo! There are sure to be lots of tasty free samples on opening day and from now on we can just walk across the street to get a lot of our shopping done. I have a new spiritual directee coming tomorrow and she has already mentioned that she'll be stopping in on the way here, leaving me to be jealous cause I'll be spending that noon hour like, praying and preparing and study-vacuuming and everything, and won't be able to stop in till the afternoon.

So in honor of the new Trader Joe's, this week's Friday Five is all about food shopping.


1. Grocery shopping--love it or hate it?
I lean toward the "love" side, mostly. I don't like to do it in a rushed manner, I like to look at all the interesting things for sale, check labels and unit pricing, and generally just appreciate it. When I travel, I enjoy seeing the different things in supermarkets in different areas of the country.

2. Who is the primary food shopper in your household?
It's hard to say because I usually write the list, whether I'm actually going along or not. Onkel Hankie Pants doesn't fit the stereotype of the male grocery shopper -- he generally just buys what's on the list, so to avoid temptation I sometimes let him go alone.

3. Do you have a beloved store like TJ's which is unique to your location or family?
There is nothing like Trader Joe's here as far as I know, the closest one is somewhere near Boston. Our Hannaford's supermarket is quite good, but what I really appreciate are our meat market, Bisson's, a vertically-integrated business (that is, they actually raise the beef and pork, cut it, and sell it, and Grandmere makes the meat pies); the Sausage Kitchen in another nearby town with a great variety of sausage; and the farmer's markets where, in addition to vegetables and fruit, we can get local cheese, relishes and preserves. The natural foods store on the corner and even the supermarket also carry breads from local bakers. And an old friend of my father's has a seafood business on the wharf. By the way, Bisson's also has dairy, and their heavy cream is really, really heavy!

4. How about a farmer's market, or CSA share, as we move into summer? Or do you grow your own fruits/veggies/herbs?
I've never quite been brave enough to do the CSA thing, but the farmer's market is great. We have one twice a week on the Mall (most New England towns would call it the Green or the Common, but ours is the Mall), which I can walk to, another one on Saturdays at a local CSA farm/educational place, and other nearby towns have them too on other days. In blueberry season we know a place on Rte. 1 where there's a great farm stand, and soon it will be time to visit the pick-your-own strawberry place.

5. What's the favorite thing you buy at the grocery store?
I'd have to say --- coffee and tea. We could not grow these ourselves here, nor could anyone else. I would miss bananas and citrus fruit, but maybe I could go on without them, but coffee and tea are where our locavore principles really break down. We get Wicked Joe coffee, which is locally roasted just down the bike path.

Thinking Globally, Eating Locally

If you also read Onkel Hankie Pants’ blog (see sidebar), you will know that we have been buying all our meat from Bisson’s Meat Market, a farm/meat processor/market in Topsham, our neighboring town across the mighty Androscoggin. Tonight we’ll be having a meat loaf made with beef, pork and veal, all from there. The poultry at Bisson’s comes from a farm in another town less than 100 miles from here. Bisson’s also makes their own butter, and sells unpasteurized milk and chicken, pork and salmon pies (three different pies) made by the elder Mrs. Bisson. As we drive to the market, we can often see the cattle grazing in the fields. The Bissons, of French-Canadian ancestry, have been farming these fields for over 75 years.
I’ve been reading several books touching on this subject lately. Bill McKibben’s Deep Ecology was probably the most relevant to our situation, since he and his family live in northern Vermont, near Lake Champlain. One section of the book relates their experiment in local eating – I believe they used the 100-mile limit, which in their case let them go into New York State and Quebec. They were actually able to find flour made from wheat grown inside their limit, though with some difficulty. And apparently they are not addicted to tea or coffee, as Onkel Hankie Pants and I are.
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, while not specifically about local eating, did touch on the subject in addition to discussing meat from huge industrial feedlots, organic growing, and foraging for one’s own food. And the book I’m reading now, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, describes another year of local eating in a slightly more temperate climate, that of Virginia. (They get asparagus in April there!) The family did allow themselves one non-local item each. Recipes are included, and I would highly recommend this book as a readable introduction to the “locavore” movement.
I’m not quite ready to be quite so stringent, but we do try to buy as much locally-grown or at least Maine-produced food as possible. My coffee comes from Wicked Joe, who roast their organic, fair-trade beans over on Water St. where we sometimes walk the dog. (They also sell tea, but Onkel H. is loyal to Red Rose, because he gets a little ceramic animal with each box.)
In our refrigerator right now there is Winter Garden mustard from Eastport, ME . When we want lobsters, we go to Allen’s Seafood because Dain was a good friend of my father’s, and the lobsters are really fresh!
Maurice Bonneau's Sausage Kitchen in neighboring Lisbon has a wide variety of sausages, though we have not yet succeeded in persuading Mr. Bonneau to make us any medisterpølse!
We can always find Aroostook County potatoes in the supermarket, and from May to October there is a Farmer’s Market twice a week on the Mall (Brunswick’s version of the Common or Green, as they’re known in other New England towns) on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Saturday there is a larger market at Crystal Spring Farm.
As you can tell, this has been an exercise in linking! I didn’t link the books, though, because I think you should buy them from your favorite local independent bookstore. I like Gulf of Maine Books and not only because my brother works there.
So, think about it. How can you eat more locally this year?