Plenty of options to choose from.
Are you a regular farmers market shopper? Or prefer visiting the big supermarkets where you can shop for everything? Our neighborhood is surrounded by TJ’s, Sprouts, S&F, Safeway, Walmart grocery, Target and ofcourse Indian grocery store as well.
Indian store and safeway get visited often. I’ve been to farmers market couple of times and felt that it is not enough for vegetables. What do you think ?
Share your tips and tricks as to what you shop where ?
Hi Bhavini
I agree in winter generally the choice of veggie and fruits at Farmers Market is limited as compared to summer.
However in winter we get lots of squash, spinach, cauliflower and cabbage are available all thru the year, carrots, beet roots, mushrooms, bell peppers, spring onions. In fruits we get oranges (amazing quality if you plan to juice them), Kiwis, pomegranates, apples, pears.
However in summer we get a wide variety of veggies and fruits…..we get cucumbers, chinese vendors carry dudhi, turias, lady fingers, methi, basil, mint, green beans, galka, karela, different varieties of eggplants, zucchini and summer squash, boiled salted peanuts with shells.
Grapes, plums, peaches, berries, melons,etc in fruits.
One thing to remember is any farmers market carries locally grown seasonal vegetables and fruits.
Whether to buy Organic food or not is debatable but its always healthy to eat seasonal food.
But a trip to a American grocery and Indian grocery store is necessary for milk, yogurt, bread, cereals, Indian lentils and spices.
While in US I used to typically go to atleast 3 grocery store & at times 4 if Flea Market.
Start with Flea Market, get whatever seasonal stuff available.
Rancho 99 for fruits & few other items. Felt combination of variety, quality & price mainly for fruits were better here atleast compare to Indian store & Safeway.
Indian Store for remaining vegetables, grains, pulses, atta
and last but not least – Safeway for frozen items, bread, cereal, juices, etc
It is usually a mix of 3 stores. Indian store ( Indian veg,lentils etc), TJ’s ( milk,bread,snacks) and farmers mkt( fresh seasonal fruits and veg). Every 2 weeksCostco and Safeway visits.
How many days of fresh fruits/ veggie / milk do you stock up? Lately we have been trying to do 2 weeks instead of one. Works sometimes but the last few days turn out to be more pulses and running out of fruits .
Milk is a weekly thing :-). And since a trip is due every week, other things also don’t get stocked up so much as well :-).
I have a running list for 3 stores … TJ’s , Indian & Safeway and a monthly trip to Costco
1 trip every 2 weeks is working so far, will stock up on milk, cheese…. I always keep a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies (Costco) on hand , just toss them in rice or curry & it’s ready to eat
I usually end up buying vegetables / milk more often…. run quick trips to Milk Pail / Safeway as and when needed – usually 1-2 times during the week and then once in 2 week Indian store, mainly for the daals, atta etc and once a month Costco.