Collection of 14 Permaculture/Homesteading Cheat-Sheets, Worksheets, and Guides
will be released to subscribers in:
soon!
Skandi Rogers wrote:Never, there are none anywhere near us. The closest would be a 5 hour round trip, and remember I live in a country that you can drive all the way across in 4.5 hours. Our local town has very little that can be bought without packaging. sometimes you might get potatoes and occasional fruit like bananas or apples.
In summer you can get most vegetables from farm stands but they will still be packaged, it makes 0 economic sense for me to not use packaging, a bunch of radishes lasts about an hour "loose" but 2-3 days in a plastic bag. which is better, food waste or packaging?
K McFarlane wrote:I have mainly used zero waste stores for things like toiletries & cleaning supplies. I find zero waste stores mainly supply foods we don't eat (grains, pulses, vegan processed foods etc.) so I focus on sourcing our food as locally as I can and then minimise packaging as a second priority. There are no local refill stores where I am so I have to work with what's available.
At the supermarket I buy veg loose wherever it is available and use my own containers from home for things like meat/fish if I can. There is a small local food producers' market through OpenFoodNetwork, but a lot of the products are luxury (charcuterie) or things we don't eat (jams make up almost half of the listings at times) so I don't make as much use of it as I'd like to. It might be worth looking in case there's something near to you!
In terms of cost I buy a lot of our food in bulk, either from a local wholesaler or online for more 'exotic' items. I am also working to maximise growing our own food although we are far from self-sufficient on that front! :)