Groceries' New Challenge: Empty Shelves

 2025 is starting out, for us, with a new grocery challenge. It's not so much affordability anymore because after we've made some lifestyle changes (limited vacations, changes in food preferences and equal substitutions) we can still put food on our table without sacrificing quality. The new challenge for us is finding the food in the first place. Each time hubby and I go grocery shopping we are encountering more and more empty shelves. And now, with the announcement of tariffs being levied against Canada, Mexico and China (click White House for more info), there may be some more additional food shortages for either the long or the short haul.

What's a retired, sorta-fixed income couple to do?

My first impulse was to stock up. With the horrific rise in egg prices (click here for more info), the next item to fall would be the chicken. As more and more poultry farmers cull their herds, in order to ward off bird flu, where are the initial male and female chickens to come from? Thankfully, hubby and I live in rural upstate New York and many of our neighbors are farmers (many of them, organic!). One of the local markets here raise their own chickens and sell them at only $2.09 a pound. For now! These local chickens come pre-cut (8 pieces per bird, we save the back bone for soups) and are delicious. So, this morning, hubby and I tracked out to the farm market and stocked up on chickens. We're not so worried about eggs as many of our neighbors raise their own egg-laying chickens and we often barter for eggs. 

Our local Aldi is currently selling a dozen eggs @$5.03. Limit two per customer.

My second impulse was to set up a vegetable garden as well as plant fruit trees. I planted one apple and one peach tree. The apple tree didn't make it but the peach tree did. We enjoy my home baked peach crumb pie as well as my canned peach preserves. I also harvest a wide array of tomatoes (beefsteak and plum tomatoes to be a bit more exact). I also harvest eggplant, peppers, cucumber, zucchini, green beans as well as celery and spring-mix leaf salad mix, basil and parsley.

Here are some of the dishes I prepare over the summer (and then freeze for the winter): New York Crumb Cake, Apple or Peach Crumb Pie, stuffed artichokes, home made hummus, roasted red peppers with olive oil and black olives over toasted Italian bread, fresh salad from my garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, feta cheese and my own greek vinaigrette dressing, linguini with my home made basil pesto sauce, fresh tomato soup with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, fresh spinach salad with tomatoes, greek olive, feta cheese, steamed green beans, Long Island baked clams, Prince Edward steamed muscles, home made pizza dough topped with my tomatoes, spinach and red onions, home made tiramisu (one with rainbow sprinkles, the other with chocolate sprinkles)

Needless to say, hubby and I very RARELY ever go out to a restaurant. Most times, our food is way better than what a restaurant could prepare, regardless of price. In the 'before time' when I used to make my own cooking videos (which BTW, I am going to bring back! on this blog) I posted a video on how hubby and I used to make our pizzas, every Friday night, for only $2 per pie. Naturally, that price has gone up BUT so have the costs of an authentic, take-out or eat-in Italian pizza pie. It is still very cost effective to make your own pizza, starting with a crust made from scratch. Here's the video, Stay tuned for more DIY cooking videos.