Geek, Garden and Cook

For years the advice has been to shop the edges of a supermarket. The reason for this is that’s where the fresh food is – the fruit and vege, the cheeses and dairy etc. The mayo clinic talking about the “DASH” diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) has a whole step in the simple 5 step approach to Shopping the Perimeter. Go ahead and google “Shop the Edges” and you’ll see advice from everyone with a nutrition opinion holding this approach up as good.

But I realised recently that this theory is founded on a very big assumption – that we are buying our food from supermarkets almost exclusively! Think about it, for many many years the supermarket has been THE place to buy everything you need. The major supermarkets at least in Australia dominate the food purchasing.

However this strangle hold is weakening. More and more people are flocking to farmers markets, returning to their local butcher, building their backyard vege patch and chicken coops. Verge gardening, community gardening, food boxes, free food movements, swap shuffle shares etc are slowly changing our primary places to purchase food and I strongly believe this is a great thing.

And it was after a weekend of building my own chicken coop followed by a trip to local farmers market that I found myself heading to the big supermarket. Not for fresh food and dairy but for other staples of bulk made food. It was a strange and guilty feeling to head not for the perimeter that I normally head to but to isle 4 to buy vegemite, then to isle 8 to buy fair trade oxfam ground coffee. All this with my 5 year old daughter in tow trying to teach her healthy eating habits!

I wonder if supermarkets will adapt to this. And instead of putting milk all the way at the back of store so as to tempt you along your journey they’ll change the layout. The shopping isle maze will shift so I travel past the chocolate biscuits on my way to buy vegemite??

Where are you on this local food movement? Just starting out? Shopping the perimeter? Trying to avoid the supermarkets altogether? Would love to know how you are travelling.