Finding food in rural America??

[SouthernBeth]

My husband and I are on Day 4 (!!) and we live in a pretty southern, rural part of the country. Most of the region has NOT caught on to the pastured, grass fed trend. You would think with all the land it would be more popular, but alas, it's all Tyson chicken houses.

Anyhow, we've found a couple farmers to purchase grass fed beef from and maybe eggs (if we're lucky), but in the winter, it's a slow business. We do most of our shopping at Walmart (I know) and a local grocery store if we can. We have a couple 'natural' food stores, but they're mostly filled with supplements and processed foods.

Is anyone else out there in a similar situation? I would love to hear about your experiences finding compliant meat and organic anything. We're doing our best and pretty much all the food we're eating is technically compliant, just not top of the line organic, grass fed.

Thanks!

[Kim Christensen]

I live in rural TN. While it's not the right time of year to order now but ask the farmers you talked to about bying beef by the 1/4, 1/2 or whole cow. We buy between a whole and half a cow. When all is said and done we actually pay about $4 a lb for organic (our farmer is 100% organic) grass-fed beef. We then hunt for vension to fill the rest of the year. Living rural, an interesting idea that a friend of mine does every year is post fliers and an ad in our rural paper about accepting donations of venison for those who like to hunt but not eat it. She also says they will come pick up a deer and take it to the processing center and pay the processing fee. They fill multiple freezers every year for their large family doing this. Venison is grass-fed and wild caught lol.

We can't afford all organic produce. Now we do shop a lot at farmer's markets all spring-late fall which makes good quality produce affordable and have a garden. But outside of that I have to buy at Aldi's, Walmart, etc. If you have an Aldi's there is always super cheap produce there. Bags of sweet potatoes have been 75 CENTS all fall. Cauliflower has been $1 a large head. Cabbage $1 a head. Bags of frozen wild caught salmon (while frozen and not great but super yummy in soups, salads, etc.) is $4.50.

Does Azure Standard run through there? I think it does and they have regular pickups for organic foods, including produce.

[HealingWithin]

You can buy meat online at Us Wellness Meats:

http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok

I buy my lard from them. They even have W30 approved bacon.

[SouthernBeth]

Thank you, Kim! The venison idea is great. We don't hunt but obviously, we know a lot of people who do and either don't eat it, or have too much already. I'm going to put it on facebook! I don't know what Azure Standard is, but I'll look it up. I'm glad I'm not the only one in a similar situation. We're about to head to the farmer's market. This time of year there are only 3-4 vendors, but one if a friend who owns a vegetable farm and another is meat, so hopefully we'll get some yummy stuff!!

Thanks!

[AmyS]

I live in a rural area (medium size town surrounded by rural areas, actually). I just shop at the supermarket. It's a big enough change going from junk food to veggies and meats (for me that is) - I'll make further transitions as I go on. For now, just spending all of my grocery shopping time in the veggies and meats section has been huge. I know some people feel like they have to go all organic, all grass fed, all free range, all the time, but I keep reading it's not necessary for a Whole30. I'm glad, because while I approve (in theory) of all of that, in practice it's just been HUUUGE to just change what parts of the grocery store I hang out in. Heh.

[megsswm]

I al so live in a rural area with less access to everything..... We buy out beef, pork, and lamb from a local rancher by the side and bought a freezer... As others have said it takes space but price wise it is vastly cheaper than store bought factory meat and it is local pastured grassfed. Google is your friend on this. We also take game meat from friends when in season. We live in area that snows in winter so our farmers market is seasonal but in the summer we try to shop there as much as possible. In our area we have a few grocery stores and shop there for basics and fillers. Once a month we drive an hour and half to the closest Costco and trader joes and bring a few coolers to stock up. Finally in the last year we enrolled in amazon prime...... For rural areas it is a godsend.... For $79 a year you get free two day shipping on just about anything on amazon.... We buy our coconut oil , coconut milk, supplements, aminos.... And many other grocery items that are hard to find cheaply in rural areas and they get delivered right to my door..... You get a month free trial of it if you try it.... And prices on amazon are amazing... A twelve can case of Thai kitchen coconut milk is about 12 bux which is half the price of our local store. Living in a rural area can be a challenge but finding local people over time to buy and trade from helps and the Internet is your friend! Good luck

[SouthernBeth]

Thanks! We just got back from our farmer's market (4 vendors today! Whoop!) and we got a good haul. We spent about $45 on fresh/organic eggs, chicken tenders (he was out of breasts), chorizo, grass-fed beef tips, ground beef, greens, turnips, and tomatoes. Not bad! I like being able to chat it up with the guy who raises our meat, too. It feels really good. Someone told him about Paleo at a conference and said to FIND THE PALEO PEOPLE because they're the best thing to happen to local farmers in years. Ha! Also, my brother-in-law has a friend who ran out of room in his freezers, but can kill one more doe, so we're splitting the processing fee and the venison. Score!! It's like we're all working together. Fabulous.

I've looked on Amazon and I think we'll start using it; I had no idea about the Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, though! It is WAY cheaper to buy coconut products there and in bulk than at Walmart. I bought organic coconut oil last night at Neighborhood market for over $4. I didn't feel like waiting and I paid for it.

This thread has been so helpful! Thanks, y'all!

[AmyS]

That all sounds AWESOME!!!!!

[megsswm]

sounds like you started to get your "network" together.....yay for you! yeah Paleo is the best thing to happen to local farmers and ranchers my local sources joke....our area Crossfit is their best clients. Took me a while to pay the $79 a year for amazon prime but it is worth it tenfold for us.....especially when you need things kind of quick and can't drive far. And with the price of gas it is cheaper than driving to a town that has some of those things.