Home Grown Veggies Support the Local Green Grocer

I ventured out yesterday to see how the supplies in the shops were faring.  Even though we were not in a flood area many of the shelves of our local Green Grocer were quite empty.  Milk was particularly hard to get and only 2 bottles were left on the shelves last night.  I had looked at the heavily laden chokos on my clothes line before going down to the shop and wondered if these would help.  The response was " we would be very grateful for any vegetables".

So I loaded up my trolley first thing this morning, and wheeled them down.  I wanted to give them away as I did on Freecycle, but this wasn't allowed.... so we agreed to barter.  This way their business doors would remain open a little longer, locals could still get veggies and I would be supporting my local grocer by using their shop.  I still have plenty of chokos left over for low income earners on Freecycle, plus a fresh bumper crop on it's way.


It was 7.0am when I made my delivery and found they had only managed to get about half doz bottles of milk, .......so I very was lucky to receive one in my barter.  The rest would be gone in half an hour or sooner. I also managed to get a pack of carrots.  Some prices had gone up ....some by 30%.

Thankfully, our local butcher is not having any trouble getting beef and lamb as they source their meat locally from places like Pittsworth.  Chicken is scarce though, with a convoy of trucks blocked by flood waters.  I did notice that the sides of lamb had also increased by 30%....even so it was still an economical buy at $7.99 per kg

So, if you have a surplus of home grown veggies contact your local shop and see if they need help in supplying the community with fresh produce and help keep their doors open.  Many need food NOW.

Some of the produce that may be hard to source now and in days to come will be things like Chinese greens, capsicums, broccoli, tomatoes etc.  The Lockyer Valley was the salad bowl of Queensland and supplied most of the state as well as many parts of  Australia.  Some of these veggies are fast growing, so planting a few extra in your garden now, will go a long way in supporting our local communities during recovery.

Well  I am off to plant some Chinese greens and potatoes,  prop up my tomatoes, blanch and freeze my beans and get the snails off my silver beet......after all there are just so many chokos one can eat  :)

All the best to those affected in any way by the floods
Cheers
Joan