I'm a little disappointed that I haven't kept this site up-to-date during this pandemic. So much of my food habits have changed, and it's a pity that I haven't documented it all. My location has changed too — Kin and I moved from Seattle to Oakland a month ago. And even without the stay-at-home orders, that's altered where and how I shop.

One of the things I managed to do quite successfully while living in Seattle was to sever most of my ties with Amazon. I stopped ordering stuff online, that is. But now, in Oakland, the closest grocery store is a Whole Foods. And the closure of retail stores — not to mention certain shortages, like toilet paper — have made Amazon much harder to avoid.

Before the shelter-in-place orders, I would walk to the grocery store every day. I loved that store too — Metropolitan Market, a locally-owned grocery store that really made me love grocery shopping again. There were some things that reminded me of AG Thriftway, I suppose. The butchers were great, for example, and would gladly cut you what you wanted, not just what was pre-packaged on the rack.

Everyday trips to the grocery store are no longer advisable, of course. And it feels counterintuitive, but I feel like I am spending more time than before figuring out what to eat and how to shop for it. Now I have to carefully plan a week's worth of meals. (I could do more, I suppose, but I do not have a car.)

I've signed up for a weekly CSA — one half share of vegetables and one share of fruits and nuts. I've purchased some meats for the freezer, and I've ordered a box of meats to be delivered next week from a local ranch. (Depending how that works out, I'll probably do that regularly.) I've bought flour, butter, yeast, and sugar from the neighborhood bakery twice now.

With the move, I ditched everything that was in the fridge and freezer in Seattle. (Isaiah was quite happy to inherit several tupperware containers of frozen leftovers and an incredible number of condiments.) I've managed to restock the new freezer with plenty of chicken stock — I've cooked a whole chicken twice now. I made hand-pies with apples from the CSA. They're in the freezer now too. But I still feel rather panicky about what we have and don't have in the house and what I might not be able to find in the coming days, weeks, months.

I'm going to try to write more regularly on this site again — if I can find time, that is, between figuring out food.