So much food, so little time…

You know that saying about your eyes being bigger than your appetite? That’s my problem when I shop at the farmers market. Sometimes I come home with too much. Then the next week, I overcompensate and come home with too little. Will I ever get it right?

Maybe I’m just slow. Picking up food at the market (whether it’s the CSA or additional food) is not the same as shopping at the grocery store. In the past, I looked through cookbooks, chose recipes, cooked, and ate. Now, I go to the market, see what’s available, and then try to cobble together some nice meals. But I’ve found that this takes a lot of brainpower.

Here are a few ideas I’m using to attempt to tackle the quantity problem:

-estimate how many meals I will cook that week (planning for leftovers)

-choose one veggie for each of those meals (enough to feed my family)

-choose a couple extra veggies that can be eaten raw with lunches

Then, I try to organize my fridge [laugh]. I have two crisper drawers, and I always put the fragile veggies that need to be used first on the right, and the veggies with staying power on the left. That way, I can easily see what needs to be used.

My method is far from perfect. How do you choose what to bring home from the market?

P.S. I’ve started cross-posting on Early Morning Farm’s blog.