While not exactly a food desert, food shopping while staying in Middletown has been a bit challenging. There’s a nice grocery store/hardware store – Hardesters – within 10 minutes. And a few more minutes down the road, there’s a Grocery Outlet.
Hardesters has a decent variety of fresh organic fruits and vegetables. It also carries a number or our other staples such as gluten free grains, beans, tofu and our preferred soy milk. Surprisingly, the price of the fresh produce is very reasonable. The other refrigerated items and dried goods are fairly pricey.
Grocery Outlet has become our go-to for most pantry items. Since their inventory is always changing, it’s a bit of an adventure 🙂 They have a decent organic selection and low prices. While they also carry organic produce, the produce section tends to support a thriving community of fruit flies. We’ve felt safe purchasing their boxed greens, but otherwise rely heavily on Hardesters for produce. Otherwise, Grocery Outlet does sell large bags of organic frozen fruit and vegetables, which I do like to stock our freezer with for smoothies, oatmeal add-ins and to round out quick meals. I’ve also been delighted to score big bags of organic medjool dates – these are a must for snacking, making energy balls and sweetening desserts and smoothies.
One staple that has been hard to find at a decent price is nut and seed butters. Grocery Outlet offers a limited selection, though they are full of added ingredients. We prefer just the nuts/seeds and maybe a little salt. After paying almost $9 for a small jar of peanut butter, I took to the internet. Amazon wasn’t much help. Next, I went straight to the manufacturer’s website and ordered a case. I did the same for our other favorites – almond butter and tahini.
We’ve also started sprouting and making our own tortillas. There are plenty of corn tortillas available in the stores here, but our girls love the Siete Almond Flour Tortillas and those are nowhere to be found. Tortillas are something we’ve made in the past, so it’s been fun to dust off the press and turn out a some fresh batches.
It may be harder to access our favorite and nutritious and delicious staples, but thanks to a few work arounds, it’s all still possible. Much thanks to the internet and the post office!