As part of streamlining everything, I've decided that the weekly shopping procedure could do with refinement. My usual technique of looking in the cupboards, memorising what we need and then loitering in every aisle to jog my memory is not super efficient.
Voilà! The fridge list:
When we run out of something, it gets scrawled on the fridge with my magnetic whiteboard pen and then, on shopping day, I just *snap it* with my phone. Easy.
And what about this chia seeds problem, huh? Worldwide shortage. I guess that's what happens when everyone suddenly realises that something is so cool and big companies spy a cash cow. I've been trying to buy chia, not just for my baking cupboard, but also as a Sana stock item. I have been repeatedly told that all stock for the forseeable future has been snapped up by Big Food. Demand is outstripping supply as often happens when a niche product hits the mainstream.
I'm not surprised that the growers can't keep up. I tried to grow chia once and discovered that one bush would deliver approximately one tbsp of chia seeds a year. Perhaps if I devoted half the garden to it, I could look forward to a yearly batch of chia seed muffins.
So, today, while musing over the predictable grabbiness of the food industry, I stuck to my list and got the shopping done in record time. But then there was that other thing, which I hadn't planned for and which took ages:
A visit to a cat's favourite place in the world. The Vet.
Miranda picks fights a lot. She walks up to boys and whacks them on the head for no reason. Our three just take it, but she tried it on the neighbours cat and he took offence. I was home and heard a ferocious snarling sound. On inspection, there were two cats wrapped around each other, rolling on the ground and getting messy. I broke it up, and Miranda limped off with a bleeding leg. Yay.
That was Saturday, and it's been swelling up in a most expensive looking way. Today I caved, took her to the vet and got her shot full of painkillers and antibiotics. Then two vets held her down and.. *look away if you are squeamy*.. squeezed a world of nastiness out of her leg wound.
She feels a lot better now. The visa card feels 'enlightened'. I'd better be getting that back in love and affection, not snitchiness and the 'you let them stick needles in me!' look.
Have you invented any quirky methods to keep your life organised? I'd love to hear about it.
Organization? Ha!
ReplyDeleteI like your fridge list idea... awesome. Bummer on the lack of chia.... doesn't seem to be a problem here in Aussie, if anything EVERYONE is stocking them now, so the price of them has come down a lot, WIN :)
Maybe I wasn't quite clear. I don't see it becoming a problem for the end user because if a smaller supplier runs out, you can just buy from someone else, or another brand. The problem is for the smaller retailers/wholesalers that can't secure supply because the big companies have snapped it all up. What happens in that case is that a smaller company ends up buying, not from the grower as they used to, but from another company, which pushes their prices up. This is one way that big companies get bigger and richer, and smaller ones have to struggle harder. It's a technique used by bigger companies to try and shut down the little guys and unfortunately it often works. Because, to control society, all you have to do is monopolise the food chain.
DeletePS. I managed to secure 15kg of white chia today for Sana (woohoo!), just because I have a good relationship with an importer. They have 5 tonne in stock and could only spare me 15kg. The rest was all going to another company (one company).
DeleteAll the organic shops are out in my area. i wonder if those Argentinian growers are managing to keep any for their personal use?
ReplyDeleteI'll see your leg wound and raise you an ear infection! The worst bit was when smelly cat shook his head and infected ear gunk hit me in the face. As with yours, some antibiotics and painkillers later and he's pretty much back to his old self, and thankfully no longer smelly.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a LOVELY story. Cats are so gross, yes? I'm pretty good at cleaning up the occasional abscess on the boys, but I was worried that this one might have something in there like a tooth or claw. It was really nasty.. yes, smelly, so delightful...
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