Spot-on: Eating Around the Edges

I like to hit the fresh produce last after the milk and meat. Sometimes that works better. That way I can make useful choices if I haven't made a list or added something on the spur of the moment. I'm pretty sure stuff won't spoil in half an hour, or I hope, I maight have to change the way I shop.

It's planned - there is even a name for that first maze of produce and expensive prepared foods and salads. It is suggested that we go left to the center aisles where the better buys are - using a list, of course.

At our Food Coop the produce is in front, with a cooler about halfway back and another on the wall on the left.

"Just because something is edible, that doesn't mean it's food." YESSS! I puke at the number of recipes come people publish here that call for proessed dreck such as canned soup, frozen hash browns and the like, all loaded with chemicals and stripped of real nutrition.

We are lucky in the Delaware Valley region; there are farmers' markets available to all communities at least once a week so we can eat local produce many months of the year, and those willing to eat winter vegs in winter (cabbage, turnips, etc.) can do so year round (yes, there are Amish farmers who do real winter work with witner vegs) can do so. It is possible to avoid the supermarkets. Local milk, cheese and butter are available at most farmers' markets as is locally raised free range meat, poultry and eggs.

I have heard that parts of the US are less blessed; there are no true farmers' markets and people are forced to shop at supermarkets or even (horrors) the big superstores such as Walmart, where they say choices are very limited. I feel sorry for those people.

Still, it is best to stick to the periimeter. If the food won't rot in the cupboard, leave it in the store--it's got too many chemicals.

We defniitely do things differently in New York. Just about the only thing that one can be guaranteed of in terms of finding the produce section in a supermarket is that it will be near the entrance. Pathmark tends to put their produce in the center of the store; Stop & Shop has most of their produce aisles on the right-hand side; A&P has their produce on the left of the store. So there's really no rhyme or reason, except that the produce is usually near the entrance. Strange folk, we New Yorkers are, n'est pas?

JoAnne,
I just head right and follow the wall.

Richard,
Oh yeah, it's planned ferdamshure.

Alison,
Co-ops are a whole nother ball game.

Dorine,
I have fewer options here in the winter -- at least for veggies. But yes, if it won't rot, don't eat it.

Peter,
The specific position of the sections does float, except that as I noted the real food is almost always found on the edges.

At our two supermarkets the produce is at the right, but the "real" food is within the sections, not at the edges. At my favorite family-owned store the produce is at the right as well, but you have to go past all the canned goods etc. to get to it. However this is pretty convenient because the checkout lanes are closest to the veggies and frozen stuff so you don't have to worry about things thawing or going limp.

Around here, both Pathmark and Shop Rite tend to put the produce in the center. At the nearest Acme and the Shop Rite, turning right upon entering runs youstraight into the checkout lines. At the Acme, the produce is directly to the left with the dairy on the extreme opposite wall requiring a long chase past the aisles of inedibles.

But I prefer to get my produce from the Reading Terminal Market, from the individual stalls.

Nancy & Dorine,
I was careful to say not all stores are the same -- and some face legacy issues. For example one of the stores I shop at was taken over by another company. Everything in the center was rearranged, but none of the main sections changed because that where the wiring, cooling, and water supply systems already were. That particular store is different from the other two of their's I shop at.

My favorite store the produce is on the left side of the store and its a huge section. I'm thrilled with the large variety of produce and there is a produce person on duty until 8:00pm. Its nice to be able to ask questions.

I tend to only shop the outside of the grocery store and avoid all of the pre packaged stuff in the center aisles.

Kevin, that was a great article. My grandmother was a natural food enthusiast. She never had packaged food in her kitchen. It was all, as she would said, "Stuff that grows from the ground."

As a result my father followed her philosophy and carried it a little further. He wouldn't eat a casserole---no matter how aromatic it was because he claimed he couldn't recognize which individual ingredients were used.

They both used to tell me not to eat food that I couldn't see whether wrapped in a package or combined in a casserole. As a result I generally shop the perimeter too or frequent farmer's markets.

(But I do cheat and eat Chee-tos)

Donna,
Because I make my own casseroles, I eat them quite happily. And I sometimes eat canned soup.

(You and I could have some decadent edible fun!)