We started Growing from the Ground Up, a supply chain, a community based effort to bring farmers and customers together. We had 1000 reasons to start a food supply chain. The times being one of them. You would think we knew many things, but we didn’t and one of the great surprises to me was what it was like to shop for food online. I had thoughts it might strip away a lot of the fun I have when shopping for veggies.

We, like many people had switched to online purchases over the years. In fact my brother had a business on Amazon for a while before we were “Amazoned”.

But stepping back a bit in this story, both my brother and I are foodies. We love food. We love growing things. We love spices, Indian cooking, Asian cooking… breads, you name it. Our spice rack is really a box full of spices. So that is who we are.

It’s the smells, the feel, the air, the sunlight! When we would shop in stores we would always start in the produce section. I loved seeing all the produce, the colours, the smells. I enjoyed going up and down the isles seeing what new product might be there, vegetables new to me. New sauces. New… just new things. We always read labels. Did you know there is sugar in Windsor salt? Why would you have sugar in salt????

But when we started the online food supply, we started shopping for food on line. I was not entirely happy because I love the tradition of shopping, the connection, the community. But I was in for a surprise!

Pixabay

Each week we would sit down, Mark and I, and shop. We started going through the food that was available. We had to change our thinking or put on another hat if you will, one that went from builders of the site and community, to one of a customer, a shopper. What did we want? What interested us…? We wanted to try the A2 milk, and some cheese. We bought small quantities ’cause we wanted to try it first. And then too, Peak Quality Sausages. We imagined the taste, the smell… and made some choices. We have been doing this for maybe 2 months now. And when the food comes it is like Christmas! I can’t wait to take out the groceries, look at them all, see what we bought… put it away! It is exciting! And the eating part – that is always cool!

I have a post about Herma’s flour – making bread is a daily thing for me now. And then the other day, I ended up in Walmart for something, towels I think it was. I remember feeling so alien in the store. Everything seemed so pale and insipid. Within 2 months my entire food experience has changed. How could I enjoy shopping on line more than shopping for vegetables? But I realized that when I am shopping in stores, much of my time is spent fending off the advertisements, the rushing, moving around people, trying to avoid the pitfalls of the misleading product info, and even the cashiers at times. “Do you want a Walmart Mastercard” “Would you like to donate to ….”

And I realized that when I am sitting at the computer my time is my own. I can think about what the food is like, what recipes I can make, and then we make a choice, many choices ’cause maybe we want some other product to go with our dinners we are planning. I realized that I am enjoying the space and time to really appreciate my shopping. I HAVE the space and the time now…

I remember when Superstore first came on the scene. All the glaring yellow, the flashing lights in the isles. People on skates. Marketing, I was told, was about moving people through the isles in a certain way that they would buy more than they normally would. Maybe so, but all I remember now was that it was painful to my eyes and my thinking. I never shopped there. So over time, drip by drip, shopping changed and it is no longer a luxury. You are rushed through everything, with every attempt to psychologically manipulate you into buying what you don’t need and confuse you.

I read a book many years ago and the title was “Leisure: The basis of Culture” by Joseph Pieper. In it he said that when you no longer have leisure, a culture disintegrates. In some odd way, our leisure to shop was taken away. Our time for relaxing was stolen in a 1000 small steps.

I don’t like shopping AT ALL anymore, in grocery stores. Or in stores in general. How could a habit of my 62 years in the making, be changed in only 2 months…?

Aside from the other surprises that our food bills over all have gone down and other perks, I have found pleasure again, on line, in a way I never thought I would.

I wanted to share this with you because it is my journey as a co-founder with my brother of Growing From the Ground Up, what it was like for me to switch to online food shopping.

Elana

Growing From the Ground Up.

Quoted by

Michael Naughton
University of St. Thomas, reviewing Joseph Peiper’s work

This is why Pieper states “Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture—and ourselves.” Leisure is not an escape through consumption and amusements. It is an open confrontation with ourselves. “Leisure allows one to steep oneself in the whole of creation” by opening oneself to the mystery of Being. Prayer, contemplation, meditation, reflection, all require silence (stillness) because they are acts of reception. Leisure allows one to receive the gifts of wisdom on which no amount of human labor can attain by itself.

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