Busted!

Our rules state that we get to eat, consume, use everything that was in the house at the beginning of the year. We are now two months into our experiment and many of these leftovers are now depleted. For the first time in our married life, we don't have five or more boxes of cereal in the pantry. We have none. We are sugar free or sugar deprived, depending on the way you look at it. (In a cruel turn of fate, we learned with great joy that there was a sugar beet processing plant in Moses Lake, only to find out that it closed in 2002. We're eating a lot honey from Tate's Honey, and experimenting with Palm Sugar from Thailand.) We are using homemade butter instead of cooking oil. (There has got to be some Washington grown and processed canola oil out there - we just haven't found it yet. Can anyone help us on that?) Bananas are a faint memory. We are out of computer paper, and have resorted to printing on the back of the kids coloring pages. Paper towels and napkins are going fast.

One glimmer of abundance at the beginning of the year was an almost full, five pound bag of Toll House chocolate chips.

Up until yesterday I viewed this bag as a little refuge of indulgence. I would grab a handful here and there throughout the week. It was such a huge bag that I chose to focus on the positive. I would say to myself, "I can't believe there are still so many chips left." It was my little fantasy of the never ending bag of chocolate. Yesterday Nancy burst my fantasy bubble when she discovered the almost empyt bag of chips. Busted! I now know the shame and social alienation of the villager, from years gone by, who was caught raiding the winter supply of fruit wine, or some other precious community commodity.

I rationalized my actions, saying, "We were going to run out soon anyway." Nancy, unimpressed with my logic, told me that as part of my penance I had to write about my transgressions on the blog. She has also hidden the few remaining morsels of chocolate, and refuses to tell me where they are.

On a side note, Thailand is probably the worst source of sweets and dessert type foods in the world. mung bean balls anyone? Or how about a red bean popcicle?

Comments

[Melissa]

Are you allowed to trade empty ink cartridges for computer paper? At Office Depot you can trade an empty ink cartridge for 500 pieces of computer paper. I have a few empty ink cartridges if you would like them.

[Melissa]

I went to the freshabundance website and checked it out. This store looks like it might have some items that you could use. They say they offer local items but I could not tell if all of the items were local or just some. If I had to guess I would say not all of the items are local. They did list three types of oils that you could ask about: almond oil, sunflower oil and a whipped buttery spread that was an oil blend of palm fruit, soybean, canola seed and olive. If anybody would know if there is local canola oil out there somewhere, I think they would have an abundance of information.

[nancy]

Melissa- Thanks for the computer paper idea! I checked out the oils at Fresh Abundance and didn't see anything that qualified last month but I'll keep checking.

Craig- glad you did your penance, but now I'm wondering... What else are you hoarding? Is there anything in our house left to hoard? Do I have to start hiding something else from you? Actually, whatever it is it won't last for long.

Truth be told, when we were talking about the chocolate chip crisis in the car last night, Noel said, "there's still that bag of m&ms (from Christmas)". But Craig chimed in, "um, I ate those too."

[Keith]

Walk the plank! Gives new meaning to "Chips Ahoy!"

Look for the local brown cows that produce chocolate milk.

You oughtta get a barrel and start making some wine. Alcohol simulates the euphoria of chocolate.

[Melissa]

I found a local cooking oil at freshabundance. It is called camelina oil.

[Kathryn LaPointe]

What about things you are given? Like the wine grown here in southern Oregon that we could bring with us when we come visit in the summer? Does that count? Rogue Valley Creamery makes some pretty fab local sustainable world-prize-winning cheese. No chocolate, tho.

[nancy]

Bring it on, Kathryn! We could do some trading with our local fare. Craig's sis just sent him a huge bag of oranges and grapefruits (local to her in Sacramento). What a treat- Thanks Hillary! Let us know when you're coming Kathryn, we'd LOVE to see you, go camping...