Raw on a Budget; Raw in all seasons

The biggest problem in eating raw is not taste. It's money. For instance two pounds of organic tomatoes from the farmers' market costs about 4$. Zucchini noodles about 2$. That's makes four "servings" of raw spaghetti. The catch: tomatoes, garlic, zucchini don't pack the caloric punch of whole wheat spaghetti and canned spaghetti sauce, which I can purchase for about the same amount of money.

I still haven't figured out a way to make our budget fit with raw food. I start out the month optimistically, loading up on fruits and veggies at the farmer's market, or ordering bulk containers of raw organic coconut oil from discount stores online. But two-thirds the way into the month, I'm scrambling to stretch our remaining food dollars. Part of the problem is that our local harvest CSA program was supposed to start this third week in May. We've already put a sizeable portion of our food money toward the end of getting a farm fresh box of organic produce each week from here through October. Problem is, the rainy weather this year delayed planting of the seedlings. Our farm doesn't have anything for us and our money's tied up in the hopes that it will. Soon.

Recently Barbara Kingsolver documented a year of her family's experiment at living locally. One of her points is that it's hard to do this if you're unprepared. In other words, you have to make the most of the season's bounty--when produce is in excess--to prepare for the lean months. As a budget-conscious raw foodist/wannabe-locavore, I need not to buy tomatoes out of season, but purchase them when they're abundant, when all Iowans want to throw up if they have to eat one more tomato. THat's around August or September, and I know they'll be sold at reduced prices at the farmer's market. I can then freeze them or dry them and tuck them away for winter, so I can make my raw marinara and zucchini pasta for pennies.

The problem this year is that i'm behind. I have no apples or squash stored away from the fall. Now basil in my freezer from last summer. And of course, no tomatoes.

I have, however, contemplated and continue to contemplate, growing my own indoor avocado and lemon trees. You can never have enough lemons. Too bad I can't grow coconuts, bananas, mangos and cocao beans.