The belly rules the mind. ~Spanish Proverb

This week is my first foray into the world of bush grocery shopping. I have two food orders coming this week on top of my usual produce delivery. One thing my mom and others are most interested in is the cost of food here. Let me give a few examples:

1. On my first week in Alaska my friend Segue and I decided to split a 12-pack of Diet Coke. We went to AC (Alaskan for Wal-Mart) and bought one-- for $12.50.

2. When I first came to the village, I went to the store to show my face and goodwill. I bought two candles, a 12-pack of Ruby Red Squirt and a pack of cookies for a grand total of $41.00!

Because of this, I no longer drink soda. It's all water all the time for me, but distilled only. . .

I mainly get groceries in three ways. First, is Full Circle Farm. This is an organic farm in Washington that ships boxes of produce out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I pay $46 to get a small box every two weeks. Usually I get 4 different kinds of fruit with 3-4 pieces of each, and 6-7 vegetables. I probably eat more produce here than I did in Ohio. Frankly, it's not too much more expensive that it would be in Ohio, and everything is fresh and organic. The farm boxes up the produce and puts it on a plane. I'm supposed to get the box every Tuesday, but the time varies. Basically, it comes on a plane at some point in the day. It could be morning, afternoon, or 9:00 at night.

I received my first Fred Meyer order this week. I paid $380 for 4 boxes of groceries. In Ohio, I would probably pay $200 for the amount of food I got. I had to buy all dry goods because any chilled or frozen food costs about twice as much to ship.

Finally, some other teachers and I went together to get an organic meat order. I paid $140 for 24 pieces of chicken breast and 10 pounds of hamburger. Once again, all this comes on a plane with a pilot that doesn't actually care if your pretzel rods are broken.

Obviously, food is difficult to get and expensive here in Alaska. But, overall, I think I'm breaking close to even on food spending since I am not eating out nearly as much!

I hope you enjoyed the insight into Alaskan food. It was tough to top the moose carving!