This is the second in a two part series about Joslyn Taylor’s efforts to eat local. To read the first part, click here.

For the past three weeks, I’ve aimed to buy local + organic for at least 75% of all my family’s foodstuffs, while staying relatively close to our normal weekly grocery budget. I started out on my quest to prove that sustainable eating doesn’t have to be cost prohibitive all full of vim and vigor, and while I’m still enthusiastic, I’m also, well…tired.

My food shopping fatigue started with the monumental re-jiggering of our food budget to assure we could afford organic at the checkout. I had to figure out where we were spending most of our food dollars today and what we could eliminate. What we immediately crossed off the list were almost all pre-made, processed foods– no more five dollar a pop frozen organic pizzas, boxed mac and cheese and fancy juice. We (mostly) slashed the yummy organic vanilla cookies, the cheddar bunnies the granola bars and the five different types of cheese. Right away, we freed up loads of cash, and 100% organic veggies, fruit, milk, eggs, flour and bread were no longer out of our reach. We still bought pantry staples like peanut butter, pasta and maple syrup and were still able to squeeze in few treats like dark chocolate and good coffee – after all, this wasn’t an experiment in deprivation.

We diligently started to make the foods we previously spent the most on (i.e. that frozen pizza) from scratch, and in most cases (a comically cursed case of brownies notwithstanding) it was more fun and far, far tastier. We’re now utterly committed to making homemade pizza. It’s a revelation.

Once the budget was worked out, it was time to address the logistics. With a full time job and two young kids, shopping at three to five different stores a week to buy local food is unrealistic. If I lived in a little French village, I might enjoy visiting the baker, the butcher, the cheese shop and the farmers market, walking to each place, chatting with my neighbors. But I don’t.

The menu Photo: Joslyn Taylor

With all my savings from cutting out the grocery store’s pricy middle aisles, I could afford to do an entire shopping trip at Whole Foods, and I naively thought that was the answer – a one stop shop. Obviously buying organic wasn’t an issue, but finding local foods (the other half of my goal) was a major challenge. They had only two or three produce items touted as local, but they were conventionally grown, and the tag just said “Texas”, and let’s face it, without knowing where in Texas, it might be more environmentally friendly to procure produce from a neighboring state, as this place is big. There were lots of free-range, organic eggs, but none from around here, same with dairy (save a few bottles of local dairy Lucky Layla’s kefir). I was vexed.

After a little research, and some grocery store scouting, I started to figure out a system. We’d visit the farmer’s market first during our Saturday morning shopping trip, loading up on as many local items as possible, then head to Whole Foods, Central Market or Sprouts (one not all three) for the staples. We ended up spending about $35 more a week than normal on groceries, but made up for it by not ordering our Friday night pizza from the local joint. We spent more time purchasing, preparing and cooking food, but it was time well-spent with what was at stake – our health, the environment… And as an added bonus, our oldest daughter totally engaged in the process, playing the role of shopping assistant and sous chef with aplomb. There have been set-backs for sure, and we still succumb to the siren song of Chick-fil-A from time to time, but overall I think we’re on our way.

Next week, I’ll share that life changing pizza recipe!