Making changes involves a lot flashy big exciting things, but it also involves a lot of little mundane run of the mill stuff. I’ve struggled to come up with topics lately to write about, but as I was out on a short hike, I was thinking about some of the changes that we have been making lately, that are…well…a little basic…but still changes in our lives.
Years ago, we started buying a side a beef twice a year. We ended up getting a second stand up freezer for this and kept things pretty well stocked. The beef is incredible. No doubt about it. I love it. The steaks are well marbled, they have great flavor. We’ve really enjoyed it. I think at the end of the day, it probably cost as much as going to the grocery store, I don’t know that we really saved anything, but it’s good meat.
As we are paring down our possessions, one of the things we sold was one of the freezers. Additionally, we’ve decided not to order that side of beef. Right about now would be the time to do it. We’re getting low on ground beef, the steaks are mostly gone, all of the roasts are gone. We’ve started to shift to less beef in our daily meals, to more meatless meals, chicken, or fish-based meals. It’s forced me to get creative in cooking…trying to find new recipes, new ways of cooking.
Once we get to the boat, how we get food is going to change a bit. We won’t have two standup freezers and an extra fridge freezer. We might, depending on the boat, be able to get a small chest freezer (Sailing Nahoa has one on their boat) to keep some extra stuff to freeze, but we aren’t going to all that space. Grocery shopping will change in that we will probably be buying more items that will store for longer periods of time. Obviously, once we go to cross the Pacific or the Atlantic, we’ll need weeks of food (it’s about three weeks to a month to cross the Pacific), but fresh fruits and veggies don’t last weeks, so we’ll need to eat those fresh fruits and vegetables that go have a shorter shelf life first and then move on to root vegetables, which of course last longer.
It has been interesting as we’ve slowly changed eating. I’ve found some vegetarian meals that I really enjoy (check out these roasted tomatillo black bean tacos). I don’t know that I ever thought I’d enjoy a straight vegetable meal, but I’m pushing myself and us to think about other foods. That’s going to be an absolute necessity as we go to new countries too…beets might not be available ☹. But there’s going to be something new that we’ve never been exposed to and will love even more than what we are used to eating here at home.
As I’ve watched several of our “friends” on YouTube, I’ve also noticed that people to varying degrees try to live off the ocean too. The Wayward Life has taken this to an amazing level. They pickle kelp, pick wild onions off the coast of British Columbia, catch salmon. Of course they go to grocery stores too, but they try to minimize that as well. The Wynns don’t do it quite as much, but I noticed the other day they will harvest things like sea lettuce to make their salads, I don’t know how much else they do, but they do try it seems like.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love a good grilled ribeye, but I no longer try to plan that into the menu even monthly. In fact, rather than spending a good chunk of change on a side of beef, I was ecstatic when I found grouper at a local grocery store and was able to make fish tacos out of grouper…sure it was caught, frozen, and shipped, but still I don’t remember the last time I had grouper! I know some folks have gone from hardcore meat and potatoes to vegetarian overnight and I say, good for you. Changing food in our family is a slow process but it’s happening. I’ll share some recipes coming up. Most will likely be reblogged, but I’ll still share some. There aren’t a lot of recipes that I have created myself. Will some of them that I share be with us on the boat? I don’t know, but knowing that changes are happening gives me some feelings of hope from moving forward.
The Great Wander 