2020 Produce Tracking Results

Salut!

Remember the beginning of 2020? That was a different way of life. So long ago…
I wrote here that Lucas and I were going to be keeping track of all of the produce that comes through our house. Lucas was going to make a dashboard, so after I weighed the food, I would enter the type of food, weather it was fresh, frozen or canned (jarred), what it weighed and how much it cost. Lucas and I would be able to use this information to find out average weights of apples, how many carrots we consumed, what the cost of bell peppers are for our family yearly and ultimately, what the weight of all of our produce for the year, 2020, was.

We considered produce anything in the groups of fruit, vegetable and nuts. Yeah, most people don’t think of almonds as produce, and for the most part I don’t either, but for this year long project, legumes and the variety were included as a type of produce. I wanted to find out if the statement “I eat a TON of veggies” was a true statement! And, since I was keeping track of produce, for fun I kept track of our egg consumption as well.

I am sorry to say, that although Lucas built me a dashboard, I did not utilize it as much as I wanted to. I added the first two months produce purchases in to the dashboard but then started to fall behind. I would write down all of the information I needed from the purchase (what it was, how many of them, what it weighed and what it cost) and then try and put the information in the dashboard at night after my daughter went to sleep. But then we found out we were moving across the country and I spent all of my nights trying to understand real estate on the East Coast. So I have the data on paper. I compiled the weight and cost of the produce we purchased and also tallied up some of the individual produce types (how many carrots did we consume this year?) The numbers are pretty interesting:

Onions! I put onions in everything! And this shows. Our family of three consumed 345 onions this year. I dice up onions and cook them with most of the meat I prepare. I put onions in all of my soups and stews. Onions have to go on salads and tacos – and every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday! Eggs and sandwiches go hand in hand with onions. Baking a pizza? Throw some extra vegetables on it before putting it in the oven. I’ll put a whole onion on a bake at home pizza!

I am actually surprised that this number is not higher. 179 bell peppers is still a lot, but I figured we would have been closer to the onion number. Aldi sells bell peppers in a 3 pack, and on a weekly basis I would usually get at least one pack of colored bell peppers. But they are expensive – $3.29 for a 3 pack. Now I have found a small produce store in the Philadelphia area, which is where we moved to, called Produce Junction, that sells bell peppers for a lot less. 2-5 pounds for $2-$4. (Prices vary on a weekly basis, but I have found the price and quality to be fantastic). Also, during the beginning of the pandemic, I was only grocery shopping once every three weeks and for about two months, quality fresh produce in small city Wisconsin was scarce. So we didn’t get much. Cooking was difficult for me, as I lean of fresh produce heavily but I made it work.

I don’t like fresh tomatoes. But I eat them. I put them on my salads, on tacos and on my sandwiches. Why? Because they are healthy for you and it sets a good example for my daughter when she sees me eating some of all of the vegetables at the table. If I loved tomatoes, I am guessing the number purchased would have doubled. I prefer the taste of Roma tomatoes. They are easy to slice, small, so usually used in one sitting and very inexpensive.

Again, the fresh produce drought in our household during the middle of the year kept this number lower. But honestly, I do most of my apple purchasing in late Summer and Fall. We found HUGE Rome apples at Produce Junction and fell in love with them. They are excellent and worth a taste if you find them. If you slice one open (which is how I usually serve them) and it is striped with pink or red coloring on the flesh, don’t worry, it is perfectly fine. Select a Rome apple like you would any other – good coloration, not soft or mushy. Try one and tell me what you think!

Very surprised at this. Only 44 pears. My family consumes pears towards the Fall part of the year, so they are in competition with apples, but I was very surprised at only having purchased 44 of them, as I find pears to be fantastic! But they bruise easily and do not like traveling and it is difficult to cut them in the morning and bring them along on an adventure to eat with lunch. And cut pears don’t make the cleanest finger foods. Apples are easier. So I think those are my reasons we didn’t have as many in 2020. And again, we found a new-for-us type, red pears, and I love them. We bought them until they were no longer available for the season at Produce Junction.

Bananas are in season all year. Easy to grab when you are running out the door. Easy to open. Can be paired with many foods. And when our family consumes 6 pieces of fruit per day (a piece at lunch and dinner per person) 44 cents a pound is an excellent price!

For a while we only bought one avocado a week because they were a touch expensive and I needed to watch our budget. But as of late, avocados have been less than $1 and our income stabilized, so I am able to purchase large quantities again. For instance, the past two weeks I have purchased 13 avocados. I’m thankful it is not an issue for me to do so. Taco Tuesdays, toast, salads and sandwiches in our house have been aided with the help of avocados! We are enjoying the reasonable price for them right now.

I wasn’t expecting 341 carrots for two reasons. I didn’t think I purchased so many of them – even though I like carrots – but when I purchased carrots in Wisconsin, I purchased them from a butcher shop (that also had a small stand of produce and cheese) and the carrots there are massive. I purchased some carrots from MJ’s (butcher) in the middle of 2020 that were a similar diameter as my forearm. And they were not dried out and didn’t taste woody. They were great! But 341 carrots (not including baby cut carrots mind you – I usually don’t buy them) is quite a surprise for me!

I would have preferred this number to have been less, but given the pandemic, high amounts of canned food was going to happen. Like I said, in the beginning of the pandemic I was only grocery shopping once every three weeks. Fresh food wouldn’t last the full three weeks. I would purchase what fresh food was edible for the first week of hanging out, self quarantined in our house and then fortified our meals with canned goods.

Now for the weight of all produce we purchased.
I broke it up in to several categories.
Nuts and Dried Fruit weight = 23,803g or 52.55 lbs
Frozen Vegetables weight = 44,695g or 98.66 lbs
Canned, Jarred and Processed weight = 223,873g or 494.20 lbs
Fresh Produce weight = 496,596g = 1,096.24 lbs

So no, we didn’t eat a ton of vegetables in one year. Our family of 3 purchased and consumed a bit over 1,700 pounds of produce. What went to waste? One potato was purchased rotten (on accident). Half a head of lettuce went bad. 1/3 a container of strawberries were mushy so the pets ate them. And if all rotten pieces were combined, an onion and a bell pepper were thrown out due to being soft. I do not waste food. I plan for it’s use. If it does not taste great, I deal with a lack-luster meal. And I adjust the plan as necessary.

I calculated the cost of the produce. I don’t feel the cost of the produce we consumed over the year was astronomical. I don’t think healthy food is kept at an unattainable price that most cannot afford. I broke our spending down by month:
January = $237.56
February = $80.61
March = $145.68
April = $169.50
May = $168.98
June = $90.08
July = $157.37
August = $128.32
September = $182.62
October = $184.07
November = $146.32
December = $103.22
Total = $1,664.33

Do you need to spend $1,600 on produce a year? No. But I don’t think that is high. But are you going to eat 345 onions in a year? Probably not – but I recommend it. Onions are low in calories, cheap, flavorful and add nutrients to your meals. I stick mine in the fridge – and if they would actually last that long, they are good for several weeks.

Just because, I kept track of our egg consumption as well. We purchased and consumed 726 eggs, which is 60.5 dozen. Full disclosure the dogs got a couple for a protein additive. I am conflicted about eggs. I’m not the happiest about how eggs are “manufactured” today and wish I could own a small flock to help fortify our supply, but that is not feasible right now.

Just some food-for-thought (pun intended). With a bit of planning and an interest in consuming produce, I feel anyone is capable of switching or fortifying their diet with a healthy, affordable option. It is unfortunate that I didn’t utilize the dashboard that Lucas created, however this is a snapshot of what we kept track of through 2020.

Let me know what you think!
Have a great and healthy 2021!