Time’s website has an intriguing photoessay up, chronicling the differences in the average diets of families across the globe. The photos are taken from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluzio. Quite the fascinating insight, especially when comparing the costs of eating per week. Out of that set, the German family has the highest cost, with an average of $500 per week (!):

There’s something amusing about the regimented appearance of this food. Orderly Germans!

In contrast, this family living in a refugee camp in Chad spend less per week on food than the cost of one Big Mac:

Flipping through the gallery, it is also striking to note the heavy representation of Coca-Cola products in the diets of First World Countries. Packaging seems to correlate heavily with price. And then there’s this:

This family looks awfully proud to be standing next to the most artery clogging diet ever.
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Though their diet is certainly more filling, I question if this family is that much more nourished than the refugee camp people. I don’t think it’s a question of poverty; they seem to be comfortably middle-class and are spending more on average per week than this other US family (though, curiously enough, they seem to solely subsist on breakfast food):

Seriously, do these people just eat cereal for dinner most nights?

Look at all that candy! Insert British teeth joke here.

I am pretty envious of this spread, although not so much of having to share it with like twenty other people, I suppose.

Flipping through this inspires me to keep track of what is eaten in my household per week. My roommate Andy probably spends the most, since he tends to eat out for lunch and has lots of frozen dinners (and they are of the organic-section variety). Eli probably spends the least, being both a penny-pincher and a shrimp-weight. I typically bring my lunch and prefer to cook at home, but I also like consuming costlier foods, like salmon, fresh herbs and stinky cheeses (mm, stinky cheese).

Last month, the three of us collectively spent quite a bit of money on shared groceries, so I’ll welcome any tactic that will drive those costs down. I love food too much to go quite as far as this guy, but I am curious to see how much per day I actually spend on food. Booze excluded from the budget, of course.

***Note: Apparently in the book, the Revis family (the one with the most packaged food) felt kind of ashamed by all the processed food, and were working on incorporating more fresh produce into their diet. Good for them!

Apologies for the sparseness of this blog - since the beginning of September, my life has been one non-stop whirl of doing things. I am quite grateful that I am not bored and alone these days, resorting to making grocery store trips for the purpose of human interaction (a pathetic note in my life that I can’t seem to find on my blog anymore; hopefully it deleted itself). I am a bit tired, however, and I have another trip coming up - I’m headed off to Houston this weekend to visit my mother.

This past weekend, Krissy planned on going on the Kaw Valley Farm Tour, where you can pay $10 and gain entry to various farms around the area. I decided to tag along and provide the services of my trusty car Bertha. At the very last minute, Andy called us up and asked if he could join. So it was that the three of us drove off east, to gawk at some farm animals and sample their delicious products.

We first visited Landeria Farms, which featured a hundred goats and miscellaneous other wildlife:

Landeria Farms.

Landeria goats multitasking: they are being milked while eating AND eliminating waste!

These goats seemed awfully, I don’t know, alert? This guy in particular appeared to be studying me and my camera. Likely he was debating about whether or not we were edible.

Goat eyes are really strange. According to Wiki, the horizontal pupils may have evolved to enable the goats to see better on mountainous terrain.

I believe one of Krissy’s goals on this trip was to scout out a new addition to her menagerie. She was alarmingly close to sneaking this one into the back of my Corolla.

Andy in the middle of an intimate moment with one of the goats.

We got a tour of the milking and cheese making facilities. The tour included my favorite, free samples! We passed on the milk (”it smells sour,” noted Krissy), but gladly helped ourselves to about ten pounds of delicious goat cheese: fresh chevre, feta, and a wonderfully dynamic Swiss that had been aging since last February.

Kathy, the owner and head cheese honcho of Landeria Farms.

The farm owner showed us around and took us down into an area called the “aging cave,” where she will eventually store the hard cheeses. It’s a climate-controlled basement, humidity fixed, and outfitted with a dumbwaiter to lift the cheeses back up to the surface. We were apparently lucky because the cave is currently under construction; once it is finished and sealed, she won’t let any tourists inside for fear of contamination.

Up the dumbwaiter shaft. Way cooler than the Bat Cave!

After the tour, and after generously sampling the delicious cheeses, we were all quite eager to purchase some to bring home. I was even ready to spend some reserve money I had set aside for purchasing a futon frame on some aged Swiss goodness!

But oddly enough, actually buying the cheese proved to be impossible. “We kind of expected maybe five people to show up,” said Kathy, a bit flustered as she was being bombarded with cheese requests. Eventually she sent one of her help to get a piece of paper to start a mailing list. We had to go hunt down that person, who was confused about why she was getting paper - “Is that for the mailing list?” “Uh, maybe!” I have my doubts as to whether they got our information, so I might have to do even more stalking!

I’m not sure how much it cost to be part of the Farm Tour, and how much preparation she had to have put in for the event or anything, but it had to have been quite the effort. We were a bit baffled as to why, then, nobody prepared for the possibility that people might want to BUY their product. Especially seeing how the farm was featured in the local newspaper the day before, and how much traffic that could potentially bring. It’s nice to see a farm that isn’t profit driven, but man. I wish them well, and I hope they stay in business!

After stuffing more free cheese samples into our greedy maws, we headed off to another farm (the name of which I now forget). This farm wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the last one, but really, how do you compete with people who supply everyone with amazing free cheese?

If you squint, you might see a sleepy puppy in the shade.

Horrible birds, everywhere.

Ahh, fuzzy baby cows. Much better!

That bucket was empty and had fallen over. As soon as I righted it, the cow went over and stuck her head in it. Hey, they’re not bred to be smart!

A pretty little farm cat that solicited me for attention. She looked a little underfed, but maybe that’s because I’m used to my very own whale-cat.

We only went to two farms before we had to go: Krissy had places to be, and I had a futon frame to pick up (seriously. If those goat farm people had let me buy their merchandise, I wouldn’t have had the money for the futon, and therefore would have had more time to explore the farms!).

Next up: Ye Olde Renaissance Festival. Yup, I’m a dork.