Let There Be Milk

I'm hoping they will unload the barge today. I know it finally arrived here yesterday, but when Oliver went to see if they had milk at the store right before closing, there was a sign up that apologized that nothing had been offloaded as of yet. We've been nursing our last half gallon, but ran out last night, so it was toast and bananas (grown here on Andros - so much better than the stuff you can buy in the States!) for breakfast today.

In truth, I'm kind of getting used to the shortages, so I'm not really peeved about it. We have powdered and canned milk as a back up for cooking, and it's not going to kill us to not drink it for awhile. Lack of choice is definitely not the same as no food at all.

I am, however, getting a good picture of why the buy local campaigns matter. We get most of our food from the States, which gets a lot of it from other countries. When the resupply barge, which comes weekly, is delayed by bad weather (like it was this week - the winds here have been crazy), everything gets dicey.
Add to that early frosts in different countries, including California (as has been reported recently to us), and you get a situation here where not too much choice becomes almost no choice.

Like the complete lack of fresh vegetables lately. I used to count on getting a decent salad at the chow hall, which is pretty much the only reason I enjoy eating there occasionally. The last time we went, though, all they had was lettuce, some sad looking cucumbers, and canned fruit. There wasn't even a potato bar with diced onions, tomatoes, and peppers, which I often use on my salad. The store has had about five kinds of "fresh" vegetables, most of which look like they are going to rot by the time you get them home.

So, I'm really, really grateful for the stuff we've been able to buy that was grown here. There is a big initiative in the Bahamas right now to grow a garden because so much of what they eat is imported. A place like this is much more susceptible to food supply disruptions because of how our food gets here. I hope they are successful at encouraging more local food production. I haven't had a lot of success in our garden the last six months or so, but I just put some more seeds in the ground and am crossing my fingers over them. Wyatt is also in a gardening class once a week after school, and they are growing vegetables in four raised beds next to the school building. It's really awesome sometimes the opportunities that can come from moving around. Gaining new perspectives is by far the reason I can't wrap my head around the idea of ever settling down.