Day 11

Hi there,

We have just returned from a trip to Seaford Drake (Foodland) for our first supermarket shop since our project began 10 days ago.

Aarod and I decided to do some supermarket research - we were only going to take a basket as we thought that there would be so few items to buy - luckily we took a trolley because there was much more than we expected to find, probably because our criteria was different to our usual (Organic, wholemeal, free range, min chem). We were only looking for local products: if the company had an SA address and was made from Australian ingredients, we bought it, regardless. We rejected anything that did not list it's ingredients, or where it was from, or anything mentioning imported ingredients. We even bought plastic cheese (you know, those separately wrapped slices - euww). There were many fresh products such as fruit and veg and meat that we did not buy, though, as we had just been to the farmers market and are growing alot of our own. It was a very interesting exercise, with a few surprises.

They stock a large range of Maggie Beer products which appeared to be all local, except for those containing spices. They also stock many Spice Girlz relishes which we unfortunately had to pass on because of the spice content. They have a great range of Paris Creek BD Farm products as well as Murray River and Udder Delights cheeses. We found 3 brands of bread that appear to be from local bakeries,( will need to check what flour they use): Abbots Village Bakery; Ryemill Bakery; and Riviera Bakery. They stock an extensive range of Beerenberg jams and sauces including a strawberry sauce that could be a good alternative to maple syrup for pancakes. They make two interesting salad dressings, however the oil used is Canola - so could be imported, and/or GM.

Three items that were a surprise: Newman's Horseradish is made in Langhorne Creek; Bickford's cordial has imported ingredients (I am not sure how I missed that information - it would probably be the concentrated lime or could be the sugar?); Udder Delights make a percuno cheese - which would be a good substitute for Parmesan.

A note for myself for the next supermarket research trip, which will be to Woolworths, or Coles, (the other two local supermarkets) - take a pen, camera, the map, and my reading glasses! The map would have been very useful for the fishmongers, as he kept telling us where the fish was from and we were unsure if it was in our radius. The camera would have been very useful to photograph the products that we did not want to buy, and the barcode of the Beerenberg products.

For Michael's Mum I will add the prices here:

• Beerenberg Jam - Blackberry and Raspberry 300g $3.49 each
• Bickfords Lime cordial 750 ml $3.44
• Foodland Pear Halves 825g $2.19
• Mountain Fresh apple juice 1.5l $4.47
• Laucke bread mix crusty white 600g $2.31
• Douglas Park Organic Apple Juice 1l $6.95
• Kraft Philedelphia cream Cheese 250g $3.86
• Newman's Horseradish 250g $5.40
• Nippy's Tangy lemon juice 2l $3.67
• Foodland sliced cheese 500g $4.99
• Paris Creek BD unsalted butter 200g $3.51
• Paris Creek Norwegino cheese 200g $5.99
• Fleurieu milk iced coffee 500ml $2.90
• Fleurieu milk 1l $3.05
• Macro Meats kangaroo minced meat 500g $3.99
• Punnet strawberries 250g $2.98
• Hydro Herbs $1.99
• Apples 1.5kg $2.99
• Tomatoes 500g $2.99
• Tomatoes cherry punnet 150g $2.98
• Grapes sultana .375kg. $1.87
• snow peas punnet 150g $2.98
• mushrooms .061kg. $0.58
• brown onions 1kg. $2.49
• Maggie Beer quince vinno 250ml $19.99
• Hahndorf Smallgoods kangaroo salami 500g $8.99
• Murray Valley fetta 300g $5.99
• Udder Delights goats curd 200g $7.99
• Riviera Bakery Organic pizza dough $1.99
• Riviera Bakery herb foccacia 400g $4.36
• Ryemil Bakery yeast free bread $5.03
• Abbotts Bakery rustic white bread $ 4.49

The fish was from the Seafood Chest in Seaford. It is Coorong Mulloway - they had a few local fish varieties, including snapper, and mullet.

For lunch Aarod and I had fresh Mt Compass strawberries with local cheese, macadamia and chocolate (oops - this is so hard!) dip from Blackwood, as we were pretty sure none of the cafe's would have anything local and were too hungry to ask. For dinner Aarod cooked the Mulloway which we ate with fresh greens from the garden. Aarod cooked the fish beautifully, with lemon grass, garlic, lemon juice, and secret herbs and spices (from pantry...) - it was exceptional.

Disappointing news

The Beerenberg jams I bought are not local - the company has a lot of integrity though, their website is well worth a visit, and has a 'provenance pathway' which tells you the source of the main ingredients in all of their products. However, you need to purchase the product first - then put the barcode and use-by date into the website. The raspberry and blackberries are grown in Hoddle Creek, Victoria, and the sugar and glucose is from Harwood Island NSW. The Hahndorf farm only grows strawberries, plums, quinces, cherries, gherkins, chillies, dill, and sweet corn. The citrus, apricots, tomatoes, and onions, are grown in the riverland.

Just rang Four Leaf Milling and they confirmed that only wheat, barley, rye, alfalfa, and oats are grown in SA, along with the Sultanas & apricots in their muesli. Their rice, spelt and millet is grown in Victoria near the NSW border as they need summer rainfall.

Oops, we just bought about 5kg of wholemeal spelt flour from the food co-op on Saturday. It is a learning process.