You would think that being “home” all day would mean you had plenty of time to get done all of the things on your to-do list, but you would be wrong. Part of it, I think, is due a bit to apathy. The “oh, I’ve got all week to do that…” mentality. But still, I find myself with too few hours in the day to get done half of what I wanted to.

Today, however, I did something that I’ve been meaning to do since Saturday. I went to the Farmers’ Market. (And I tried not to let it bother me that it was written everywhere as the “Farmer’s Market.”)

Flowers for sale at the Raleigh Farmers’ Market

Because it’s still early in the spring (despite our 85° days) and the fact that it was a weekday, it wasn’t fairly crowded, and the selection was limited mostly to tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and the occasional squash. Still, I walked away with a few treats:

Scrumptious fresh strawberries from the Farmers’ Market

Prize-winning creamed honey spread

The honey I bought from a very nice older man who owns a farm out in Hillsborough. He delighted in telling me all about the Market when I explained to him that it was my first time visiting, and he let me sample all his different types of honey. This particular one that I bought is a thick spread, almost like a fruit butter, and his wife has won numerous awards for it across the region. It was heavenly. I can’t wait to bake up some biscuits and slather it on.

On my way home from the Market, I stopped at Whole Foods. I’ve been in a cooking funk for … an embarrassingly long time, and I can’t remember the last meal I cooked that wasn’t something instant or from a box. I had nothing substantial in the house (some frozen peas in the freezer, a few types of rice in the pantry, and an expired jug of milk in the fridge), and even my staples were running low (I was completely out of flour and brown sugar, which makes any type of baking rather impossible). Normally I shop at the Harris Teeter down the road, but I was going to be passing Whole Foods on the way home anyway, so I did my grocery shopping there today instead.

I’m not an “organic-only” kind of girl. I like my Kraft Mac & Cheese and my Cheerios, thanks. But I’ve been hearing for months from a friend of mine that the produce and meats and cheeses at Whole Foods are far superior to those in regular grocery stores, and the price difference is negligible. Before today, I had never really shopped at Whole Foods, but I found it hard to believe that all-organic produce could be the same price as (or even less than) the stuff you get at the regular stores.

So color me shocked when I found that not only did the produce look healthier and the meat fresher, but that they really did cost the same or less. $3.49 / lb. for ground chuck, $4.99 / lb. for ground veal, $0.99 / lb. for jalapeños, $0.49 / lb. for bananas. But what impressed me the most was their selection. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of sausages and ground meats and cuts of beef outside a butcher’s shop.

What was really nice about the store is that it inspired me. I saw all these different interesting types of foods, and it made me want to cook again. I never get that at a regular grocery store. But I was good and avoided the temptation to buy fillets of salmon and eighteen different types of cheeses. I only gave into temptation once, and that was when I saw they had taramosalata. I haven’t had it in ages, and I just couldn’t resist.

I will still have to go to the “regular” grocery store later tonight, though. Whole Foods is great and all, and I don’t think I’ll ever shop anywhere else for fresh produce and meats, but I’m still partial to my Ziploc bags and Cheerios, and the “organic” brands of those are what make Whole Foods so expensive. And really, who needs organic Ziploc bags?