Before the week begins, I needed to make a grocery list for our family to ensure we have balanced meals with our local challenge.  I separated the list into five different categories, the same categories I had used for the budget.  I also factored in our current grocery staple items and the seasonality of certain produce items.

As a guide for the grocery list, I did some research of what would be available at the Dubuque Farmers Market, and what I would need to supplement from other places. (Check out our previous blog “Shopping the Market.”) While we planned to attend the Saturday morning market, I also plan to attend the Dyersville Farmers Market today to scout out the produce available in the area.

There are other options for farmers markets if the Saturday morning market does not work into your schedule. The Dyersville’s Farmers Market is from 2-5pm on Thursdays and the East Mill Bakery has a Farmers Market on Monday night from 3:30-6:30pm.

Eat Dubuque County! Grocery List

Fruits & Vegetables

• Apples
• Peaches
• Tomatoes
• Snap Beans                                                                 All available at the farmers market
• Carrots
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Sweet Corn

I found that many of the fruits, vegetables, and bread we would eat could be available at the Dubuque farmers market Saturday morning.  As I looked through the market vendors, I jotted down where I wanted to stop for these items and also asked the on-site market manager, Andie Donnan, for some advice.  Again, I needed to factor in seasonality for the fruits and vegetables we were going to eat, and we are planning our meals around the available items.  I was also able to look up pricing for some of these items either on the vendor’s website or Facebook page.

Starch

• 3 loaves of bread
• 12 Bagels
• 1 box Pasta

Our family eats a lot of bread, and luckily there are some local bakery vendors at the Dubuque Farmers Market.  These loaves are a touch smaller than the ones in the grocery store, so I added an additional loaf for our family’s needs this week.  We also have our favorite local bagel place that makes bagels fresh daily, so we decided to pick up some of those as well!  Homemade noodles are wonderful, but I know we will not have time to make them this week.  I did not see any vendors at either farmers market selling noodles, so I decided to pick up a box of Barilla at the grocery store.  The nationally recognized Barilla brand is manufactured in Ames, Iowa. While purchasing a national brand is not typically thought of as ‘local’, the noodles are made in Iowa, and this gave our family another form of starch for the week.

Meats

• 4 Pork Chops
• 2 lbs Ground Beef
• 2 Chicken breast
• 2 Steaks
• 1 lb Shrimp

Meat was going to be difficult to buy from the market and remain in budget, so I bought a few cuts from the local locker.  We were able to get local beef and pork products from the locker, but in order to get local and conventional chicken products from an area producer, the birds needed to be preordered several weeks in advance.  Since I had not preordered any chicken, we decided to eat primarily pork and beef for this week.  On Friday, we traditionally have a fish or vegetarian meal.  Our Northeast Iowa Ag Team is touring a local shrimp farm in Fayette, IA on Friday, so plan to bring my cooler and take home some shrimp from our visit for the local challenge.

Dairy

• 10 Yogurt- HyVee or Fareway (Country View or AE)
• ½ gallon of Milk-Fareway (AE)
• Sliced cheese or cheese sticks

I also needed to find local dairy products: milk, cheese, and yogurt.  This was a bit easier since area grocery stores carry local brands of milk and yogurt.  AE Dairy is based out of Des Moines and offers a wide array of dairy products.  Country View Dairy also has a unique line of specialty yogurt that will tickle those taste buds.  Because of our location, we also have great availability of local cheeses from close-by Wisconsin dairies available in area grocery stores.

Treats

This will not be hard to do!  There are plenty of local places and farmers market vendors we can go to get local treats! For this one I decided to be spontaneous, keeping in mind our budget for the week.  On the rare chance we do not find anything, I can purchase some local eggs and butter and use my baking skills to make some goodies for our family!

Hopefully this give you some ideas of some grocery stops for this Eat Dubuque County! challenge!  Let us know what you’re eating next week with the #eatdubuque!

Happy eating!