Checking out the local co-op

My local co-op is one of my favorite places to shop. I find it strange that it’s located in the heart of Albany, practically right next to what one might consider the “projects,” yet it brings in such a wonderful, wide variety of people. It doesn’t sell only local or only organic items, so I don’t always succeed in my locavorism, but it’s still an awesome place. When K and I first started going here, each week was like a trip to another culture. You need to bring your own plastic bags for veggies, or containers to put things like rice or sugar in or you have pay for the ones you use. It’s a great incentive to bring your own and reuse items.

It’s a bit “hippie-ish” for some people – lots of dredlocks and homemade clothing. I love it. The bulk section is amazing. Just look! We found everything from pumpernickel rye flour to xylitol (hard to find where we live) to plain citric acid. But you can find nearly any kind of flour, dried fruit, syrup, wheat, rice or bean you could want.

Today we only needed a few things from the co-op. We do our food shopping at the farmer’s market and regular grocery store on Sundays usually. We picked up some local honey (as the beekeeper that is usually at our farmer’s market wasn’t there last week), some whole wheat bread flour (actually bread flour – is this different from regular whole wheat flour? I don’t know), some citric acid to try our hand at homemade dishwasher detergent, a couple of glass bottles of milk, and Dr. Bronner’s pure castile soap.

So, I love Dr. Bronner’s – it has 1001 uses, I swear. Nowadays it’s even Certified Fair Trade and the oils used are certified organic by the National Organic Standards Program. I’ve been using the peppermint soap for years for camping trips because it was the only kind I could get, and was biodegradable and didn’t have phosphates and all that jazz. While his peppermint soap is, uh….zingy…it’s very overpowering – and I’m not a huge fan of mint overall – even when it’s an antiseptic. However, it made my foyers smell minty fresh for over a week, I must admit. But I thought that Dr. Bronner’s must have an unscented one, and if anyone would have it, Honest Weight would. I mean, look at all the kinds of Dr. Bronner castile soap they have!

They did 🙂 I got 1 1/2 lbs (why pounds instead of liquid measurement, I have no idea) of Baby Mild Liquid Soap.

Hopefully I will putting many of these things to good use in a few days!