Pseudo food

It is becoming increasingly difficult to eat local, seasonal food.  This is largely due to habits and preferences.  Saturday I spent $50 at Whole Foods, which was supposed to cover meals through Wednesday, it did, including the most delicious navel oranges I've had in ages.  My plan was to make qulwah, timtimo, and alicha but somehow we had enough qulwah (1.5 pounds of meat) to last for several days. 

I have only heard of alicha, have never seen or tasted it.  My friend keeps insisting that the main ingredient is either turmeric or curry...but it's becoming glaringly obvious that she's lacking culinary sensitivity, so I'm certain that there's another spice.  I sauted onions, garlic, and ginger...added a bit of tomato paste, karkum, and seasoned chicken.  Pressure cooked that for 10 minutes, then added carrots, celery, and potatoes.  I considered adding zatar and/or cardomon but decided to keep it simple.  It was quite good. 

Today I realized we were running on low on everyday foodstuffs - nothing for the lunch boxes and no healthy in between meal snack options.  Since I'm teaching in Cherry Hill this semester, I was able to stop at Wegman's, where I spent $75 on jet-lagged food.  I bought an assortment of fruits and vegetables (mostly grown in California), and some other staples.  As I walked through the produce section, I kept thinking that something was terribly wrong - the Garden State has essentially become a bedroom suburb...and our tastes and preferences justify transporting food vast distances and then displaying produce as if it was picked at the farm down the road.  There has to be a better way.