Traveling to a Food Desert

We will be heading to our cabin for Labor Day weekend, and as always, we need to bring food. Our cabin is located in an area where you can not just run to the store if you run out of something. There is a small town nearby, but the options for food consist of 3 bars (and I am not talking about good bar food) and a gas station. The gas station is a pretty well stocked one, if you can live on chips, candy, alcohol, pop (soda if you are from Wisconsin), cheese curds and beef jerky. I know, sounds like fun huh?

Unfortunately, my system would not take it, and I definitely don't want my family living off of that. I am not saying that we won't possibly pick up a "snack" there, but we definitely can not rely on it for our groceries.

The wonderful thing is that it is still prime veggie season at our CSA (community supported agriculture) Crossroads Community Farm. We will have broccoli and beans with our whole grilled chicken. Grilled corn with our hamburgers and turkey burgers. We will be making Kabobs with chicken, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and onions. Dessert? Melons, also from the farm. Snacks? Nuts, coconut flakes, dried mango and banana chips, yogurt covered almonds for Marie, carrot and cucumbers with hummus.

After the photo I realized I was missing some very important things that will be going with us. Granola to go with Mark and Marie's yogurt. Eggs to go with our sweet potato/potato and pecan hash and avocado slices. Citrus Kombucha for my daughter and I. Most importantly for tired parents? Our coffee and my coconut milk. 

At this point you are probably asking why I am telling you our menu? Am I making you hungry? The reason I am listing out all our food is because there is not one thing in that picture that I would be able to buy at the local gas station near our cabin. This is not a tragedy for us as we bring our own food, have been for 10 years. The thing that makes me sad is that the locals either need to buy food there, or travel a distance to go buy food. The nearest town with good, healthy options is La Crosse, which is 40 minutes away, or Viroqua which is 30 minutes away. 

I feel lucky that we get to travel, and travel with good food. If you too are traveling this holiday weekend, eat well, and be safe!