Shopping with the Amish

We all grocery shop.

It’s a mundane and often unstimulating experience. But there is one grocery trip that I make about 4 times a year, with my mother in tow, that is always a bit of an adventure.

We travel north in her pick up truck, about an hour’s drive to a not-so-fancy establishment called BB’s. Home of the “bents, bumps and bunches of bargains!” You never quite know what you will find there, but so far, the treasure trove of bargains has always outweighed the cost of gas and time to travel there.

It is run by the Amish. There isn’t much competition in the parking lot.

The shopping experience leans more towards treasure hunt. Looking for pig brains in milk gravy this week? No problem! On sale for only 50 cents!

And every time, I find something, at least one thing, that makes the whole trip worth it.

Today, Starbucks coffee, a good supply, at only $3. We’ll be sipping pretty here at home.

It is the place to find a lot of organic and unusual food items at really cheap prices. I even heard one lady refer to it as a “boutique grocery”. I’m not really sure of that. There is nothing fancy about it. There is no artistry to produce display.

But today the shelves were stacked high, as well as my cart. Both of them.

And as my mother and I slung our grocery bags into the back of her truck, I marveled at the other modes of getting your groceries home.

Again, a successful trip. Every cupboard in my house is bulging at the seams. And I will probably do it all again in a couple months.