Good for you, it is the only way to survive.
If enough of us start growing our own food, maybe it will scare the fools in Washington, who think we should import every thing.
Grow all you can and buy the rest local.
The Farm Extension office, can often direct you to Farmers Markets that are held on the weekend, or talk to the local swapmeet and see if they will include one.
Fight back and we will live if we miss a year or two of the expensive items.
Keep looking and you might even find someone who will share a beef or hog with you.
We did, when we moved to Wellton, I had met a lady, a widow and she was raising her last steer, as the kids told her she was too old to keep on raising livestock and she really was.
We hauled it to the butcher shop and on the way, she said to me, “Now dear, you will have to tell the butcher how you want yours packaged.......” I was speechless.
Then she finished the deal, she said you take half my steer and then buy a day old calf and by the time it is ready for the butcher, we will have eaten this one .........
And we did.
In fact, we kept on raising calves hers and ours, but we both had fresh beef.
Her kids came and killed the rest of the chickens that summer, but in the spring I ordered 200 day old chicks and Mary had to have some of them for her place, then I got into pigeons, and she ate all the squabs and started a coop of her own.
And she ate our lamb, LOL, but not until it was 2 or 3 years old and I found out her secret.......at 2 pm every day he raised a ruckus, and she would ignore him.
I caught her, she said “Well he likes his bottle every day and I enjoy giving it to him!!”.......this from the lady who could have written the book about not getting attached to farm animals.
Get creative....
Yep, been buying meat off local farmers for a long time... its nice that I live in a city that is literally agricultural less than 20 miles outside the limits if you go the right direction.
Guy works full time regular job, but raises cattle and pigs as a side business on his farm. 100% corn fed, and pay a rediculous price per lb and have better beef that I can find in any butcher shop or market. Even the ground meat made from the scraps has virtually no fat. Butchered just the way I want it, vaccumm sealed, lasts forever. Yea I gotta pay per lb of pre slaughtered weight, but what I pay is insanely less than what the supermarket charges and far better quality.
Yea, its a bit of a haul to get to the butcher shop and pick it up, and haul it all back to my house in coolers etc.. but its beyond worth it. I pay less per lb of processed beef that the super markets sell their low grade ground meat per lb.
I’ve debated joining one of the CSA’s but I don’t think I could eat all the veggies they deliver weekly. For me its not about the “organic” stuff, though nothing aginst those who wish to go that route, for me its simply all about $$. I refuse to pay $4+ a lb for ROUND STEAK that I know they paid that farmer squat for... They keep marketing crapier and crapier cuts and charging more and more for them, and none of that’s going to that farmer.
One thing I wish I could find is a steady source of affordable local chicken... those you need constantly, as opposed to beef or pork where 1/2 can last ya a year or so. One of the CSA’s has them, but not a consistent volume.