With one week left of our final year workamping at Vicker’s Ranch, our second annual Eat, Shop Local Lake City Challenge was another huge success. We haven’t left this little town or purchased a single gallon of diesel fuel since we got here in June, and we’re eating really well.

With distances like this between us and the nearest “real” grocery stores, you may be asking: How do you do it?

Shopping Local is Cheaper in the End

This is how we haven’t had to spend money on diesel fuel or waste our precious day off:

The enterprising duo of Peter and Patty makes sure nobody has to leave Lake City in order to eat well. They know the secret to packing a Trader Joe’s selection into a tiny little space, and they price things quite fairly for a store their size.

These former Austin, TX residents work damn hard to be the best at what they do. Each week they even make a 1.5 hour one-way trip to the farm town of Olathe, so customers can enjoy Colorado’s best home-grown summer produce, like this:

And sure, while some of the market’s products do cost more than in “real” grocery stores, who cares when the eating is good and you’re not buying fuel or wasting your day on grocery shopping? When we can do our weekly shopping trip in 30 minutes and use our time off for more important things, well that’s PRICELESS!

Other Shop Local Lessons Learned

• Shopping with Amazon and WalMart feels like doing business with Satan, but it’s a necessary evil for us.
• Online purchases should be done thoughtfully, at specific intervals, or you’ll waste a ton of money on shipping fees. Amazon Prime wasn’t cost-effective enough for us.
• You must learn to make do with the local food selections. We had to give up some of our favorite food items, like pre-cooked shrimp, which wasn’t available here. Still, there was never a day when we had nothing to eat because good food wasn’t available, we just had to learn to break old eating habits.
• Don’t be shy about asking friends if they’re going to town anytime soon when you’ve gotta have something pronto!

I’ll be kind of sad to say goodbye to Lake City, but it’ll sure be nice to do our weekly shopping in Fort Collins when we spend next summer at Jerry’s Acres. Now that’s a town worth driving to!