Score!

So, before getting married and moving to India and then Indiana I spent 4 years in central MA. It was while I was in graduate school. The town was a small town, but there were 5 colleges in the area, one a major state university, so there were a lot of nice amenities, activities, and cultural events in the area. It was also very diverse. And since most people living in the area were a part of academia, the population tended to lean towards being environmentally friendly, dare I say "nutty/crunchy". There were food co-ops, organic restaurants, farmers markets, and of course, a Whole Foods.

I can honestly say that on a daily basis that is what I miss most about living there. I quickly learned from my new friends and neighbors the benefits of living an organic and all-natural life style. I started shopping at Whole Foods and organic farmers markets for everything. And while I was doing this for health and environmental reasons, lo and behold I LOVED the food available there. And I started to LOVE cooking with fresh ingredients.

In India there was no such thing as organic. But at least it was easy to cook with fresh all natural foods (even if the produce wasn't that great... probably because they didn't use a lot of chemicals which was fine with me). But at least I knew it was for only 7 months. I was looking forward to coming back to the States. I really missed Whole Foods.

Well, we get to this middle-of-nowhere town in northern Indiana and of course there is no Whole Foods!!! The only two choices available in terms of food was Kroger and Walmart. Granted we've been doing ok, since the Kroger has a decent organic section, but I was still desperately missing my Whole Foods.

Well this weekend we got a tip from some new friends on a grocery store in a nearby city called Fresh Market. The minute I walked into the store I was in love. It's not a Whole Foods, but it's very similar, selling a lot of organic and whole food products. I cannot tell you how excited I was about this. I'm only sad that it took four months to find this wonderful place. But really it's no wonder since it's in this tiny plaza on the edge of the city. But now that I've found it I'm supper excited about grocery shopping today.