Conscious Consuming

I've been tagged by my friend Valerie with a Conscious Consuming meme. Here's the info: "The purpose of this meme is to inspire some reflection about how we shop and what we purchase. The idea isn't that consumption itself is somehow bad, but that we all could probably stand to put a little bit more thought into what we buy. And, of course, it's supposed to be fun. So here goes!

Pick a recent shopping trip -- for clothes, shoes, groceries, doesn't matter. The only guideline is that it will be easier to play if you purchased at least a few things. Now tell us, about your purchases:
1. What are you proud of?
2. What are you embarrassed by?
3. What do think you couldn't live without?
4. What did you most enjoy purchasing?
5. What were you most tempted by? (This last one may or may not be an actual purchase!)"

Ok, I'm going to combine my last two trips to the local farm market. Here are my answers:
1. What are you proud of? I've been really trying to purchase local foods since reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. It requires extra time and effort to do so, since it means I have to shop at one of 2 local farm markets and then go to the supermarket to get everything that the farm market doesn't have. So, I'm proud that I'm at least making the effort, even though sometimes I must, for convenience and for keeping my DH happy, buy far-away foods instead of local. (Like last week when I had to buy apples from Washington State when we live right next door to one of the best apple growing areas in the country: Adams County, Pennsylvania. However, my husband wanted apples for his lunch the next day, and the farm market was closed.)
2. What are you embarrassed by? That I will have to buy Brussels sprouts from the farm market when they are available, instead of harvesting my own from the four plants that I planted last spring but never watered at all.
3. What do you think you couldn't live without? Local apples.
4. What did you most enjoy purchasing? One of the farm markets sells local meat and I bought bacon, ground beef, and chicken. I won't buy chicken from the grocery store anymore; the farm market chicken is so much better. Purchasing local meats makes me feel virtuous...plus it tastes better.
5. What were you most tempted by? Both the farm markets I frequent sell mouth-watering, homemade pies, and I saw a Concord grape pie last week. It had a bottom crust with a brown sugar topping. I've never had a grape pie before, and really wanted to try it, but it was $3.75 for a very small pie, so I didn't buy it. I'm on the cheap and lazy diet...I don't buy things like grape pie because I'm cheap and convince myself that I will make it myself to save money. Then, I'm too lazy to do it!