Hunting, Gathering and Foraging in Port Adelaide

 

Whenever we arrive in a new port, there's a few days of wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what's available and what's where. David was here long before me, but he really spent his time working on the boat, not exploring. He went to the local Foodland for whatever he needed and called it good. It's time to start thinking about provisioning for our next passage, so I was interested in checking out more shops to see what they had to offer and how prices compared.

The Port Canal Shopping Centre is just across the way from the train station in Port Adelaide, so it's pretty convenient. There's a Cole's Supermarket and a K-Mart (yup, K-Mart) right there. The Centre continues for a couple of blocks or so with little shops inside mall areas till finally you reach the promised land … Farmer Joe's Fresh Food Barn.

Here I found fresh produce, eggs, fresh chicken and so much more ... for so much less. Green grapes are in season here ... on sale at Coles for $3.20/kg; Farmer Joe's had the same grapes and same quality for $2.49/kg. The best deal was the boneless chicken breasts, my favorite for canning/preserving. I saw the sign $8.99/kg and I was all over it. (another blog, another day)

Not having a car to tote everything entails a challenge of its own. You have to be able to carry everything you buy and it's amazing how fast your backpack and grocery sacks fill up when you're shopping and you still haven't purchased everything on your list. If you want 5kg (10lbs) of potatoes, you need to forgo purchasing something else on this trip or you're overwhelmed. You can only carry so much. Remember, once we get off the train, we still have a 15 minute walk back to the boat … toting everything we bought. Our old tote cart had given up the ghost to rust and abuse long ago, so I broke down and found another trolley (tote cart) in the local discount shop … that would be either The Reject Shop (think Big Lots) or Cheap as Chips. I like Cheap as Chips simply because of their name. These type stores carry everything from breadboards and bottle brushes, to totes and cellophane tape (all of which we needed) and lots of stuff we don't need.

I'm glad I bought the drag-along trolley. It's saved lots of sore shoulders and backs toting heavy groceries back to the boat, not to mention I can buy more at one time. The fact that I look like an old granny walking down the street … well, that's another topic of discussion. The point is not everything is available at the same store. I get what I need at Cheap as Chips, I load up at Farmer Joe's, keep my receipts handy, and head into Coles and/or Foodland for whatever else is on the list. I've gotten to know where yogurt powder is cheaper or where dishwashing soap is on sale. Usually, there's not much room left in the tote and there's always an issue if I'm alone trying to pull the tote and push the cart at the same time. It's doable, but rather comical to watch.

Folks ask how we spend our time on a boat and isn't it easy to get bored? How can you get bored when it takes an entire day to hunt, gather and forage for food? And that's just a week's worth, if we're lucky. We haven't even made it into Adelaide's Central Market yet, but that would be an even longer distance to cart everything. And this is just for food … it's a whole other adventure looking for boat parts and brew supplies.

Next comes an inventory of everything aboard to see what we need to stock up on for the upcoming passage. We may need more than a trolley … we may need to rent/borrow a car.