I’m not sure about you, but we’re having an increasingly harder time getting food delivered to our house. Here in the North Fork there are an alarming number of COVID 19 cases and I am taking no chances. We order all of our main groceries online via PeaPod, Costco and even things from Target, but just getting a slot at PeaPod has become so arduous. After a few weeks of not being able to get even a time slot for an order, we checked one night at 3:30am when Giuliana was up for a feeding and by miracle of all miracles, we were able to secure us a slot.

But the issue with PeaPod is that even if you put something in your cart and it’s confirmed in your order, it is no way a guarantee that it will arrive in your next shipment. Our most recent issue was around a $400 order (we are feeding four adults three meals a day) and we only got about $250 worth of the things we put in our cart. Items noticeably missing? The fresh stuff. Protein, vegetables, salad kits and the like.

We think we’ve temporarily solved the protein problem by ordering from Omaha Steaks. Given the frozen mail-order business is their core bailiwick, they are stocked up and ready to ship. But when it comes to vegetables, it’s another game.

Enter Phil’s plan to plant a home garden. Since the North Fork up until now was considered our vacation home, we weren’t planning to plant a garden given we wouldn’t be here every day to tend to it. Now things have changed, so we decided to plant a small garden and get planted seeds from our local Catapano Farms.

Phil put in a hefty delivery order from Home Depot and got to work building the structure with the help of my dad (he’s a great pointer!). After a day constructing it, he planted buttercrunch lettuce, broccoli rabe, swiss chard and kale. Given the plants were already beginning to blossom when we bought them (curbside pickup and pre-paid) they hopefully will be ready to eat in a matter of weeks.

We’re currently researching herbs and tomatoes to plant after Mother’s Day when they will be in the growing season.

This whole home improvement self-sustainable activity reminded me of a fabulous book I read years ago: Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. In it, Barbara decides that her entire young family would live for a year in the country and they would only eat things that they could grow or get off of the land. Her daughters were much younger then and she shared heartwarming stories about her youngest who started an egg gathering business. Today, they are adults and according to her website, the entire family was greatly impacted by living off of the land that they all focus on sustainability today in their own lives and careers.

If you had told me three months ago that we’d be living in the North Fork full time, living with my parents and growing a vegetable garden, I sincerely wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are and we are making the best of a bad situation.

I think in times of extreme chaos, those who can adapt will survive. We are doing our part to stay home, social distance, but also adapt to what may be a new normal. I pray things will go back to the way they were sooner than later.

I miss New York City, my home and the energy that has always attracted me to it. But for now, I will adapt. My family will adapt. And perhaps these changes will impact us in a way we can’t even fathom right now.

Kristen’s Strawberry Shortcake Protein Shake:

I’m on my 30 Day Healthy Living Challenge with Arbonne, so I’ve put my alcoholic beverage consumption on hold for the time being. But it doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying yummy drinks. Today I made a great protein smoothie: