Freight

Typical grocery run and what I can fit in either a couple of panniers or my Burley bike trailer. Click on the photo to view larger.

$118 worth of groceries. This usually takes a two or three hours out of a Saturday or maybe spread over Saturday and Sunday. Rain or shine. What follows is what you see in the photo:

one and a half pounds of coffee (Ethiopian),
two types of organic greens for salad (one from Ontario, the other from California),
four Cortland apples (USA),
a batch of basil (Canada),
organic brown eggs (Ontario),
two types of cheddar cheese (one from Ontario, the other from Quebec),
Package of bread (from Toronto),
a dozen brussels sprouts (USA),
a dozen red potatoes (USA),
four Roma tomatoes (Mexico),
one cucumber* (Ontario),
two lemons (California),
two avocados (USA),
four spicy sausages (Ontario),
three pork chops (Ontario),
one pre-seasoned chicken breasts (Ontario),
One package of Westfalian prosciutto (Ontario),
six Larabar energy bars,
a bunch of grapes (Chile),
package of green beans (USA),
a bunch of asparagus (Peru),
one mango (California),
five navel oranges (California),
three bars of glycerin soap,
one pound of pistachios,
3 pounds of flour,
1 L of organic no fat plain yogurt (Ontario),

Here's the kicker, it will take a separate trip for larger, heavier stuff or things I forgot like beer, cranberry juice, red pepper, limes, olive oil, soy milk, toilet paper, Kleenex, milk, cereal, and shampoo. There are just so many things that you cannot get on a single bike trip. Even if you had the room, you can't go to multiple stores easily because you can't lock up the stuff you have in the bike trailer. We had a pretty crazy winter without snow so I think I only rented a car a couple of times so all in all, I think I've figured out a fairly good system of getting a lot of heavy non-perishables on one trip and all the perishable stuff on another. In other words, it can be done and it shall be done.

Update: Got the beer, plus wine, cranberry juice, red pepper, limes, olive oil, soy sauce, milk, cereal, and shampoo all on a separate trip.

*went bad before I even tasted it!