Regarding bread packaging, they should include where the bread was made on the packages. In searching for different breads, since Merita is no longer available, I noticed on 2-3 brands they don't print where the bread was made.

Also, again in searching for different brands, I have purchased bread at the last minute at a variety of places, including the convenience store, which used to carry Merita. I purchased a loaf of bread at Aldi's, the closest grocer to us, and a can of white beans for only $1.56. I was surprised at how inexpensive since I don't normally shop at Aldi's. I recently paid $2.47 for a loaf of Kerns bread and a can of Bush's kidney beans. However, both are basically local companies. Kerns bread is reported to still be made in Knoxville, as hopefully will be Merita bread. Bush Brothers' headquarters appears to be in Knoxville and they still have a plant in Chestnut Hill, TN.

Yeah, I never buy milk at Weigels but just recently, because I was in a rush, I ran into their Emory Road store (about 1/2 mile from their Powell dairy plant) and was surprised to have to pay significantly more than the $2.89 per gallon I generally pay at Aldi.

Why, I wonder?

I've no idea, Toby. Their house brand is called Friendly Farms, established in 1979.

I found one reference on the web just now to the effect that the milk is "hormone-free" and another reference indicating that most of their milk comes from Aurora Dairy?

Neither of those two sites looked particularly credible, so I don't bother to link them here.

Anyway, $2.89 per gallon, everyday, works for me. As do 69 cent per dozen eggs.

(Hey, did I mention that we're about to graduate our first college student debt-free? One down, one to go!)

I don't eat white bread. Actually when making a food plan, a nutritionist basically advised me against eating anything white--the things that are processed. All breads are whole grain and local -- Flour Head is the last bread I bought. I buy Cruze Farm milk because I trust that the cows don't have hormones or antibiotics in their system.

Eating things that are unprocessed has left me feeling healthier and has been better for my weight and my cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugars than anything I've ever done. Buying cheap was killing me.

I've teased the employees working in the Home Depot garden center about working conditions what with the scent of fresh baked bread that fills the neighborhood around the Merita bakery.

The Bakery Lady on Boyds Creek in Seymour makes sourdough bread every Tue and Thur.