i grew up on a farm, raising dairy and beef cows. we always had fresh milk and a big chest freezer full of beef. plus a 1+ acre garden where we grew a lot of veggies, then canned them for winter months. really took it for granted too. after going off to college (and after that, moving even farther away from home and leaving behind the farm life entirely) it's taken me several years to get back to fresh and natural. now my wife and her family buy a cow or hog every year and have it butchered locally. my brother-in-law keeps about 40 chickens for fresh eggs. and we've recently started canning fresh foods again. it's gonna take a little while to get to where we want to be, but over the last year, we've gone from take-out and dining out probably half a dozen times a week, down to maybe once a week. and we use fresh produce in every meal instead of canned / frozen stuff. it's a bit more work, but i'd rather put effort into that over trudging around wal-mart twice a month.