We recently launched a second YouTube channel, Shop with the Shraders, to bring you shopping videos as we search for real food and real deals for stocking a traditional pantry on any budget. In our first video as a family, we visited Trader Joe’s, but with one condition. We had to each take separate carts and find bargains for our pantries without comparing products with each other in the store. We reveal our choices with each other and with you in today’s Trader Joe’s surprise haul.
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Table of Contents
Introducing Shop with the Shraders
Our Shrader family consists of my husband, Ted, our son, Ben, and me, Mary, who you may know from my Mary’s Nest YouTube channel. With Ben graduating from college and moving to a new house, we decided to launch a second YouTube channel to focus on shopping for real food to stock both of our traditional pantries. We thought it would be fun to bring you along to learn about the bargains we find at different stores around Central Texas and beyond.
Meet Our Son Benjamin
If you’ve seen previous videos on my Mary’s Nest YouTube channel, you may have already met Ben. He’s been through a lot, such as recovering from brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma, which I’ve talked about in previous newsletters and in a special Guideposts magazine article. He also has to tackle dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, which we talk about in A Chat with My Son – Growing Up with Traditional Foods and Living with Dyslexia.
Yet despite all the challenges, he’s succeeded in starting his own business and graduating from college. He moved back to the Central Texas area, which is terrific since that means we can visit more often. It also means that he has a pantry that he needs to fill on a budget with real food.
Meet My Husband Ted
While I’m in front of the camera, my husband Ted is happy to be behind the camera to help me film and edit my Mary’s Nest videos. We’ve created over 600 videos together and grown the Mary’s Nest’s YouTube channel to over one million subscribers since we first launched the channel in 2018.
Ted has appeared with me on camera from time to time, such as in Meet My Sweet Husband and Hear His Thoughts About Traditional Foods and More. You may have also met him and our entire family at book signings for my first book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook, and at events, such as Sean Cannell’s Grow with Video Live Conference.
I’m happy to see more of Ted and Ben in front of the camera with me as we bring you along with our shopping adventures in our new second YouTube channel, Shop with the Shraders.
Trader Joe’s Family Haul Reveal
For our first family video, we decided to visit a Trader Joe’s in Central Texas. There are three in the Austin, Texas, area, and we visited the one near the Arboretum, which is located in the northwest part of town.
Instead of shopping together, we thought it would be more fun for each of us to take a cart and shop separately, being careful to avoid seeing each other in the store as we hunted for real deals. After our shopping, we gathered our products together at Ben’s house and revealed them to each other and to you in today’s video! You’ll be surprised at what we found, and you might find some products you would also enjoy getting for your Four Corners Pantry.
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The Modern Pioneer Pantry
Simple ingredients, timeless techniques, and a well-stocked pantry. Discover over 100 nourishing recipes to preserve food and turn pantry staples into homemade meals. Build a wholesome, traditional pantry—just like a modern pioneer!
More Traditional Food Wisdom from Mary’s Nest
Looking for more ways to build your traditional kitchen from scratch? In today’s Trader Joe’s video, we talk about some of the videos on my Mary’s Nest YouTube channel, including the following:
🎨 How to Make Homemade Natural Food Coloring
🥬 How to Make Old-Fashioned Homemade Sauerkraut
🌾 How to Create Multiple Streams of Food
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The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes. Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes! Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.
Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest
- Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for Traditional Foods Videos (Free) - When you subscribe, be sure to click on the notification bell that will let you know each time I upload a new video.
- Subscribe to Mary’s Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free 36-page eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy - For more detailed videos and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
- Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook - Get a hardcover book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
- Preorder The Modern Pioneer Pantry - Be one of the first to get Mary's hardcover book about preserving food and making delicious meals from your Four Corners Pantry. Mary's second cookbook is also published by Penguin Random House.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
Shop for My Favorite Items
Favorite Kitchen Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Spice Grinder
- Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
- Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
- Vacuum Lids
- Whisk
- Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
- Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
- Flour Sack Towels
- pH Strips (Helps you check on the acidity of your vinegar)
Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide
- Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
- Visit my Shopping Guide page
Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Lehman’s, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
