I was creeping through my front field on my hands and knees in the late morning when a big yellow truck stopped on the county road just over the fence.

“You OK, pal?” the driver called.

“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks. I’m just hunting edible weeds. They’re good for you.”

The driver rammed the truck into gear. “The wife gets our greens at the supermarket,” he said as he dieseled away, which was a shame because I wanted to tell him about the wonders of purslane and lamb’s quarters or even low pigweed. Wild food free for the creeping — although I should tell you that the leaves are small. And it is good to know what your quarry looks like because you don’t want to come back to the house with a basket of deadly nightshade.

What started me creeping through the tall grass was yet another new trend in what we should eat. And how. The desire for purslane came from Michael Pollan’s best-selling book In Defense of Food, where he sings its praises. It’s one of the many books that tell us to eat green, eat locally and buy wisely.

Heaven knows I have done my bit about eating locally and in the late spring I bought up rhubarb and asparagus. Very good for you although a steady diet does mean you can’t stray too far from a bathroom. I also did well on radishes, early lettuce and hydroponic tomatoes. Mostly local and mostly green.

Eating locally produced food works well over the summer and into the fall. Indeed, the fall is best because you get pumpkin and apple pies. But unless you are adept at canning and preserving (as I suppose one should be) it is a recipe for scurvy in the winter. You have likely noticed that Canada produces very few lemons and bananas and oranges.

Food experts tend to push the goodness of greens and suggest we cut back on the beef, lamb and pork. That’s easy for me this time of year because in late spring the farms abound with tiny lambs and small calves. And you have to be a dedicated carnivore to order up lamb chops or veal.

Buying wisely is another hallmark of the new wave in food. For example, Pollan warns you to avoid processed foods with more than five ingredients. And to never buy food with ingredients you can’t pronounce. Which now keeps butylated hydroxytoluene off my shopping list.

But there is one aspect of buying wisely that has given me trouble over the years. Food experts say one should look for bargains and buy in bulk when the price is right. And bulk buying has never worked for me.

Years ago, we had some neighbours with a large freezer and we joined with them in buying a side of beef of more than 200 pounds. We divided the freezer and then parceled out equal portions of beef into the separate sides — steaks, roasts, hamburgers and bones.

It worked fine for a month and then our friends moved about five miles away, taking their freezer with them. When I wanted a roast I had to bicycle over (I couldn’t afford a car).

Then, they moved again, leaving the freezer and our beef behind in the care of strangers. When I wanted a steak I had to show ID. After two visits to the freezer, I suddenly realized that our side of the compartment was now down to bones. I was going to complain, but then the freezer keepers went on an extended sabbatical, leaving the freezer behind and the house empty and locked.

The moral being that sometimes buying wisely isn’t smart. IE