Independence Days Update
Sharon May 9th, 2008
So not my best week, folks. And I’m betting that next week and the one after will be worse. Until the book is done, I’m probably going to look kinda pathetic.
Still, I did get some stuff done. I planted 150 new strawberry plants, johnny jump ups, calendula, borage, and container planted tomatoes, eggplant, onions, mint, begonias (yeah, I know it isn’t food, but we eat the petals in flower salads, so we count them), bok choy, lettuce and kale. Still there are broccoli, onion and lettuce starts just staring at me and making me feel guilty.
We had a hard frost early in the week, so harvesting was more limited as things were set back. I harvested spinach, rhubarb, dandelions, raspberry leaves and some pea shoots for stir fry, and that was about it. Oh, and Poppino mushrooms from our mushroom project. They were a little past their prime - they are in a corner and we kind of forgot about them, but they were still very good.
Preserved: Dehydrated raspberry leaves for tea, froze some of our insane quantity of extra eggs for baking and winter scrambled, made rhubarb sauce for canning, but never got to it and we all ate it instead. I suspect that last one doesn’t really count 
.
Stored: Put away the canning sugars and salt in containers (need more buckets), bought extra dog and cat food. A kind friend gave me her son’s outgrown stuff – most of it will go to Isaiah and Asher, but despite the fact that her six year old and mine are the same age, hers has much bigger feet, so Simon collected two pairs of sandals – yay! The stuff for the little guys is also valuable – by the time my clothes have been through 4 kids, they don’t always look that good.
Prepped: Last Saturday’s yard saling yielded 4 boxes of canning jars, a big pile of history books, multiplication flash cards, a huge cracked bong (yes, you read that correctly) that I plan to make into a planter and a cast iron dutch oven. It was a good run – and tons of fun! I also took advantage of sales at various mail order nurseries to order more strawberries (I’ve decided to convert all six of the back beds to strawberries, since we couldn’t possibly have enough), more raspberries and 4 beach plums (Raintree has some amazing deals on bulk trees, and Stark and Miller both have good sales).
Managed: Still haven’t cleaned out freezer or pantry, and it isn’t going to happen until book is done. Must take inventory. I did get rid of the last of the rotten apples – the chickens loved them.
Cook Something New: Nope. Same ole, same ole stuff. Too tired.
Work on Local Food Systems: Not unless you count the book. I am a worm.
I’m changing “compost something” to “reduce waste” since that seems more on-topic, given that recent study that suggests that Brits throw away billions of food - more than anyone thought. How much you want to bet that that also applies to Americans?
Reduced Waste: We don’t have food waste per se – everything goes to some animal or the compost. But it would be nice if the chickens were being fed less on South Indian style curried vegetables that decomposed in the back of our fridge. Unfortunately, I haven’t done anything about this. We’re pretty good about minimizing waste, but not perfect.
Learned a skill – No. I think I may actually have gone backwards here, as I’m spending 10 hours a day in front of the computer, and I can actually feel my synapses unwinding. Soon, I’ll be able to do nothing but press keys and stare .
How about you?
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
- Comments(56)
Posted much more about the things going on with our gardening attempts at my blog, but here’s the basic run-down.
Plant Something: Flower seeds. Nothing major. Waiting for the temps to even out enough for veggie seeds.
Harvest Something: Nothing to be harvested yet. Even the dandilions greens are so small as to be barely visible. The Fireweed shoots should be popping up En Mass any day now, though.
Tend Something: My house plants. Nothing exciting here. Though I did also pull a couple of weeds out of my flower bed along the front of the house.
Preserve Something: Nada
Make Preparations: bought more fabric & wool ease yarn. Some of the fabric was from the store’s clearance bin. Ok, so I should have been scouting the garage sales, but I haven’t seen much in the way of sale adds in the weekend papers yet this year.
Cook Something: We grilled ShishKebabs tonight for us and the inlaws. Does that count??? I made that Lithuanian Chop Suey (mentioned on previous blog-post) and it turned out pretty good. (And yeah, that was from scratch even if the beef wasn’t organic or locally raised.)
Manage your Reserves: Not much to manage, at this point. Rotating my canned goods is kinda the norm when I buy more.
Work on/toward local Food Systems: nothing doing, yet, if you don’t count the measly attempts at gardening with the FIL. This is the first weekend that the local Farmer’s Market was opened. I didn’t drive into town for it, though.
Compost Something: Yep. Almost every day.
Learn a New Skill: Nope. Unless you count constantly reminding myself that those bits of strawberry or that bunch of dead flowers can go in the compost bin as “learning” a new skill.
*sigh* And other folks go on about how THEY feel inadequate. Maybe this next week will be better??? I can only hope.
Today, I’m planting a small pot each two different types tomatoes and two different types cucumbers to try sprouting in my kitchen window since the starts at the inlaw’s house have not come up. *sigh* And actually making my compost bins, instead of just using the bucket I’ve had on my back deck all winter. But, these activities will both count for next week’s “confessional”.
Planted:
Yet more spuds (120 lbs is a lot)
Harvest ruharb.
Preserved rhubarb with frozen stawrberries from last summer.
Storage: nil
Prep: nil
Managed: washed, line dried and mended all the winter blankets less 2 (one still needs mending; one quilt need to be recovered)
managed to avoid return of unwanted toddler bed by hooking up friend who is becoming a foster family for a mentally impared adult and need to a 2nd bed so her children can share (the new housemate is getting the childs bed) a small room with the friend who no longer needs the bed. That’s one less thing I’m storing and one more thing that is in use.
Cook something new. nil
compost: nothing new
New skill nil
Out reach: got permission to put in veg. garden at church and dug 50 sq. foot bed. But in only spuds as not deer proof yet.
let’s see: progress in 5 cats.
At first I wasn’t going to sign up for this challenge, as life was too crazy – work, 2 kids under 3, facing major family swarm over Memorial Day weekend…you get the point.
Then my husband lost his job.
So, here’s where I stand:
Planted: We actually bought and planted 100 strawberry plants ($20) on an area that won’t grow grass in our backyard last weekend before “the change.”
Preserved: Have been actively storing and repurposing leftovers. Rotisserie chicken? Shredded and freezing. Leftover steamed brocoli? Served with cheese for my lunch.
Storage: Ditto.
Prep/Managed/Cook something new: Being vigilant on my menu planning. Though waiting desperately for the CSA to kick in. Too bad it got pushed back two weeks..
compost: can’t in our neighborhood
mashed potatoes for babies
How do you come up with so much material to blog with?
softball gloves
The term is used colloquially for any kind of Linkback. Some weblog software programs, such as Wordpress, Movable Type and Community
Thank you, it is very good! I like it very much