Independence Days Challenge, Year Two!
Sharon April 28th, 2009
Returning to your regularly scheduled program, time to really get started on the second year of the Independence Days project. For those of you who participated before, the goal is to see if you can do even more than last year. For those of you who are new to this, the goal is make sure that you make a little progress every day (or week, or whatever) towards your goals, and that you get to see and record that progress. I think a lot of us have in our heads the idea that putting up food, or getting into the garden has to wait until we have time. But of course, that time rarely arrives. Thus, I’ve found it tremendously helpful to simply do a little bit each day. It is also enormously useful to my morale to know that I got a little ahead in my goals that day – even when it is hard to believe it.
I wish I could take credit for coming up with the idea, but I stole the idea, the name and a lot of good other things from Carla Emery, author of the absolutely necessary _Encyclopedia of Country Living_ now in its 10th Edition. Carla died a few years ago, and I was lucky enough to know her. In the “all hands on deck” situation we’re in, I think her ideas and words are still desperately needed, even if she can’t be here herself:
“All spring I try to plant something every day – from late February, when the early peas and spinach and garlic can go in, on up to midsummer, when the main potato crop and the late beans and lettuce go in. Then I switch over and make it my rule to try and get something put away for the winter every single day. That lastas until the pumpkins and sunflowers and late squash and green tomatoes are in. Then comes the struggle to get the most out of the stored food – all winter long. It has to be checked regularly, and you’ll need to add to that day’s menu anything that’s on the verge of spoiling, wilting or otherwise becoming useless.
….
People have to choose what they are going to struggle for. Life is always a struggle, whether or not you’re struggling for anything worthwhile, so it might as well be for something worthwhile. Independence days are worth struggling for. They’re good for me, good for the country and good for growing children.”
When you do it piece by piece, a little at a time, when you start building in the time and space into your life, it turns out that the big struggle – for Independence Days – isn’t really such a day-to-day struggle at all.
In _Independence Days_ (which will actually be out in July, earlier than I expected!), I wrote on this point,
“All of us need to devote some energy to fighting battles that will probably be lost, simply because we have an obligation to fight the good fight. But most of us can’t live on a steady diet of tilting at windmills. We also need to do work where we know we can accomplish something and where we know we matter. That’s why I think food preservation and storage matter so much. Ultimately, we are talking not only about the fairly manageable question of what to have for dinner, about about transforming our society, our use of energy, our food culture, and, of course, all of these things are a large part of our culture as a whole.”
It is easy to forget how important this “little stuff” is – easy to think that your little garden doesn’t matter very much, or that your preparations won’t be enough. But we should also remember the exponential power of saying “no” and doing for ourselves. The corrollary of the fact that every calorie of food takes 10 of fossil fuels is that every stir fry or salad you eat from your garden saves 10 times the oil as the calories contained within it. The fact that almost every packaged ingredient uses 7 times as much energy to create that packaging means that your choice to buy bulk oatmeal just saved 7 times as much energy as the package contains.
In 1944, American Victory Gardens grew as much produce as did every vegetable farm in the country – fully half US produce came from home gardens. And while no one was sufficient, all together were something big. Every bite of food you grow, every bite you preserve, every bit of waste you reduce is a contribution to a larger project – keeping everyone fed. Every bit of compost you add to your soil, every bit of organic matter, every tree you plant is a contributor to a larger project – storing some of our emissions in soil, so we can have a future. Small things are the roots of vast and powerful ones.
Every kid who tastes a cherry tomato or a strawberry from your garden comes away with something that they take back to their homes and forward to the future. Every neighbor who stops to chat as grow on your lawn or water the peppers in containers on your stoop is a new connection in your community, and a potential future gardener. Every seed you plant multiplies and produces a hundred, or a thousand more seeds for next year (not to mention the food). Every dollar you save you save on groceries that goes to the food pantry means your plot feeds not just you, but others. Every time you point out that you are storing food and preparing for a different future, even if people don’t get it, a seed is planted somewhere in the back of their heads, where they realize…people kind of like me think about this stuff. The future depends on a whole lot of little things.
I’ve quoted this poem from Marge Piercy before, but I think it bears repeating:
….Alone you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousands, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no, it starts
when you say “We”
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
-Marge Piercy “The Low Road”
As Carla says, you have to decide what you are going to struggle for. This is where I’m putting my struggles – and my pleasures, because there’s nothing better than food you grow or preserve yourself, the sense of security and the ability to be generous that accompany a full pantry, the pleasure of serving others a good meal.
Ok, on to practicalities. How do you sign up? Post a message in comments! When do you report? I’m going to try and go back to weekly reports, but you should do it when you want to. I’m deeming Monday as my official reporting day, because it means that I can tell you what you did on the weekend, and make it look good, but you should do it when you want. Where do you report? In comments here, or link to your blog! Do I have to do every category every day/week? Yes, absolutely, and if not, I will send my personal thugs over to your house to break your kneecaps 
(note the smiley - the real answer is – No, of course not, do what you can when you can!)
Is there a cool graphic? There was last year – La Crunch made it for me (thank you Crunchy!) and I’m sure someone here can post in comments and tell you how to find it and put it up (I’m a techno-moron, so I’m not very helpful.) What if I can’t do it one week? So, you get up and do it the next week. Should I tell you what I didn’t do, how I failed? Absolutely not – this all about what you *did* accomplish – so even if it is one thing (and remember, btw, I’m a part-time professional farmer, so if you look at my list and think “oh, Sharon did this and all I did…” you are doing it wrong – remember, until the International Olympic Committee makes gardening and food preservation a sport, you are officially forbidden to treat it like one )
Ok, overwhelmingly, people liked the categories, but a small minority felt (and I agree) that there were too many of them, and that they weren’t clear. So I’ve decided to consolidate them somewhat, but keep them. If you hate the categories, well, since I’m a lazy dictator, you can just go ahead and not use them. So here they are:
1. Plant something – I doubt this one needs a lot of explanation. Obviously, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are doing a lot of this right now, but it should be a reminder that gardening isn’t “put in the garden on memorial day and that’s it” – most of us can grow over a longer season than we do, and even if you live in an apartment, you can sprout seeds. So keep on planting!
2. Harvest something - some people are full swing here, but even if you just picked the first dandelion from your yard, it counts if you ate it or saved it. Don’t forget to include food you forage – whether from wild marginal areas, or even just from the neighbor’s trees that he never harvests (ask, obviously).
3. Preserve something – this starts around now for me, as asparagus, nettles and rhubarb are up. Canning looks like a big scary project if you have to can a truckload of green beans on a hot day in July. Dehydrating seems overwhelming if you have to pick the pits out of 4 bushels of plums in a single afternoon when you’d rather be doing something else. And yes, sometimes everything comes ripe at once, some big jobs can’t be avoided, and you just put on the loud rock and roll and go at it. But a little at a time is possible, you can be canning corn relish while you are washing up from dinner, or stick the strawberries in the sun to dry on your way out the door.
4. Reduce waste – This category covers both the old “Reduce Waste” and “Manage Reserves” group. Once you’ve got food, whether purchased or home preserved, you have to keep an eye on it. In this category goes making sure you use what you buy or grow, cutting down on garbage production by minimizing packaging and purchasing, composting, reducing community waste by composting or feeding scraps to your animals, and taking care of your food storage – everything from keeping records and writing dates on jars to checking the apples and making sauce when they start getting soft. BTW, reduce waste also refers to money and energy – stretching out your trips to the store and not “spending” gas on your food, cutting your grocery budget and reducing cooking energy.
5. Preparation and Storage – This is the category where you report the stuff you’ve done to get ready that isn’t growing/storing/preserving food. That means the food you buy for storage, the things you build, scavenge, rescue and repair that get you further down the path. Did you get a good deal at goodwill? Scavenge some cinder blocks for your raised bed building project? Find a grain mill on Craigslist? Buy some more rice and put it away? Inventory the medicine cabinet? Pick up a new book that will be helpful? Tell us!
6. Build Community Food Systems – Great, we’re all doing this stuff at home. But what did you do to help spread the message, because that may even be more important. Did you talk about your victory garden at your kid’s school? Offer to share space with a neighbor in your sunny yard? Bring a casserole over to the family that lost their job or moved in? Donate to your food pantry? Teach the neighbor kids to make yogurt? Offer to teach a canning class? Show someone else where the nettles are growing wild? Talk about your food storage or gardening plans? Share a plant division or seeds?
7. Eat the Food – Sometimes I think people have more trouble actually eating their garden produce or CSA shares than they do growing or buying them. Ultimately, eaters have more power over our agricultural future than they know – farmers can’t necessarily lead the way – they have to sell what eaters want. So cooking and eating are the way we will change the food system. This is where you tell us about the new recipes you tried, or the old ones you adapted to new ingredients, about how you are actually eating what you store and store what you eat, or getting your kids to try the kale.
I’ve taken out most of the other categories, particularly “learn a skill” because I’ve got another challenge coming up later on that one. I think seven is the maximum number I can manage personally.
Ok, come Monday, I’m going to want to hear what you’ve been doing. Welcome to Year 2 of the Independence Days Challenge!
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
- Comments(133)
oh, and speaking of which – can anyone tell me how you can “store” eggs? we have a surplus from our egg CSA… and I hate to let anything go bad… but I honestly can’t think of what you can do with an egg that will make it keep longer than just sitting in the fridge.
Here’s what I do.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4188
You can see the chicken coop at the side, too.
There are other gardens near the house.
Broccolli, lettuce, strawberries, broad beans (got some cool purple flowered ones this year as well), going over the last of the tomatoes. Pumpkins will be ready soon.
P.S. I’m in Australia and have a greenhouse, so cropping is all over the place time-wise compared to most of you here.
Go to page 4, has better pictures…
OK, I’ll report weekly here. I don’t have a blog and don’t want to commit to having one, but I keep a paper record for my own use. I live in suburban St. Louis, MO and have had 4.3″ of rain so far in April, with a flash flood watch out for tonight (may affect preparation of garden beds). What’s below is what I’ve done in the past week.
Plant something: collard and onion seedlings, fingerling potatoes. I’m in the middle of preparing the bed where most of the rest of the cool-weather seedlings will go.
Harvest something: sorrel, wild lettuce, green garlic, green onions, asparagus, shiitake and wild mushrooms.
Preserve something: nothing yet, but I’m watching for when the herbs and lambsquarters size up enough to start drying.
Reduce waste: I’m weighing the trash and recycling so I know how much we are generating, with an eye to reducing it. Hung the laundry on clothes racks to dry. Am in the process of building a new compost pile (this is ongoing as I collect green waste from the garden and layer with last fall’s leaves). Mowed half the lawn with the (human-powered) reel lawn mower.
Prep/store: I watch the stored goods so I can reorder them in bulk through our food co-op, when needed. Just put ordering salt on the list.
Build community: we shared the excess uneaten veggies we bought for a party with our neighbor, also gave her the sack of seed potatoes I didn’t end up using so she can plant them in her garden.
Eat the food: all the stuff we harvested, most of it (except the mushrooms and asparagus) as a salad.
I had trouble posting weekly last year so I’m just going to follow along informally. I got some of the best ideas from last year’s postings! However, I started keeping a garden journal last year and *that* has been a pearl beyond price when I began seed starting in January (peppers).
This year I decided to squander some electricity and bought some seed starting heat mats plus I have a set of shelves with two sets of natural spectrum fluorescent lights on each of four shelves. Since I kept the apartment temp at 55F through the winter, I figured I could afford a little extra electricity especially since my starts would do better with heat mats. This sort of backfired because now I have about two dozen two foot tall, bushy tomato plants in four inch pots! They are really starting to have problems but I may not have enough space for lots of bigger pots on my shelves.
Anchorage today got into the low 60s but we’re still seesawing between slightly below freezing over night to mid to high 50s in the day. But we’ve got 16 hours of light and the ground is thawing fast.
My report for today is that I planted 58 shell pea seeds that I collected from plants I grew last year. I have another 38 to plant tomorrow if they plump up from an overnight soaking. The bed is along a chainlink fence on the south edge of the property that I created on Sunday. Plenty of sun and an instant trellis!
I’ve been eating almost entirely off my stored food since last fall which has showed me what I need to grow more of or purchase more of from my CSA this year – carrots and onions. I’m growing more peas than last year as well because ten pounds got used up pretty quickly.
On the community front, one of my neighbors to the south says she’s going to try to grow some vegetables this year and that I’m going to be her “expert!” I think all she’ll try is carrots but it’s a start!
Nothing to harvest (not even the weeds have sprouted yet) and nothing to preserve. Although I did see if 20 year old dried mung beans would actually sprout. Surprise! I’m getting about 50% germination! I’m also seeing if the amaranth I got at the natural food store will sprout because I’d use that to grow my own plants. Just with only soaking them overnight and sitting on one of the heat mats, lots of seeds have sprouted already!
Looking forward to reading ID postings every week!
Kerri in AK
We’re ready for this now. Will blog on it soon, gotta go pot up my tomato seedlings first, before the morning rush starts.
Going to try again to participate.
I am in. I feel like I have been a bit distracted lately and this will help me to focus again. Thanks. I will post on my blog.
I loved doing this last year, and hope to accomplish even more this year.
~Traci
Vancouver, WA
I’m going to post what my month looked like – weekly is just too frequently for me:
Plant: onion sets; home-started broccoli, cabbage, and chard plants; direct seeded peas, broccoli raab, radishes, arugula, mustards, spinach, and very early beans. Also will start mushroom spawn in straw this weekend.
Harvest: chives, asparagus, nettles, dandelion greens, and lots of eggs.
Preserve: the last of the daikon radish and carrots from the root cellar into a lactoferment/kimchi. Will bottle homemade wine in a week or two.
Reduce waste: line dried clothes in good weather, started collecting coffee grounds from work. Homemade pizza dough from scratch.
Prep/Store: filled prescriptions for meds and supplies, bought a bunch of local meat on sale and re-filled the freezer. Also brooding a big batch of chicks, and making sure rabbit does are taking care of their babies well.
Community: many, many volunteer activities.
Eating: kraut, eggs, frozen tomatoes, pesto and peppers, garlic, jelly, meat, last of the potatoes.
Springtime sure is busy…. Laurie
I’m in! This is my first time so I look forward to accomplishing a lot and learning from the folks here.
Hi Sharon,
I followed along last year but never posted about it. The mistake in doing this was I never actually could SEE the progress. I knew what I was doing but couldn’t see the total adding up.
So please count me in. My goal will be to post on Mondays,on my blog, we will see how that goes.
Everyone seems to have a great start.
Thanks
Karyn
I’m in. I’ll start reporting on Monday. “Preserving” is interesting at this time of year in Southern Ontario. I have lots of dandelion greens in my driveway — so may dry the extra after I eat fresh; also I’m going to try drying/roasting the roots because you can use them for a coffee like beverage. Then in a couple of weeks it’s dandelion wine time! The last batch I made was nearly thirty years ago. I got equipment last year but never made any country wines. Will do it this year!
AnneT – where do you live? I’m in SW Ontario and I don’t know anyone else preparing for whatever. Sometimes I feel a bit lonely and the odd one out. EVERYONE else I know except one person scoffs at my tentative comments about self-sufficiency and swears that nothing bad can happen.
Plant: onions
Harvest: lovage
Reduce: sorting out crap for yard sale to make more storage room
Prep: began price book today at Costco
Community: sat on doorstep and said “hi” to everyone who passed
Eat: lovage in soup and sourdough bread
Most definitely! A good push to get back on track with this.
I’m in! This will be my first year participating in this challenge. Here is my list for the week:
1. Plant something – I planted beets, carrots, peas, spinach, lettuce, chard, and radishes this week. I’m in my 3rd year of square foot gardening in our (temporary) tiny back yard. My garden is a grand total of 48 square feet, plus containers.
2. Harvest something – some hot chiles that have been growing in my bedroom all winter long.
3. Preserve something – I dehydrated a few pounds of ginger, which I found on sale at a local grocery store. This will be stored and used to make ginger tea.
4. Reduce waste – I’ve been reusing yogurt containers, now that I’ve been making my own yogurt at home.
5. Preparation and Storage – I bought 150lbs of locally grown wheat (100lbs of hard spring and 50lbs of soft red), in addition to some other grains (25lbs of oat groats, rye, and spelt groats). This has been added to my storage in the basement, and will be ground into flour for bread as needed.
6. Build Community Food Systems – I talked with a new coworker about fermentation. She gave me some ideas about new fermenting recipes, including fermented lettuce and grape leaves.
7. Eat the Food – This week I’ve been eating up the last of my canned peaches from last summer’s preserves, mixed with my homemade yogurt.
Jessica – I am also in SW ontario! Where abouts are you? I’m in K-W.
Here is what I have been up to for the last week:
Plant Something: 2 Bay Laurels, “jalapo” peppers, Kung Pao peppers, fennel, Sunflowers (for the birds); started watermelon seeds; corn, radishes, carrots, cabbage plants
Harvest Something: Some corn salad plants that wintered over ; Chard -Yes I am overrun with chard!
Preserve something: Tried dehydrating Chard following Chile’s process, and the last of the parsley for awhile; Made my own Frozen Mashed potato cubes. Bought a big block of Cheese, sliced it and grated part of it and froze the grated cheese for use later, small jar of Bay leaves from my Bay Laurel plants
Store something: Mixed up some of what I call Mel’s Mix for potting. I use it in hanging planters. It’s pretty good in raised beds as well. Put it into 5 gallon buckets.Shredded some cheddar cheese and froze it -Yes I know it will be crumbly!
Manage Reserves: Bought a Neuton Mower and plan on selling the old tractor! SAY IT ISN’T SO! But if I get the yard they way I want it I really won’t need the tractor anymore. Got a price quote on gravel for the front yard and driveway. Dirt and rocks don’t come cheap!
Cooked something new- Papaya sorbet. Yes, I copied my McDougall fave with a new fruit
Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce or compost something): Been making planters out of found objects, recycling other planters, Used the box my Nueton came in as weed block in one raised bed, used some pizza boxes as weed block in others.Got some new blades for my Cuisinart for nothing (mom was giving her Cuisinart to Salvation Army and her blades fit mine)! Now I can grate my own cheese in bulk and broccoli as well.
Learn a New Skill: Took a “Solar Primer” class for the home put on by Seattle City Light and NW My Cabbage planters
Seed. Very informative. Also Very expensive.
The class discusses the incentives here in Washington on adding Solar Photo Voltaic and Solar Hot Water. Venture to guess I would go with Hot water to start, energy later. Found out through the class my garage and my house are good candidates for both!
Work on Community Food Security: Offered some of my leftover plant starts on free cycle
Melinda’s Growing Challenge Got more things planted- 2 Bay Laurels, “jalapo” peppers, Kung Pao peppers, fennel, Sunflowers (for the birds); started watermelon seeds; corn, radishes, carrots, cabbage plants
I am not as talented as Ms. Chicken, but I did come up with a graphic, as it is
London
I’m in…taking baby steps. I live in SF Bay Area:
1. Plant something – n/a
2. Harvest something – Foraged local oranges, meyer lemons and rangapur limes
3. Preserve something – Made candied orange peel out of local organic orange peels that I had stored in the freezer. Gave some away as hostess gifts. I will use the sugar syrup from the peels to make meyer lemon limoncello.
4. Reduce waste – We are really working on not wasting food, especially produce. We freeze all vegetable peelings for stock and fruit peels to candy and bits of leftover fruit for smoothies and muffins. We eat all our dinner leftovers for lunches.
5. Preparation and Storage – This weekend we will purchase items to use a la H1N1. We’re set if we have just 1-2 weeks of quarantine but not for 1-2 months: rubbing alcohol and glycerin for HM hand sanitizer, TP, cough syrup, tissues, potassium chloride, gaterade mix, gloves, canned pineapple, applesauce.
Garage sale: add’l bottle openers, guitar music, fleece vest, manual meat/food grinder
6. Build Community Food Systems – Joined a local foraging group. This was awesome, we picked citrus fruit, learned how to make limencello and preserved citrus peels. People brought samples of preserved lemons, herbs, marmelades and tomato starts to share. I LOVE this group! Also, the salon owner who cuts my hair offered her 20+ citrus trees to pick. She is also willing to ‘host’ bees and keep hives on her property, we would share the honey; need to contact the local bee keeping society.
7. Eat the Food – We get a weekly CSA box which we really try to finish and/or preserve. I have eaten all of the HM marmelade so it’s time to make more: local grapefruit, meyer lemons.
LisaH
[...] Independence Days Challenge [...]
I planted something- for the first time EVER. I planted tomatoes and zucchinis and herbs and marigolds. And it was so much fun. I completely underestimated how much fun it would be, just to have my hands in dirt. I love dirt! I have decided that grownups have gardens because it is more socially acceptable than making mudpies in the backyard. So, that’s all I did. Just planting. Maybe in the future I will be more awesome.
I’m playing along too. I’ll post tomorrow.
Thanks Sharon!
-nicole
Cabbages (6 off).
[...] Year 2, Week 1 Jump to Comments Sharon over at Casaubon’s Book has revived the Independence Day Challenge for a second year. She has revised the categories somewhat so that they [...]
[...] 2009 May 4 by linda I mentioned this challenge last week. To sign up for it yourself, visit Causobans Book. Its fun and it served the purpose of keeping me on track this week. I can’t wait to read [...]
1. Plant something – replanted chard and okra to compensate for a less than stellar germination rate. I also planted three flower boxes with a mixture of leaf lettuces and rocket (arugula)
2. Harvest something – harvested a couple of bell peppers from a bush that overwintered on my back porch and some radishes.
3. Preserve something – Not this week. Florida has such a long growing season that fresh food is available year round – if not from the garden, at least from the wild. Preserving is not a biggie on my list – but it would be nice to learn a few tricks in case I ever need them.
4. Reduce waste – Composting with and without worms. Worms look happy so far as I can tell. Recycling what I can. Reusing wine bottles to make a border for the beds along my walk — better known in quilting circles as drunkard’s path! Making my own yougurt in reuseable glass jars.
5. Preparation and Storage — Baked bread using the method described in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois and made yogurt. Finished reading Toolbox for Sustainable City Living by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew. While the book does not go into enough detail to be a true ‘how-to’ book, it does introduce a whole panoply of possibilities for what can be done in an urban (suburban, or even rural) setting. Ordered Depletion and Abundance by Sharon Astyk. Started an emergency pantry and began stocking with beans, rice, dried fruit and canned goods. Here on my sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico, our most likely emergency would be a hurricane – in which case the pantry might be gone with the wind. Hence, I’m building an emergency supply but in very limited amounts.
6. Build Community Food Systems – Gave a loaf of homemade bread to a neighbor and took another neighbor on a tour of my garden.
7. Eat the Food – The radishes and peppers went into a salad; bread and yogurt don’t last long in our house.
I’ll be doing this challenge this year too.
I’m in again this year, but this time, will post on my new blog.
Lise
[...] Posted by Kathie under Goal Keeping, Independence Days No Comments I’m joining the Independence Days Challenge this year. I wanted to last year but just couldn’t with the whole new house and the [...]
Count me in too! Just found this but loving it already. Can’t wait to get started.
[...] have joined another challenge this year, the Independence Day Challenge. Well actually I followed along informally last year but found it was hard to keep track of my [...]
Here is this weeks…
http://lizzylanefarm.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/independence-days-week-1/
Not a great but a good start.
Karyn
I’m late but I will join.
I’ve been doing the last one for a couple of months so ready to join in on the new year 2 challenge!
[...] strive to do something productive in each category below. To read more about the challenge, visit Independence Days Challenge at Sharon Astyk’s blog. Sharon hinted at another challenge in the works that may be of interest, but no details yet. [...]
Garlic bulbs in. Also put some seeds in for onions, more broccoli and sweetpeas.
I’m late (and just reading your blog for the first time today), but I love the idea of this challenge! I’m in!
[...] blog, where it seems the challenge (at least on the web) started. Check it out: Sharon’s Independence Days Challenge. I really like the idea, and I’m going to try my hand at participating. I hope you all [...]
[...] Independence days challenge Posted on 13 May 2009 by babycatmama Found this on another gardener’s blog and thought it interesting, so I found the originating blog [...]
[...] Days Challenge) Tags: Independence Days Challenge, mindfulness Mentally the third week of the Independence Days Challenge was much (much) better than last week. I had a really good talk with one of the people at work [...]
I’m in! This week, I will be dropping info at our local food pantry on http://www.AmpleHarvest.org . They have a directory where food pantries can register for Backyard Gardeners vs. Hunger in America, and gardeners can find local pantries where they can donate!
[...] community, food storage, Independence Days Challenge Week 4, and I’m checking in with my Independence Days Challenge report. I mentioned last week that I wanted to make an effort to hit these categories more [...]
[...] community, food storage, Independence Days Challenge, questions, strawberries Week 5 in the Independence Days Challenge report. This week I hit many of the categories, and found there is some overlap. Which leads me [...]
[...] been rotated out long ago reside, Jonathan Bloom’s Wasted Food blog, and Sharon Astyk’s Independence Days Challenge Item #4 (Reduce Waste) and #7 (Eat the Food), and Keith’s insistence that we could just drown [...]
I’m in (late lol) will post on my blog weekly!
[...] Tags: 2009 garden, eggplant, Independence Days Challenge, questions Week 6 report for the Independence Days Challenge. It was a little difficult this past week since I was feeling sick, but here are my [...]
[...] Tags: community, composting, Independence Days Challenge, pomona pectin Week 7 report for the Independence Days Challenge. And I think it was a pretty good week – well, except for the “build community” [...]
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