Independence Days Update #2
Sharon May 11th, 2009
Short one today – internet access is intermittent at best, and I’m tired, tired, tired – besides the demands of the garden, had a big (and wonderful) party yesterday and guests stayed over so I was up until 1 am socializing. Plus we’re going bike shopping for Eli and Isaiah today. So just the facts…
Plant something: Tomatoes (a bit early but the pots and self-watering containers can be brought in and the few others will either live or not – I’ve got more 
), lettuce, chinese cabbage, collards, kale, scallions, onions, leeks, sweet peas, malva, broccoli, brussels sprouts, bok choy, arugula, radishes, carrots, snap peas, beets, dianthus, hollyhocks, mint, agastache, rosemary, geraniums, begonias, cranesbill, catnip
Harvest something – nettles, raspberry leaves, asparagus, dandelion, rhubarb, good king henry, lettuce, chives
Preserve something: dried nettles, raspberry leaves, made rhubarb juice, dehydrated onions
Reduced Waste: Sorted out the onion bin, composted the icky ones, planted some of the sprouted ones for early greens, dehydrated remaining onions. Told people who were going to compost 40 concord grape vines that they could move to our place, and happily!
Preparation and storage: Dug out bikes and got them ready for spring (I have hopes that this may be our first year with four actual riders – Asher is ready to begin with training wheels, and I’m hoping Eli will go to bike camp for kids with disabilities, and maybe we’ll be able to get him up and riding), determined new (to us anyway) bikes are needed by Isaiah and Eli, began hunting. Sought suitable dog – so far no luck. Sorted out winter coat situation, which resulted in much more closet space when out of size coats were removed.
6. Build community food systems. Aaron may have found a way to get a copy of _A Nation of Farmers_ to Michelle Obama – does that count? Otherwise, not much here.
7. Eat the food – nettles, nettles, nettles. My kids are wildly in love with the whole idea of nettles, and being able to eat those prickly things. We’ve eaten a lot of miso broth with soba or udon, nettles, and egg or tofu. A big hit here. Also, thanks to Chile over at Chile chews www.chilechews.blogspot.com, I was reminded that bi bim bap could be a staple. I hadn’t made it in a few years regularly because it was too spicy for the kids, so I made it only when we were eating alone. But recently I had an inspiration, and substituted hoisin sauce for the red pepper paste for the small people - eureka! I realize this is a kind of a “duh” thing, but now bi bim bap, if imperfectly authentic, is regularly back on the menu. And since I’d eat the sauce with a paper towel, it means that all leftover cold vegetables are fair game if there’s any sauce that happens to be lying around . I’ve had cold leftover veggies that way three days running for lunch. Yay!
So how about you? Remember, if you didn’t sign up before, there’s no deadline – just join in as you go!
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
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Plant something – lots and lots of carrots, some flowers for the bees, lots of transplanting of volunteer lettuce and sunflowers from last year, also some purchased seedlings of lemon balm, sweet woodruff, hyssop, and comfrey.
Harvest something – lots of herbs and arugula and lettuce. Eggs from the hens. (My three-year-old girls are still laying well.) Dandelions, prickly lettuce, and comfrey for the girls.
Preserve something – Ooh! Ooh! I actually have something to report! I made my first ever batch of jelly – from *wild violets*. Okay – odd, I know. But it’s a preserve I can make in *May* before it gets stinking hot. And it tastes nice too.
Reduced Waste – Using lots of newspaper in the lasagna mulch for the garden. Also saving cans to build some self-watering containers for next spring.
Preparation and storage – Stocked up on more oatmeal and beans. Clearing more areas of the yard for future edibles.
Build community food systems – still nada
Eat the food – used up the very, very, absolute last of last year’s kale harvest. (Sad, but more coming soon.) Made a little headway on our abundant stash of homegrown, canned tomato sauce. Ate nearly the last of our smoked cherry tomatoes from last year.
I get to be the first comment this week. Yay!
Plant: Native groundcover, twinflower (Linnaea borealis) and wild ginger (Asarum caudatum, which I think might be medicinal?) , salal (Gaultheria shallon), blue elderberry, red flowering currant, purple sage and alpine strawberries.
Harvest: no, not really. I have been super busy this quarter with school so there’s nothing to harvest. But hopefully I will get around to planting some lettuce soon!
Preserve: No
Reduce Waste: Only the everyday stuff like composting, feeding weeds and scraps to chickens, hanging laundry and hand washing dishes.
Preparation and Storage: Tons of weeding!! And mulching!! Its amazing how motivated I can get to weed when I have a midterm to study for!
Build food systems: Well, I got together for a bit with my friends roommate and he showed me around his garden, which was really sweet. He also gave me some alpine strawberries and a fig, which I haven’t planted yet.
Eat the Food: Prunes, eggs and frozen green beans.
Plant something: Rosemary bush, dill, basil, oregano, cilantro, 2 kinds of parsley, thyme.
Harvest something: Nothing yet.
Preserve something: Nope.
Reduced Waste: Saved a bunch of plastic food buckets with handles from the trash at work, to be repurposed as picking buckets. Sent some old bread to a friend’s house, who feeds it to the wild ducks. Ate leftovers until I was SICK of them, just so we didn’t have to throw them out or feed them to the dog.
Preparation and storage: Hubby built me a raised bed herb garden, which has inspired me to research medicinal herbs. He also learned to smoke meat, which we’re very excited about!
Build community food systems: Finished the 2-week food box for my niece.
Eat the food: Turnips from my mom’s garden, beans from storage.
Sharon, thanks for reminding me that salvageable onions could be dehydrated. Here’s my update:
Plant: cherry belle radishes, cilantro, bullsblood beets, red onion sets. Transplanted commercial starts: lavender, romaine lettuce, oregano, cinnamon basil.
Harvest: rosemary, sage, red and green leaf lettuce, cinnamon basil trimmings from transplant.
Preserve: dried orange peel; froze mango slices and julienned green mango for salad (this last an experiment this year).
Waste Not: Pulled the last of the winter vegies out of the “root cellar” chest; composted the rotten turnips and celeriac and cooked the rest of the vegies; undermulched the raised bed amendments with brown paper from mail order packaging; sorted out the stack of plastic,paper, etc. bags in the kitchen and put a bag of annoying free flyer bags in the car to take to recycle.
Prep and Storage: Went to the asian superstore for mangos and also got coarse sea salt, pressed barley, green tea — alas, they were all out of our rice; went to a supermarket remodeling sale and got WW organic cappellini and boxed broth (I’m ambivalent but it keeps my partner cooking); cleaned the root cellar chest so it’s ready for reuse; amended the raised bed, weeded, and endured the rain of maple seeds and the resulting perpetual cleanup; washed out last year’s yogurt container planters and drilled holes in new ones, prepratory to potting on starts; shopped a town yardsale and a library flea market — mason jars, useful pantry baskets, an interesting cookbook, and a nice glass juicing saucer.
Community: Talked to my mom and my boss about gardening; contributed from stores to postal worker food drive; shopped the farmer’s market and found a grocery store that we didn’t know about that may be easier (less traffic) to bike to
Eat the food: Mangos with cinnamon basil (a new herb for us); sage roasted chicken on a bed of roast vegetables (first time I’ve roasted celeriac in this)
Weekly update on my blog
http://kirbanita.typepad.com/take_joy/2009/05/independence-days-2.html
1. Plant something: Some tomato plants, cucumbers, borage seeds, tomato plants; dill seed; corn salad; lettuce; watermelon plants (from seed), started some sprouts (gotta keep on the sprouts or I will lose interest)
2. Harvest something: some lettuce. swiss chard, an early garlic; parsley
3. Preserve something: Dehydrated some Chard; parsley
4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Found a bunch of big plant pots- going to reuse them; found a couple of items to re-purpose as plant pots
5. Preparation and Storage: Added another level to the potato condo; Bought some yogart to make crème cheese with
6. Build Community Food Systems: Put my bag out for the Letter Carriers Food Drive; Went to Sustainable Burien meeting and found out more about “p-patches hopefully starting here in Burien- thinking about Making a couple of raised beds and letting some one grow something in them via Urban Gardenshare.
7. Eat the Food: Salad from lettuce, Chard, the garlic,
Plant something: Lapins sweet cherry tree. (Well, my husband planted it. I untangled the roots and crumbled a few dirt clods …)
Harvest something: received CSA vegetables.
Preserve: No.
Reduce waste/manage: Helped my mom clean out an overcrowded room in her house, and designate items for tossing out, recycling or donation to thrift shop.
Community food systems: No. Well. Sorted my mom’s seeds and tossed the really old ones, so my dad would plant new, viable ones this year, instead of old ones that don’t germinate.
Eat the food: Pizza, with home-canned tomato sauce, CSA kale and garlic, home dried/frozen/salted tomatoes, peppers, basil. Spaghetti with home-canned sauce. Blackberry orange ginger muffins with last summer’s blackberries from the freezer. Breakfasts of local eggs over roasted CSA/garden leeks and greens. Tried something new: salsify greens. Took a jar of raspberry jam to my mom as part of her Mother’s Day gift of homemade scones, local flowers and asparagus and room-cleaning.
Hey, wow. I thought I got nothing done last week! Woohoo!
Oh yeah, the letter carriers’ drive. Missed it. But went to the store and bought a bunch of groceries that I’ll take over to the food bank tomorrow when I go to pick up the CSA vegetables.
Plant something—filet beans, lima beans, muskmelon, 4 more tomatoes, sunflowers, a second round of zucchini, a few yarrow
Harvest something—picked 20 pounds of strawberries, stopped there because it was raining. Thinned spinach, lettuce, and beets to make a salad. Picked spring onions and herbs for various dishes. Showed my husband and daughter the joy of honeysuckle nectar. Unfortunately, my sweet hubby had an allergy attack after tasting the nectar!
Preserve something—made 2 batches of strawberry jam, put 2 ½ gallon sized bag worth in the freezer
Reduce waste—continue to compost and recycle, am now saving the pest insects from the garden for a friend’s chickens. Hey, at least that way I know they are gone!
Prep and storage—weeded the d@#$ weeds out of one garden bed. I swear that these grasses are the most stubborn of all of the weeds I’ve ever had to deal with. I gave up on them in one bed. I pulled back some evening primrose, which acts very much like a weed in our garden. We put up the firewood, as it is now too warm to worry about needing it handy and under cover. As for storage, we picked up some organic cereal on super duper sale. We added more canned fruit to the stockpile. Unfortunately I’ll have to compost the brown rice from the pantry because it didn’t get used before the 6 month mark; boy, I hate that! It goes to show me that brown rice is just not one of those items I need to buy in bulk.
Building community food systems—I’ve been blogging with emphasis on buying local, having a home garden, having a stockpile of items for food security, and to teach food preservation. Purchased more items for the church food pantry. Worked on 2009 Hands on Mission Kits to send healthcare supplies to Liberia (I know that isn’t local, but I am working with my community to do so).
Eat the food—delighted in eating strawberry spinach salad fresh from the garden and field. Purchased some baby beets from the farmers market (ours aren’t that big yet), and we made a delicious salad with them. Roast beets in oven, once cooled peel and slice in a bowl. Sprinkle with seasoning and vinegar. Prep beet greens with some onion slices, sauté in olive oil until tender. Serve both over lettuces with feta cheese. Yummy!
Woohoo! Might I suggest, though, that you make a bowl for the kids with the hoisin sauce and a bowl for ya’ll with the hotter red pepper sauce? No reason you can’t still have your hot peppers!
My update is here.
Highlights:
Planted a tomato upside down (pic on the post)
Harvested the entire lemon tree. Still juicing and freezing so I have plenty of lemon juice for prickly pear and pomegranate jellies this year.
Made candied lemon peel but there’s still a ton of lemon parts in my compost. (How do I get rid of the mouse in there?)
Getting back into the rhythm of biking and walking….just in time for 100 degree weather.
I didn’t do much
Plant something: Shitaki (6) and Oyster Mushroom (2) logs, I also bought some seeds for our allotment
Harvest something:nada
Preserve Something: nada
Reduce Waste: Since I managed to burn two loaves of bread two days running, I cut off the burned edges and reused them for french toast and Bread Pudding.
Preparation and Storage: We are shopping around for a good dehydrator and have been driving around alleys looking for things like trellises and broom sticks, surplus wood or metal etc. for supports at our plot. We found a professional bakers proofing shelf unit and a display shelf unit,both the metal kind with wire wracks, intact, just need dusting off and a good scrub. These we will be perfect indoors since we are preparing an alcove with grow lights and need shelves for plants. I also found plastic pots, the large ones which I will use for plants that need a specific soil at the plot, like lavender, or for plants that spread a great deal, like peppermint.
Build Community Food Systems:
1. Joined a local CSA. This may sound self centered but when this particular CSA gets enough subscribers in an area, they send out a truck once a month and give good quality, sustainable surplus produce away for free to anybody who wants it or needs it. So by supporting them, we support our community.
Eat the Food: Nada again, unless you count all the herbal tea combination that I have been making for all those head colds that I have been caring for.
My update is on my blog….you can get there by clicking on my name.
Plant something: nothing this week, did most of my planting last week, waiting until it’s warm enough to put out tomatoes, peppers and beans.
Harvest something – mint, foraged fiddleheads, foraged morel mushrooms, foraged dandelions. I also picked up some rhubarb, spinach (first of the season!) and asparagus from the local farmers’ market.
Preserve something: I’m trying out fermenting a pint of our foraged fiddleheads – not sure how this will work out, but it’s worth a shot.
Reduced Waste: Trying to get our grain grinder set up (Country Living Mill) to start grinding our own grain – won’t need to buy packages of flour at the store anymore once we have everything set up.
Preparation and storage: bought some vinegar for storage, prepared an order for a local food co-op for some large quantities of rice, shelf-stable tofu, and yellow split peas. Bought some fishing line and a few spare lures for fishing.
Build community food systems: We spent the day on Sunday with my uncle, who has agreed to donate some space on his land for our bees. We will be getting two hives sometime in the next few weeks, and embarking on the journey of becoming beekeepers. I also spent the evening on Friday foraging with a friend, talking about food preservation. In doing so, I found out a new place in town to find wild grape leaves for dolmas!
Eat the Food: Ate fiddleheads, made morel mushroom gravy for dinner last night (with local organic chicken), and homemade rhubarb crisp.
Not much this week, but did very well on Eat the Food. Friday night featured a delicious Indonesian oxtail soup (and the discovery that tail is one of the less weird weird cow bits for me), then Sunday night was vegetarian split pea soup with onions and smoked paprika. I like split peas now! They will become a pantry staple.
Now that the semester is over I will have more time, and things will pick up on the preservation front in June once the CSA share comes in.
Plant something: n/a
Harvest something: weekly organic CSA box and flowers
Preserve something: n/a
Reduced Waste: composted some dead and dying veggies (community composting); set up jars to sort plastic waste etc. which will be donated to the Depot for Creative Reuse: plastic bottle caps, bread tabs and soy milk/milk poptops and rings, twist ties, beer bottle caps, corks, plastic yogurt/cream cheese/earthbalance containers with lids, pill bottles. Saved a glass maple syrup bottle to fill with HM liqueur and nut butter jars for food storage. Got $14 for turning in aluminum cans, deposit bottles etc. Community recycling: mixed paper, cans, #1/2 plastic, glass.
Preparation and storage: bought and charged 2 solar flashlights, bought two metal tins at a yard sale for storage/gifts;
, a stack of wash cloths to use for toiliet cloths. Bought a new-to-us wool woman’s tux an estate sale.
For swine flu prep: “N95″ face masks, chocolate syrup to ‘sweeten’ reconstituted powdered milk, large jars of peanut butter, boneless pork and chicken to freeze, potassium chloride for rehydration fluid, printed rehydration fluid recipe, bought isopropyl alcohol and glycerine for HM hand sanitizer in salvaged plastic squeeze bottles (thanks Chili!), another case mac and cheese, dried pasta, case of paper tissues, case of TP, wine
Build community food systems: passed along the link to the candied citrus peel teaching demo from our urban foraging site.
Eat the food: made soup out of veggie trimming/chicken bone stock and some frozen roasted veggies and storage cannellini beans; roasted 3 lbs of asparagus, yum! Gave my mom a jar of HM organic candied orange peels as part of her Mother’s Day gift; ate roasted mushrooms for lunch.
LisaH
Plant something: Nope, but am tending some sprouting Flying Dragon orange trees.
Harvest something: Gathered goose & chicken eggs (credit for the idea of putting this under “harvest”: http://greenbluebrown.blogspot.com).
Preserve something: My sanity? Nope… too late.
Reduce waste: Hung clothes to dry on clothesline. Fixed and re-used old wire chicken run for new pullet shelter. Did not turn on air-conditioner in either car or home. Purchased “antique” metal nest box (10 cubbies) for the chickens at a fraction of the cost of new. Or course, will clean & sanitize thoroughly.
Preparation & Storage: purchased in bulk: coffee, dried garlic, curry seasoning blend, dried garbanzo beans, rice flour, garbanzo flour. Bulk homemade pasta sauce frozen. Researching pressure canners, finalizing on an All American 30-quart canner so I can start canning instead of freezing broths and sauces. Last week had electrician come out to look over site for emergency generator. This week, finalizing generator model, plans and costs.
Build Community Food Systems: Picked up CSA basket, purchased local goat cheese at our tiny farmers market. Preparing for local co-op vendor/member “meet and greet” next week.
Eat the Food: Ate CSA goodies.
“My update is on my blog….you can get there by clicking on my name.
” … ditto! — but in case you’re too rushed to click:
1. Plant something – tomatoes, FINALLY! And eggplants, squash, cabbages, cukes, basil.
2. Harvest something – Elephant garlic, onions, kale, chard, radishes, broccoli, leeks, dandelions. Harvested two egg-eating hens; made stewed chicken and saved all the broth. Caught and froze three trout. A little bit of rosemary, lavendar, mint, oregano and marjoram — we tend to grab these and munch as we go by.
3. Preserve something – Froze kale/broccoli mix. Froze chicken soup.
4. Reduce waste – Still bringing home cardboard, newspapers, bottles, and bubble pack every day, for use in projects. Carrying duck-pond water to the orchard trees for a boost. WEEDING.
5. Preparation and Storage – Taught Daughter revolver basics. Checked and updated 9/11 bags and moved the one that had been in the dead station wagon to the living pickup truck. New fire extinguishers. New compost bin walls (recycled futon frame).
6. Build Community Food Systems – Beloved and Son continue volunteering as veggie garden experts at Extension Service.
7. Eat the Food – From storage: rolled wheat, oats, spelt flour, rye, buckwheat, brewer’s yeast, sunflowers, flaxseed. From dried: Runner beans; basil. From frozen: trout, blueberries, blackberries, apples, plum sauce, pear sauce, bok choi, sugar snap peas. From poultry: duck eggs, chicken eggs, chicken liver, chicken soup. From garden: elephant garlic, onions, kale, maple, chard, broccoli, leeks, dandelions. We’re baking a loaf of Amish Friendship Bread brought by Daughter for Mother’s Day, which was also my 60th birthday.
Plant something: alfalfa sprouts
Reduce waste/harvest something: made minestrone from tired fridge veggies & some of the more weatherbeaten greens from the garden.
Buried fermented bokashi scraps
Received a 2nd hand wormfarm via freecycle, plus an offer of some worms that need rehousing.
My mother gifted me a wire plant stand that was sitting in her garage.
Preserve something: small batch of pear & ginger chutney.
Prep something: Bought 5 kilos of chickpeas.
Requested preserving jars and a thermal oven as birthday gifts.
Sourced ‘Don’t throw it – grow it!’ a book on propagating fruit and veggies from pits & seeds.
Cleared space at the side of the house for pots of herbs/greens that don’t mind shade.
Eat the food: baked very successful bean & veggie enchildas – a new method of camoflaging a range of veggies that my partner might not otherwise enjoy.
My update is at http://skagitfoodshed.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/independence-days-2/
I have too much chocolate?
After 10 straight days of rain in which the only planting was scattering some grass seed during a patch of light drizzle, I finally got into the garden today.
Planted, 100 pea plants
Harvested spinach (which I’d done a bit of in the past few days) and other thinnings for salads.
Preserve nah
Reduce waste: hauled on a kid’s sled 24 2x4x8s from deck a neighbor was having removed. 1/2 a mile a round trip, could carry 4 at a time. Can’t understand why I haven’t lost a lot of weight Also scored a lenght of PVC to ventilate compost heap and to long bits of grooved wood that I’ve used to guide the overflow pipe on one of the rain barrels into the bit of drain pipe that directs into cemement trough that is to heavy to move that gets the water into the gravel drive way instead of right by the basement window where it runs in. Oh joy, oh rapture!
Also picked up sandals from cobbler who had resoled them yet again for me. This time he used a bit of an old mat and charged me a little less.
Prep and storage made three more scarves for the soup kitchen and salvaged several paper patterns for children’s clothing.
Built community — gave away the golden and red raspberry canes that had crept into the lawn (that was I call the weedy bit where nothing else is planted) and ran out of time before I got the tomato plants that I’m going to grow (if all goes well) tomatoes for the pizza place next door.
Ate started making a big effort on the frozen pumpkin –soup here we come!
Planted – daffodil bulbs. The plan is to leave them to naturalise in the ornamental/play area section of the garden, which we look out on through the kitchen window and where the light from sunrise falls through a gap in the back neighbours’ trees. I want them to be up already! Also picked up a french tarragon cutting from the local market, but it won’t go in the ground until a few cubic metres of earth have been removed for the herb garden.
Harvested – a few more carrots from the box. For anyone wanting more portable growing space, or restricted to gardening in pots, try asking at your local supermarket for polystyrene boxes – usually used to transport vege like broccoli. Stab the bottom of the box to make drainage holes, fill with potting mix or suitable soil for pots and plant into them. If you are in a cold area, the boxes will generally warm up before the rest of the garden, giving you an early start. Just don’t overcrowd them! We’re harvesting the last of our ‘cosmic purple’ and ‘lochibar (?can never remember the exact name?)’ carrots, which are small because they were planted late but incredibly sweet.
Preserve – made harissa, which will go beautifully with the already-made preserved lemons for Morrocan cooking. Am putting out word on the vege black market that we are after more lemons. Made lamb stock with the bones from last week’s rojan josh. Bought extra green tomatoes at the market to get a decent batch of relish when combined with the green tomatoes I harvested a few weeks back.
Reduce Waste – This week I’ve gone on a mission to get on top of the fridge – there were leftovers in there from before the move, and forgotten in all the craziness. Composted the feral leftovers before they became sentient – but only just! Planned weekly menu to use up ingredients on the verge of going off.
Prep and Storage – Bought curtain fabric from the factory-direct seconds shop, aiming to have curtains in the living room within the next two weeks. Found out that this was the last week for the apple stall at the local market (they have probably about 30 different types of heirloom apples, and we’ve been trying different types systematically) and bought most of their ‘Beauty of Kent’ – our favourite, a tartish apple that is great eating and supposed to be good for cooking (though none have lasted that long in previous weeks). The apple man says they will keep till October.
Community Food Systems – Sent quince paste with BB to the regional music committee meeting. Expect to expand vege black market/trading network to the committee members.
Eat the Food – Fell down for 3 days while BB was away and I was overloaded with marking. Finished marking on Saturday and got into the kitchen, and from that point we’ve done: scrambled eggs and mushrooms with preserved lemon; Thai green curry (using our carrots and gorgeous baby bok choy from the market), passionfruit shortbread biscuits (using the gifted passionfruit about to go off), saffron and onion lamb accompanied by parsnip wedges (parsnips about to go off), sauted spinach and sour cream/harissa.
Ha! ha! D.A. and I are “preserving” the same thing
.
It was a crazy week, and to celebrate surviving it, we opened up a couple of bottles of our homebrewed Hefeweizen. It was delicious! Better than any beer I’ve had since I returned from Germany.
The rest of my update is on my blog.
But I neglected to add one thing that might fit in the “harvest” category … well, two things. The first is eggs, which our chickens give us every day, but I never remember to add that one to the list.
The other is wood. We had a pretty harsh winter and a lot of trees lost limbs. Now, it’s time for spring clean-up, and there are piles of logs and brush from the downed trees all along the sides of the roads. Thing is, most of it’s pine, and few people like to burn pine. As such, most of it will end up just rotting. We like burning pine, if it’s good and dry (it takes about four months for pine to dry, as opposed to six months or more for hardwood – properly stored), and so we’ve been contacting people with these piles of wood and moving it for them. So far, we have about four cords of (free) wood. We’re hoping we can harvest enough to get us through the winter.
Of course, it may also fit in the “reduce waste” category, too, because by harvesting downed trees, we’re also not buying wood, which means fewer trees will need to be cut down for our winter heating needs. We usually get sustainably harvested wood, but if those trees can spend one more year upright in the woods, it’s a good thing.
One other thing in the “reduce waste” category. We found a picnic table that was going to be trashed and brought it home. It needs some repairs and some paint, but it looks to be mostly sound.
Plant something: every space in the vegetable garden is already planted, for now. Still have one Liberty apple and a Redhaven peach tree to arrive in the mail.
Harvest something: walking onions tops
and asparagus for omelets.
Reduce waste: had a local tree-cutting crew dump their chips on the corner of my yard recently. Today I used the wood chips to mulch the paths in my blueberry patch. Used horse manure from the local riding stable to mulch my fruit trees.
preserve something: just my sanity by working outside all day.
prep and storage: -
Build Community Food Systems – check. small market garden of sorts.
Eat the food – omelets. see above.
Nicole in SW Ontario, would you mind being a local pen-pal? I have tons of questions to ask you please. My email is acarthewatsympaticodotca.
Plant: planted out under glass swiss chard, a cucumber. Tomato seedlings and peppers seem to be sprouting at last. Also lettuce (under glass)
Harvest: chives for salads and lovage for soup
Reduce: constant re-organising of storage room
Prep/Storage: bought cans of beans on sale, more flour
Community: gave a neighbour a jar of homemade marmelade as a thank you for giving me some plants.
Eat: peaches canned last year and home-made yoghurt. I felt so proud!
Plant something: Mainly herbs- basil, cilantro, thyme, tarragon, oregano, lavender, and mint- and also, chard.
Reduce waste: Like others here, am trying to eat from the pantry and freezer. Made a big batch of beef stock from bones I’ve been throwing in a container in the freezer all winter.
Community food systems: Gave my sister-in-law’s partner chives that I divided from a plant my friend gave me last summer (paying it forward…..). Picked up my CSA produce. Bought kiwi preserves from a farm that grows them locally. (I live in Central Virginia/USA, an area not known for kiwis, so it was a very pleasant surprise to find out that they can be grown in our climate.)
Eat the food: Ate the last batch of freezer applesauce that I preserved after our trip to the orchard last fall. Still loving the CSA radishes, carrots, and turnips. Am planning on making French Onion Soup this week from CSA spring onions and beef stock.
Plant something:
The tomato seedlings are starting to recover now that they have been transplanted into other soil, they might make it yet! The cucumbers are doing well too, the peppers though are really really slow in growing. I’m thinking they need it much warmer!
We did get the peas planted finally, still no sign of them coming up though. It is still quite cold and wet, unusually so, thus I’m holding off on planting anything else. We just mowed the grass for the first time for an example of what our weather has been like!
I’m also still waiting for dh to rotovate the garden, we usually use Grandma’s tiller but it is broken. Dh bought a little one at a yard sale but it needs work before it is useful. He borrowed a friend’s tractor and large rototiller and did his market garden. Way, way, way, too big to do the house garden with!
He has planted his beets, carrots, peas, onions, and radishes so far in the market garden. He salvaged some of last year’s failed potato crop, it got too weedy, and is going to replant them.
Harvest something:
Finally! Some rhubarb that I tossed in the kids’ bag lunches, I needed to put a fruit in there and this came to mind. I could harvest more, I just need to bake to use it and I hate sweet baking!
OH!!! Yes, we ‘harvested’ flowers. I love having fresh flowers on our dining room table and my 11yo girls are great about finding flowers and other ‘stuff’ for display.
Preserve something:
Nothing yet, I could preserve rhubarb but we still have lots still in the pantry from last year! I am going to start drying herbs soon as they are up and growing in spite of this horrid weather!
Preparation and Storage:
Thinking about how to change our storage areas for this year’s harvest. Making plans…
Starting to purchase on sale items to restock pantry after gouging it last week.
Reduce waste:
Instead of recycling glass jars with resealable tin lids I’ve begun saving them for preserving jams in. This is something my Grandmother was supportive of and I dismissed as I knew better than to reuse commercial jars, would only use proper canning jars. Older and wiser now ;o) I’m also saving jars with plastic screw lids, it won’t be long now before I have a lovely matching set of 1.5 litre storage jars! FREE!
Finally took all of the winter’s recycling to the depot. We won’t let that pile up again! It was interesting how much we took to the depot thus saving it from the landfill. Reorganized the sunroom’s recycling bins.
Still drying clothes on the clothes line even though it keeps raining!
Keeping firm to the ‘no lights on during daylight hours’ learning to live with only natural light. This was REALLY strange at first, now I find it relaxing.
Doing way too much driving as ds has a broken leg. Can’t make him walk to school now can I?!? And I’ve been feeling too yucky to do any biking. It’s been a rough couple weeks.
Build Community Food Systems:
Dh is working on his market garden, third year for this incarnation.
Continuing to buy only local eggs now that Lent is over. Supporting local growers this way.
Visited our chickens at Uncle’s farm, he is growing 2 or three batches of 300+ meat birds for sale this year. Since we can’t have chickens in town…
A new thought, or articulating a thought that has been brewing….
We do buy some transplants every year. These are available everywhere you turn even at the grocery store and dh’s workplace. (very tempting!) BUT … We have truck after truck hauling little plants into our valley, why??? We have local greenhouses, at least 4 commercial greenhouse operations that grow transplants. Why can’t we concentrate our dollars and shop locally grown in this venue as well? So ta-ta! bargain prices at the grocery store and hardware store I’m off to local growers for local transplants supporting this branch of my community food system!
(We have a local greenhouse grower growing out dh’s market garden peppers and 700+ of his tomato plants from seeds I saved. No way we were attempting that at home! We are closing the loop of what we can supply locally vs. what we have to ship in.)
Eat the food:
Last of the green beans, some pickles, ground CSA wheat for bread, local beef from our freezer, ate mainly from storage last week, looking to what we can add to our list of ‘make it don’t buy it’.
Try Something New:
Last year a fellow wanted our old cornstalks for his cows and brought us some cobs of multicoloured corn as a thank-you. He said we could use the seed to plant corn for next year. So my something new is husking(?) the kernels off the cobs for dh to plant in the market garden. Since we don’t grow corn and neither do the neighbours it shouldn’t cross pollinate. I’m not to sure what this corn is good for??? I’ll have to track down his phone number and ask! If nothing else it is pretty and might sell just for looks.
I’m planning on making dd climb up on the roof every Monday to take an aerial photo of the garden. (This isn’t as mean as it sounds, she is nearly 20 and our roof is flat.) It will make an interesting slideshow if IF IF we remember to do it regularly!
My update is at my blog. I’ve included a to- do list to my post this week because I felt like I needed more focus. Well, and I had a hard time trying to remember everything I had done;)
Plant something: black soy beans, broccoli, lettuce, catnip, green bell pepper, NZ spinach, Good King Henry, mache, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, squash, runner beans, carrots
Harvest: asparagus, rhubarb, violets, garlic greens, turnip greens, lettuce, mache, oregano
Preserve: froze rhubarb, dried bee balm
Reduce Waste: dug up daylilies, harvested nettle and bee balm from areas slated to become potato towers and SFG raised beds; using cloth hankies instead of paper tissues (but ran out
– note to self, get more cloth hankies)
Prep and store – not
Building community food system – began planning neighborhood block party (first step to building a community that could have a food system), began informal food exchange with neighbor’s sister; gave bee balm for drying and for planting to neighbor
Eat the Food – ate the salad and most of the rhubarb harvested this week.
We love bi bim bop too! Sometimes I make up a peanut butter sauce for the top, and sometimes we just make sure the egg yolk is soft.
1. Plant something – I planted ostrich ferns that I got from a neighbor. I’m looking forward to seeing if they’re edible next spring. I’ve read that they are, but I’ve never tried it. I also transplanted some parsley I started in my window and planted some radishes and turnips.
2. Harvest something – We have been sprinkling chives and garlic chives on all sorts of things. And I added the asparagus from the yard to my store bought asparagus today for dinner. The difference in taste was absolutely amazing! Our home grown asparagus was sweet and tender and nutty, even when it was raw. The store bought was bland and kind of tough, not sweet at all. I need to plant more asparagus!
3. Preserve something – Nothing yet, the dehydrator has been taken over by raw food experiments, so the herbs have had to wait. I need to dry the bee balm soon though, it’s already starting to bolt.
4. Reduce waste – We’ve been exploring eating more raw food. That saves gas since we don’t use the stove. Also, we cut old worn out clothes into rags again this week. It’s kind of fun in a destructive kind of way, like pulling weeds, which I’ve also done a bunch of. Speaking of which, I’m trying a new way of composting nasty weeds like quackgrass myself, rather than sending them off in a city waste bag, trying to keep the nutrients that I have in my yard rather than losing them.
5. Preparation and Storage – I’ve kind of been slack here, but I’ll get there.
6. Build Community Food Systems – I gave a friend of mine some of my extra leek starts since I planted all that I wanted and still had ¾ of them left. I also traded perennials with my neighbor across the street, and she offered me some of her ostrich ferns that I have been eyeing for ages. We talked tomatoes and fruit trees. I’m making much more of an effort to reach out to my neighbors and it feels good.
7. Eat the Food- We’ve been eating chives on everything, the kids love it. We ate our first asparagus from the yard, and while my oldest hates it, my two year old happily ate the tips off and handed the rest back to us. I’m happy to report that asparagus from the yard still tastes really good, even without the tips. We’ve been eating violets out of the yard too, the girls love to eat flowers.
This challenge is really inspiring me to incorporate the edibles in my yard into our diet more, rather than letting them just go to waste. Yay!
From St. Louis, MO, where we actually had some sunshine for a change (and another inch of rain, just because that’s the way the weather patterns are running this year):
Plant something: 100 square foot bed of cool-weather crops (carrot and turnip seeds, and seedlings of kale, cabbage, 4 varieties of lettuce, bok choy, and Florence fennel that I grew). Also transplanted some native flowers and grasses (goldenrod, aster, liatris, two different echinaceas, blue sage, and little bluestem) to a bed next to the patio where I can see and enjoy them. Thoroughly weeded that bed first. Also weeded the failed shell pea planting and replaced it with excess seedlings of kale, cabbage, bok choy, collards, and lettuce, to eat before the main plantings are ready. Started weeding the next bed to be planted in the veggie garden.
Harvest something: green garlic, green onions, lamsquarters, sorrel, asparagus, rhubarb, parsley.
Preserve something: not yet, but expect to harvest spearmint and beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) for drying later this week.
Reduce Waste: started another compost pile – that makes three new ones so far this spring. Received newspapers from a friend that can be used for sheet mulching. Keeping up with drying laundry on clothes racks outside whenever the sun shines, inside when it doesn’t. Continuing to mow at least the front and side yards with the human-powered reel lawnmower. Keeping the heat off now, except on Mother’s Day when my DH’s mother came over (she is 81 and is used to a well-heated house). Open the windows whenever it gets warmer outside than in. Made 2 gallons of sun tea, thereby avoiding electricity for that task.
Preparation and Storage: keeping an eye on the bulk storage area so I know when we need to re-order our staple foods and supplies.
Build Community Food Systems: let my neighbor know she can have the remaining unplanted lettuce seedlings for her garden.
Eat the Food: sampled the latest batch of homebrew (my DH’s work). My DH tried a recipe for a lentil-and-macaroni dish he found in Joy of Cooking. Really simple (lentils, WW macaroni, sauteed onions, tomatoes [canned at this time of year] and seasonings), and very good. We’ll be making it again.
It’s been a busy week here. My post is up on my blog. We’re still struggling to make our new homestead livable so we can move in. But I did make time to make lilac jelly. It’s something new for me.
Plant: lettuce
Harvest: rhubarb, dandelions
Preserve: – no
recycle: large box of newspapers; offering old gasoline lawnmower free for taking – (we now mow with hand mower;) donated bags of clothes, books etc. to charity; composted veg scraps, leaves etc.
Prep and storage: bought some dried beans, lentils, peas
Eat: First rhubarb crisp of season!
Community Food Systems: Joined CSA
Plant something: So far I have planted peas (my favourite Green Arrow, as well as sugar snaps and Frosty, an early dwarf variety), 3 kinds of onions from sets, Yukon Gold potatoes, arugula, lots of spinach, kale, mesclun mix, radicchio, rainbow chard, beets, and five blueberry bushes. It’s a bit early for them, but I also planted a few beans and put in 3 of my tomato transplants, protected by water-filled jackets. They’ve been in for a week now and seem quite happy so far, but the overnight temperature is supposed to drop to just above freezing, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will be all right. Just for fun I planted a small patch of quinoa. It will be interesting to see what it does.
Harvest something: The first of the asparagus is ready. There is lots this year for the first time and we had plenty to serve 5 people for dinner on Sunday. It was delicious just lightly steamed. I also had a great hummus and raw asparagus sandwich for lunch today. I’ve also been picking Egyptian onions for the past few weeks. There is an overabundance of purple violets in the perennial bed this year. They really needed to be thinned out, so I harvested a bunch of the leaves and used them in salad and also picked about a litre of the flowers.
Preserve something: I used the violets to make violet vinegar. The colour is stunningly beautiful and the flavour is distinctly floral.
Reduced Waste: Collected a bunch of old toys, table linens ,and a few other items that we don’t need and donated them to a yard sale fund-raiser; plus the usual composting, recycling and such.
Preparation and storage: Cleaned out the pantry and reorganized the remaining preserved items (pickles, salsa, tomatoes, pears and jam) from last season so that I will see them and use them before starting on this year’s preserving.
Build community food systems: Divided some perennials and gave them and some Egyptian onions to a young friend who is a new gardener. Bought locally produced honey and apple cider.
Eat the food: Tried a new cauliflower soup recipe and ate lots of asparagus from the garden.
planted: 20 heirloom tomato plants, digitalis, yarrow, evening primrose, strawberries, eggplant
harvested: lemon sorrell, parsley, mulberries, strawberries
preserved: nada
reduced waste: old cardboard piled on top of poison ivy, closet cleaned out (papers to recycle, books to library, clothes to thrift store, more books set aside for “Building Intentional Community” gathering being held here at the intentional community i live in
building solar duck house out of found & recycled materials! whahoo., duck pond water to pear trees
prep & storage: hmmm…
worked on community food systems: visited next town over’s Swap Saturday to promote our village’s Barter Days starting next month. took care of neighbor’s chickens while they were gone
ate: neighbor’s chicken eggs, last years fig jam, almost the last of our last years sweet potatoes, last years frozen blueberries & mulberries in several smoothies, this years fresh mulberries (the very first today — earlier than usual), cherries, & strawberries
Preparing for a big 50th birthday party for a friend on Wed so I’ve been weeding, cleaning, and shopping and I’m not sure I actually planted anything since last week’s update. The big news here is that I bought two tiny chicks for my broody hen today. I’m hoping she figures it out and takes them under her wing, rather than pecking them to death. The first 18 hrs are supposed to be key and they’re still alive and resting under her protection 3 hrs into this life or death experiment, so I’m hopeful.
Waiting on Wall O’ Waters to come in so I can plant tomatoes. Besides those, I’m nearly done planting for now and nearly everything is either mature and about to bolt, or just sprouting.
No point in going through all the categories as I have no real news beyond what I’ve written above. As soon as this party is behind me I can get back to my regularly scheduled life.
1. Plant something: Armenian cucumbers, zucchinis, and pumpkins. Not sure how well they will fare in the heat we are having, but we shall see.
2. Harvest something: A good time for this. I harvested, swiss chard, beets, radish, basil, carrots, and the past couple of days over two pounds of tomatoes with more on the way! They aren’t the prettiest tomatoes I have ever seen but really, I am just amazed that I have some!
3. Preserve something: Does freezing stuff count? If so I made two big batches of pesto using basil from the garden and froze it. It freezes really well I have found. Tomorrow I start my canning adventure so next week should be a hoot!
Reduce waste: I am of course composting everything as usual. Now that it is so hot I am trying to be more mindful of cooking in a way that reduces the heat in the house so we have been barbecuing a lot. I have also been using the crock pot even more than usual. I am getting more and more creative at using up everything that is leftover in our fridge so that we very seldom throw any food away unless it looks a bit dodgy, and then the dogs get it.
Preparation and storage: I have the book “Food Matters”, by Mark Bittman to read on my night stand as well as the usual huge pile of Mother Earth News. I am making a huge effort to read EVERY night rather than falling into bed exhausted because I know if I don’t make the time it wont happen, and I do so love to read. I have also started digging out the old sand box for my new veggie patch. The sand will be used as top soil on the back yard.
6. Build community food systems: I gave swiss chard to our neighbour across the street, and to some Mom’s at Kendra’s school. I have also been asked by two separate people at school this past week to “teach” them how to grow veggies after they saw me give them away. Not sure if anything will come of it, but I am always happy to show them what I know, (which wont take long!), if it does
7. Eat the food: We had a swiss chard frittata like thingy this evening with tomato and basil, and we also had beets. I have also been eating radishes in salads, and we had pesto the other evening.
plant: crimson clover (cover crop) and nasturtians
harvest: rape (kale), violet leaves, chickweed, spring onions, and rainwater! – we finally have a rainwater system installed 300 gallons.
preserve: made kombucha
reduced waste: saved little bits of flour left from rolling dough. curtain rod from freecycle
prep and storage: hand digging new beds whenever I can (its been raining alot!). Put rolled oats into metal containers
build community food systems: talking about goats and animals with friends.
eat the food: thinking of Mrs. Morris, I made fried apple turnovers (using no-knead 5min recipe). Also used potato water to make dough – wow what a difference in the rise! Also, made a breakfast turnover with tofu, onion, kale rolled into bread dough and fried in cast iron pan. Yummmm.
Plant something:
okra, transplanted squash to the bed where a black walnut killed the tomatoes last year (we took the tree down, but it is still potent and stressing the okra planted there), replanted okra in the squash bed.
Harvest something:
chard, lettuce, chickweed, sorrel leaves, eggs of course
Preserve something:
not this week
Reduce waste:
got a new battery powered mower for the yard which collects grass clippings which I composted and gave to the chickens
Prep and storage:
froze oatmeal cookies Diana made
Community food:
not this week
Eat the food:
Ate chard and lettuce, Diana made cookies from stored oatmeal, ate frozen tomato sauce on pasta, ate frozen bread for toast in the morning.
Plant: finally finished the new raised beds, and started planting shell & snap peas, asparagus (trade with neighbor), trillium, transplanted chard, cilantro, bee balm & marigolds.
Harvest: dandelions, chives.
Preserve: peanut butter cookie batches (ds loves to help bake, so we make a double recipe of dough, then divide it into one-sheet sizes, bake one sheetful and freeze the rest.)
Waste not: donating old clothes, sending the nicer ones to our little nephew, emailing photo cards for birthdays (I’m a photographer), reduced electricity usage by almost 50% over the prior month! Starting up composting again.
Prep & Storage: stocked up on toothpaste, toothbrushes, popcorn. Priced chest freezers.
Community: got baby chicks! We’re sharing them with the neighbors. Also chatted with a student neighbor and got invited to his community garden. Offered plants on freecycle.
Eat the food: I have only “May” food in the cupboard now (plus the usual condiments & etc.) so we’re working on eating from storage. It’s an experiment, so see how much of what we actually eat, and where to add or subtract items. I’m finding myself being more inventive with what I have since I have to use it up.
1. Plant something – Planted Broccoli & onion starts. The broccoli has failed (that didn’t take long), but the onions look good. Tended to all the rest of the seedlings that I’m slowly but surely getting ready to plant out.
2. Harvest something – Harvested sweet woodruff
3. Preserve something – Dried the sweet woodruff. Made up a batch of blueberry cordials with berries from the freezer.
4. Reduce waste – Re-started yogurt making at home (got lazy for a while there). Tried a fabulous new bread recipe (here’s a link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102124561).
5. Preparation and Storage – Put together my bulk shopping order from our co-op (I can’t believe how many pounds of dried black beans we go through around here!). Picked up a crock for making pickles (last year’s pickle making was jerry-rigged in an ungainly combination bowls & dishes none of which quite fit and which also took my bread making bowl out of commission for a few weeks). Picked up canning supplies. Stocked up on pantry items including sugar for the upcoming strawberry jam making festival.
6. Build Community Food Systems – Made a big donation to our local food pantry – hoping to be organized enough to do this once a month.
7. Eat the Food – Homemade yogurt with last year’s homemade jam.
Plant something – winter is here!
Harvest something – quinces and crab apples
Preserve something – apples and quinces mostly into jelly and cordial.
reduce waste – recycled my wardrobe somewhat.
prep and storage – bought large bag rice on special
community – taught neighbour how to make apple cordial. Took a patchwork class for the first time.
eat the food – lots of pickles and apple jelly has been mysteriously evaporating
viv in nz
Preparation and Storage:
I spent a Monday late afternoon weeding and pulling flowering plants where the new garden would go.
On Thursday, a friend with whom I had bartered my time for his, came over to my house and we hauled four loads of amended soil to set up the garden area and fill in the raised bed.
A friend and I built a second raised bed next to the first.
Plant Something:
I planted eight tomato plants at a satellite garden (at a friend’s house)
Three friends of mine and I took Sunday and planted: Twenty-six tomato plants, Radishes, Lettuce, Fennel plant (started from seeds a few months ago), Sweet Red Onions (started from seed a few months ago), Romain Lettuce, Basil, Bush Green Bean, bell pepper plants, broccoli plants, Honeydew Melon, Watermelon seeds, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Butternut Squash, Strawberry plants (the only plants I actually purchased).
Harvest Something:
I have been able to harvest sprouts practically every day.
Lettuce, Arugula, and a few radishes were harvested from the garden.
Build Community Food Systems:
Started a garden over at a friends. Prior to this year she didn’t have a garden, but with a little encouragement, she dug up a chunk of her yard, and I planted tomatoes. She excitedly planting carrot seeds, lettuce seeds and strawberry plants on her own.
Over at the “main” garden in my back yard, three friends and I planted the garden with seeds and seedlings for our family garden.
Eat the Food:
I love sprouts. I use mostly in my new favorite sandwich: toast with a little brown mustard, provolone cheese, sun dried tomatoes and sprouts. YUM!
From the thinning out the Arugula and Lettuce, we were able to create a lovely salad for the four of us – complete with a radish from the garden.
first lettuce.
my update is on my blog
http://heathershomemaking.blogspot.com/
Updated IDC at the blog: http://cauldronridge.blogspot.com/2009/05/independence-day-challenge-week-3.html
I forgot to add the community section: Talked with neighbors about the fact more people have garden plots tilled this year ready to plant. Many have never gardened before as far as the neighbors could remember (I’m relatively new to the area). Also, local farmer’s market began this past Saturday!
Great job. Being Independant is a lot of hard work!!! I did these lists last year. I have yet to get around to it this year!
Here is my Independence Days update!
My highlight: making cream of nettle soup. It was delicious!
Here is my update for the IDC this week. Not much going on yet…
Plant something – German oregano, sage, thyme, curly parsley and four cherry tomatoes in the boxes on the deck.
Harvest something – Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.
Preserve something – Froze rhubarb for later use.
Reduce Waste – Took our weekly trip to town and stopped at the recycling center. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens.
Preparation and Storage – I cleaned the crab grass out of one of my 4×8 raised beds that went unused last year hope to get it planted next week.
Eat the Food – I don’t cook using a meal plan because my family (especially Neil) often decides what they are in the “mood” to eat the day of or, at most, the day before it is to be eaten. What I do instead is to keep a well stocked pantry that allows me to cook pretty much any of our family favorite meals from what we have in stock. This means when I am shopping I am usually replacing or adding to our pantry stores instead of buying for ingredients for that weeks meals (except fresh fruits and veggies but again just replacing what we normally keep in the house). This week for example there was baked chicken with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and green beans; steak, hand cut french fries and salad; ham, mac & cheese and broccoli; sweet & sour meatballs with rice; and stuffed pizza rolls (made from scratch). All of the things were decided on the afternoon of the same meal and all the ingredients pulled from our pantry shelves or freezer.
Hello from Colorado
Plant: potatoes, a few tomatoes in pots still in the cold frame, green peppers in cold frame, peas. Still waiting for consistently warmer weather for everything else.
Harvest: dandelions, chives, parsley spinach, eggs, lettuce, and a first cutting on the volunteer alfalfa plants at the end of the driveway for hay for the chickens. If roommate thought I was crazy he didn’t say anything.
Prep-storage: Winter coats moved , took all the hankies out of the pockets. Found perfect pair of black sandals with Buckles! ( velcro wears out) and bought them for myself for Mother’s day. Also sorted out shoes into one of those canvas closet hangers that I found at thrift store and fixed up to hold the weight . Such poor design on so many “consumer” items that I am glad I sew and am able to improve things.
Eating: Had a can of pork and beans from storage after my dental work. Boy, were they ever awful.. and I used to like them. Don’t even taste like beans. And what’s in that weird red sauce? couldn’t read the label. Hmm…I made stuffed peppers and used white rice. also a disappointment. Had home canned peaches, a wonderful lentil stew, made a couple of batches of refrigerator soup. Baked whole wheat crackers and ate them all.
Waste:I am going to attempt to use only recycled or repurposed fabrics in my aprons, slippers, shopping bags, kid’s clothes, etc that I sell at market this year.
1. Plant something: Blake’s Pride pear tree and All-In-One Almond (a stretch for our climate). Also put a Violette fig in a big pot. Mail order from the nursery.
With fresh good potting soil, my replanted tomatoes and peppers are coming up. They’ll be late, but we are often subject to late freezes so it’s OK.
2. Harvest something. No. Though the yellow dandelion flowers are calling to me……
3. Preserve something. No.
4. Reduce waste. Nothing new.
5. Prep and Storage. FINALLY called someone to help me put in a garden in the front yard. He’s showing up tonight. I think I can keep a garden if somebody else does the hard work of taking out the grass and preparing the bed.
6. Community food systems. Started the May cycle on the local food cooperative I manage. We’ll be offering spring veggies this time, and local eggs. I plan to make a Garden Share table this summer, with leftovers to go to the Food Bank.
7. Eat the food. Made a dandy soup with navy beans, a pork bone, the last of the stored CSA onions, home dried gypsy peppers, and a half-pint of home canned tomato sauce. I’m trying to remember to use the dried vegetables from last season. They’re great in soups.
We’re still eating the nectarines and peaches I put up, and the tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes. They’ve been such a pleasure.
We are finally building our raised bed garden this week. Everything worked out well for us this year to build it but I wish we’d done it earlier.
We also planted rhubarb this year. It is becoming too expensive to purchase at the grocery store.
I placed an order through my friend’s co-op for some more wheat (wow, has it raised in price!) and I’m trying to split a bag of green lentils with someone in the co-op.
Thanks for a great website!