Plant: he packed shiitake mushroom sawdust spawn into various cuts he made in pin oak logs. The logs came from a large branch that fell off the next door neighbor’s tree. This took him several hours of work over two days. Yesterday evening he set up a propagation system to use the remaining sawdust spawn to make more spawn on cardboard.

Harvest: he harvested some nice shiitake off the logs he started in 2007.

Eat: he incorporated the shiitake mushrooms into scrambled eggs and also into the stir-fries he’s made over the past week. (He’s also the primary cook in our household.)

Planted: nothing again for the umpteenth week in a row. Next week for sure!

Harvested: beets, kale, bok choy, storage radishes and their greens, yard-long beans, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mustard greens, raspberries, persimmons, rose hips, jujubes

Preserved: some of the rose hips were already dried on the plant. I removed the husks from the popcorn so it will dry.

Waste Not: using the radish greens in tonight’s stir-fry. Used the flesh from the hull-less pumpkins in pumpkin bread (it’s not supposed to be good for much else, but my DH is going to give it a try in a pumpkin custard recipe he likes).

Want Not: Bought a year’s supply of olive and canola oils. Ordered 25 pounds of wheat berries to store and grind for flour for bread-making.

Build community food systems: Mentioned the excellent raspberries I’m still harvesting on my Facebook page – trying to seduce my friends and relatives into growing some food plants!

Eat the food: the raspberries. Food of the goods all by themselves; they don’t need a thing added. The pumpkin bread I mentioned above was delicious. Tonight’s stir-fry (radish greens, bok choy thinnings, the small kale leaves I couldn’t sell, a few mustard leaves from the plant in the cold frame, plus the pole beans and yard-long beans harvested over the past couple of weeks) is being cooked as I type … too bad all of you can’t smell it.

Plant— yikes.. I still want to plant cover crops.

Harvest—last of green tomatoes, lots of asian greens.

Preserve—making applesauce today

Reduce Waste—

Prep/Storage— popcorn (red and blue). stocked up on honey, salt and cane sugar.

Building Community Food Systems—

Eat the Food—delicious african groundnut stew using homegrown sweet potatoes, peanut butter, peppers, onions , tomatoes (from freezer) – all blended with tofu. (I think I got the inspiration from someone here – thank you! this is a very satisfying cold weather meal). rice and hulled barley with rehydrated okra and sweet peppers. Pintos with tomatoes (from freezer) and anjo chilis (from neighbor)

Sharon

Harvesting: Last of the parsnips, kale, leeks, chard, lettuce, parsley, asparagus, green garlic, orach, eggs.

Prep and storage: I have broken a rule we set ourselves with buying furniture, which is to only buy sturdy long lasting furniture. We desperately needed a pantry, and don’t have the money to put in built-in cupboards in the kitchen. And nobody makes freestanding wooden pantries, at least not for under a thousand bucks. I got fed up with food being stored in random piles on the floor, all over the kitchen table, and in our stuffed to bursting cupboard, so I caved and bought a big fugly MDF pantry cupboard. I’ve painted it cream which helps with some of the ugliness but we already managed to chip a chunk off it just getting it into the house. At least now I can build up some food storage, tell what we’re running out of at a glance, and not have to move 10 other things every time I want something.
And since we can’t seem to get a new roomate due to the over supply of rental housing at the moment, the spare room is going to be the jar storage area, so I’m not piling up little jar pyramids everywhere too.

Waste not: After the pantry clean out the chickens are feasting on old sunflower seeds and lentils.

Eat the food: Used up the egg surplus with quiche, home made ice cream, and soggy lemon cake.