Independence Days Update
Sharon May 9th, 2008
So not my best week, folks. And I’m betting that next week and the one after will be worse. Until the book is done, I’m probably going to look kinda pathetic.
Still, I did get some stuff done. I planted 150 new strawberry plants, johnny jump ups, calendula, borage, and container planted tomatoes, eggplant, onions, mint, begonias (yeah, I know it isn’t food, but we eat the petals in flower salads, so we count them), bok choy, lettuce and kale. Still there are broccoli, onion and lettuce starts just staring at me and making me feel guilty.
We had a hard frost early in the week, so harvesting was more limited as things were set back. I harvested spinach, rhubarb, dandelions, raspberry leaves and some pea shoots for stir fry, and that was about it. Oh, and Poppino mushrooms from our mushroom project. They were a little past their prime - they are in a corner and we kind of forgot about them, but they were still very good.
Preserved: Dehydrated raspberry leaves for tea, froze some of our insane quantity of extra eggs for baking and winter scrambled, made rhubarb sauce for canning, but never got to it and we all ate it instead. I suspect that last one doesn’t really count 
.
Stored: Put away the canning sugars and salt in containers (need more buckets), bought extra dog and cat food. A kind friend gave me her son’s outgrown stuff - most of it will go to Isaiah and Asher, but despite the fact that her six year old and mine are the same age, hers has much bigger feet, so Simon collected two pairs of sandals - yay! The stuff for the little guys is also valuable - by the time my clothes have been through 4 kids, they don’t always look that good.
Prepped: Last Saturday’s yard saling yielded 4 boxes of canning jars, a big pile of history books, multiplication flash cards, a huge cracked bong (yes, you read that correctly) that I plan to make into a planter and a cast iron dutch oven. It was a good run - and tons of fun! I also took advantage of sales at various mail order nurseries to order more strawberries (I’ve decided to convert all six of the back beds to strawberries, since we couldn’t possibly have enough), more raspberries and 4 beach plums (Raintree has some amazing deals on bulk trees, and Stark and Miller both have good sales).
Managed: Still haven’t cleaned out freezer or pantry, and it isn’t going to happen until book is done. Must take inventory. I did get rid of the last of the rotten apples - the chickens loved them.
Cook Something New: Nope. Same ole, same ole stuff. Too tired.
Work on Local Food Systems: Not unless you count the book. I am a worm.
I’m changing “compost something” to “reduce waste” since that seems more on-topic, given that recent study that suggests that Brits throw away billions of food - more than anyone thought. How much you want to bet that that also applies to Americans?
Reduced Waste: We don’t have food waste per se - everything goes to some animal or the compost. But it would be nice if the chickens were being fed less on South Indian style curried vegetables that decomposed in the back of our fridge. Unfortunately, I haven’t done anything about this. We’re pretty good about minimizing waste, but not perfect.
Learned a skill - No. I think I may actually have gone backwards here, as I’m spending 10 hours a day in front of the computer, and I can actually feel my synapses unwinding. Soon, I’ll be able to do nothing but press keys and stare .
How about you?
Sharon