Our blog hop focus is on sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Shallots and garlic curing on the fence for winter meals
It seems odd to be thinking of winter so soon after midsummer and just after summer has finally decided to arrive in Seattle. Most folks don’t even have ripe tomatoes, zuchinis are just poking up and my fourth and finally not slug-eaten round of cucumbers are thinking about stretching out to 9 inches or so on the trellises.
The truth is, if you were planning on growing things for winter you should have had them in a month ago. As always I’m a little late but closing the gap each year as I get more seasoned at winter gardening.
I started many things in trays just after midsummer and they were promptly munched on by slugs so I’ve since moved them indoors. I hate wasting the electricity for grow lights in the summer but this is an unusual year and I want some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages to eat come late fall, winter and spring. The hard part for me is planting things that should go into the ground just when we are leaving for vacation and any new seedlings would certainly not get the loving attention they need in the strong summer sun. Those things will likely always be late for me: beets, carrots, spinach, lettuces, parsnips, salsify, kale, parsley, arugula, mustard and rapini. Hopefully they will be timely enough that they’ll be done growing before the days are too short for them to come into their own.
After a spring and summer of growing I would love to grow a green crop to replenish the soil but there never seems to be enough time in my small garden to replenish before the winter crops need to get in. I hate to leave brix up to fertilizer, however, so I’m amending my garden beds with compost in between. When these crops come out in early spring I’ll plant two rounds of green manure. This will be forage for the chickens, who will poop it out and turn it under while helping control soil born pests. Check out my chicken tractor that I use to keep them confined to only the part of the garden I want them to eat from.
This summer my garden has been home to so many diseases and pests I’ve lost track: cherry canker, mildew and apple scab, aphids, leaf miners, carrot weevils, symphylans, caterpillars, slugs and snails. I’m diligently rotating crops and keeping an eye on populations. Only time will tell if this is a house of cards or not.
In the meantime I’ve had to shift the winter carrots over from the carrot bed still housing late summer/fall carrots into the recently vacated beet bed. The beet bed is riddled with leaf miners but I’m hoping to escape the carrot weevils that are in the carrot bed.
I’m using some compost but not too much so as to encourage the symphylan population. How much is too much? Ask me in a few years. I’m making this up as I go.
I was recently asked how I had managed to get such nice long carrots as the ones I was photographed harvesting in early June in the recent Seattle Times article.
Carrots put down a central tap root very quickly and they continue as long as the soil is nice and airy. Once they strike clay, dried dirt, rocks or other obstacles they stop and begin to add girth. Anytime I plant carrots I spend about an hour first forking the dirt, adding some compost, then ultimately breaking up each clod with gloved hands to a depth of about 12 inches. This is not at all necessary to grow carrots, but it is in Seattle if you want nice long ones.
Once I have my carrots sewn I cover the beds with remay and keep the soil evenly moist. Once it gets dried out it hardens and forms clumps again. It can take up to two weeks for carrots to germinate and then another couple of months for them to mature. I plant them twice per year so I don’t mind this extra work. Carrots are the vegetable that most kids love to pick and eat themselves and I have a veggie averse child so I’m trying to ensure we have carrots on hand at that magical moment he decides he’s going to try them.
The other thing you need to do to ensure nice, large carrots is to thin them. If there isn’t sufficient space around each carrot they won’t continue to fill in. You can thin them by picking and eating the tiny carrots though, so I don’t mind that task.
Back on April 10th I posted a link to my seed starting schedule where you can find my list of winter crops. It’s very similar to what you’ll find on The Modern Victory Garden except she has a greenhouse and some of the varieties are different.
So how about you? Have you started your winter crops yet? And what all have you harvested for winter eating?
I’m only 3 weeks behind posting this. Practically early for a change!
Some major changes that have happened since I made this movie that you’ll notice in upcoming garden posts: beets, peas, shallots, garlic and many greens have all been harvested and many of the winter crops are now in their place. I’ve also taken out all the nasturtiums because while we were on vacation aphids moved in and destroyed them. I’m now battling them on my squash plants and many others. Did you know when aphid populations get completely out of control they even take over chives? I didn’t. Here I’ve been reading for years that chive and garlic spray is a good deterrent for them. Good maybe, but not good enough.
One correction: I called it a hardy bamboo but I actually meant hardy ginger. You eat the shoots and flowers rather than the root and it is loving my moist clay part shade soil. I’m guessing you have some of that. You, in Seattle, with the tall trees surrounding your house. Why aren’t you growing hardy ginger and mushrooms?
Without furthur ado, my early July garden tour of the front yard.
For awhile now I’ve been scheming with Wardeh, Diana and Alicia on a blog hop that would focus on a variety of things from urban agriculture to real food. We settled on Simple Lives: Producing more, consuming less.
The blog hop focus is on sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
Everyone kicked the blog hop off last Thursday while I was on vacation so this is actually the second edition but I’m excited about it!
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
We’re back! Last week we drove down to Manzanita, OR and stayed in a little cabin on a bluff overlooking some of the most gorgeous stretches of beach and ocean in this country. We make this pilgrimage annually and always stay at places with kitchens so we can bring food. But because I want to take a break from cooking while we are on vacation I try to make salads that keep the better part of the week.
It’s so nice to open the fridge and have a bevy of healthy things to choose from just waiting for you!
Spelt and white bean salad with Lentz spelt and carrots, peas, basil, parsley, garlic and onions from the garden.” The white beans were from Azure Standard in Oregon but I’m growing some this summer in my own garden.
Black bean dip made from black beans I bought from Rockridge Orchards country farm. The beans are from eastern Washington but I’m growing black beans in the garden this summer as well. I also used garlic, onions, cilantro and shiso from the garden and we topped it with some feta. I don’t have a recipe for this but it’s basically hummus with beans, chili, garlic, salt and olive oil in the food processor.
Buttered spring beets. I harvested the beet bed the day before we left and cooked 2 gallons of them.
I made caesar dressing and brought a huge bag of chard and kale down.
One night we barbecued some pork chops from our Akyla farms pig from last fall.
One night we barbecued hot dogs from Silvana Meats.
The other two nights we got pizza from Fultano’s which we ate for 2 nights.
The kids picked out 1 kind of chips, 1 kind of cookie and 1 kind of breakfast cereal each which they ate during the week. We also went in for ice cream nearly every day and made s’mores at night with our homemade graham crackers. I didn’t have time to make marshmallows beforehand like I did for Memorial Day so my husband bought a bag of Kraft ones.
Every day for lunch we took a picnic to the beach, complete with salads, Macrina Bakery baguettes, local cheeses and smoked salmon from Loki a the UW farmer’s market. I brought some pickled asparagus from our spring stash and some of the home cured olives along. We also splurged on a bag of apples from New Zealand and some lunch meat.
One thing I had forgotten about is how convenient breakfast cereal is! It let the kids get up before us and feed themselves so that we could catch up on some much deserved sleep. I have to admit the convenience of that is tempting but because of what’s in those boxes, and what is NOT in those boxes, breakfast cereal is still banned at home.
How about you? How do you eat real food on vacation?
I’ve recently dipped my toes into rabbit as a means of keeping backyard meat but decided to wait a bit. It’s true you can buy rabbit from Bill the Butcher but what a sham that turned out to be. The Bill the Butcher expose only strengthened my resolve even further to know the person raising my meat animals, know their living conditions, and know the processing method and circumstances around the animal’s death.
I’ve scrutinized farmer Brad for months now about the living conditions and the livestock feed and feel pretty comfortable recommending him. He traveled to Polyface Farms in 2008 and met briefly with Daniel Salatin before starting up his rabbit operation, attempting to make it as sustainable as possible.
A quick blurb about the ideals they strive for on the farm:
Abundant Acres Farms is the result of many years of thought, research and learning. We are committed to providing our family, friends and customers the freshest and finest pastured meats.
Located in Toledo, WA our farm was originally homesteaded in 1935. We purchased the farm from the son of the original homesteaders! At nearly 40 acres, there is plenty of fresh air, grass and water for all the animals to express their natural instincts–a trait we hope to foster and encourage.
We will never be a mass producer, rather a “boutique” for more discriminating folks who care about their family, food origin and nutritional value.
Our logo “Ceres” (pronounced Series) is the ancient Roman goddess of plants. As we are a pasture based farm, grass quality is the foundation of our farm. We seek to use rotational grazing to naturally fertilize the fields, our flock of hens will work in the manure and insure bugs and flies are kept in check.
All animals are brooded on the farm in Toledo, Washington. They begin lives on conventional feed but are moved onto grass and local, unsprayed oats and alfalfa as soon as possible.
Farmer Brad raises chickens, ducks, geese, turkey, rabbits and occasionally pigs. You can email cereshill@yahoo.com for pricing or to reserve meat animals. He also sells breeding rabbits.
We thoroughly enjoyed our rabbits from him and I got a duck for my birthday dinner which I’ll be posting on soon I hope. It was amazing dark meat – the perfect thing for a special occasion. I’m looking forward to a fine Dickensian goose for Christmas and perhaps a steamed pudding to go with it.
Have you thought much about your Thanksgiving meal? Cascade Harvest Coalition always hosts an eat local contest with some pretty nifty prizes. Now is the time to be thinking about stocking your larder and freezer for fall and winter eats and farmer Brad is a great place to start!
This is your tea plant talking. You won me! Please contact Annette since she’s not very good at growing things in pots. If she doesn’t hear from you by Friday she’ll do another random drawing for me.
I’ve been remiss in postings lately. It’s not just because I’ve been consumed with raspberry and pea pickings, although that’s been adding to things. Did I mention that raspberries are the new tomato? They are that monkey on my back that needs to be picked continuously lest the fruit drop and rot under the vines and bring a host of diseases. Luckily the rats don’t seem to be interested in them, although we’ve found plenty of berries with snail trails on them.
I’ve been picking a colander or two per day for nearly two weeks now with likely another full week of picking to go. But what a problem to have! My freezer is full of berries that will hold their perfection until I have time to make jam and scones and pie. Oh Tullameen raspberries, where have you been all my life?
I’ve also had the pleasant distraction of visiting reporters peeking into my pantry, my freezer and my garden, a few garden tours, a tv pilot filming in my yard, and my parents who now reside in Arizona and a nephew from Alaska convening here. It’s been a busy two weeks!
I’ve also been harvesting the spring/summer carrots, the beets, loads of greens and feeding the bolted spring greens to the chickens. And did I mention the peas? Because at this point I’m closing my eyes when I walk past them. La, la, la, can’t see you. I’m ready for the peas to be done. I’ve blanched and frozen some and we’ve been eating stir fries constantly but they just keep producing. I’ve stopped watering them so the pods dry and I can save the seeds. The vines will go to goats up the street. In return I’ll get some nutrients to add to my compost pile, or perhaps some milk to make cajeta or chevre.
The garlic is ready for harvesting and braiding and the early potatoes are just about done as well.
BJ Hedahl is a driving force in the Sustainable NE Seattle group and advocate for domestic ducks.
From the beginning, I knew I wanted ducks. My first ducks roamed an acre of land up in Woodinville. In the summer I would go into the small fenced vegetable patch and stab slugs with a two-pronged knife and fling them over the fence. My ducks would dash to the spot and one would take the slug in its beak and take off with the others in pursuit. Until the slug was completely swallowed the others would quack indignantly; until I threw another and the whole thing would start again. All I had was a small wading pool for them to splash in. Within a year they got wind of a large home-made pool about four houses away and no matter how many times I brought them ‘home’, they made their way back. After a discussion with the owner of the pond (and half a dozen ducks of her own) my ducks were no longer mine.
Now I have Khaki Campbell and Indian Runner egg-laying ducks in a much smaller backyard, with a shed and smaller pen for night-time. On average, they each lay about five eggs a week. The eggs are white and slightly larger than chicken eggs. That is where comparisons between the two kinds of poultry stops! Backyard ducks and chickens cannot be compared to each other anymore than goats and pigs, or honeybees and mason bees, or kale and lettuce.
But just to make a point I will go down the list: First is housing, which is only really there for one reason, protection from predators. Ducks don’t need a roosting place and can bed down just about anywhere, although I have heard a few chicken owners say the same thing! Ducks are much more resistant to hot, cold, and/or wet weather, diseases and parasites. Ducks forage much of their food without scratching down to the dirt like chickens do. Consequently their store-bought feed can be lower overall in cost to get a larger egg, and ducks have a higher number of egg production years. I won’t even get into comparison of duck meat to chicken except to say it’s all dark! Even the feathers and down are more useful than that of chickens. But the crowning glory, in my opinion, is that Ducks love rain! What could be more fitting in Seattle!
Now I won’t avoid negatives, although I have personally not experienced very many myself. One is the noise, as I have heard that some breeds can be noisy, although one breed is mute! My girls are noisy around feeding time and have a lot to say when they think I am late putting their organic pellets before them. This happens about twice a day, for mere minutes which stops when their beaks are full. Another problem is their poop is wetter than chickens, but this is from a person that kept her ducks in a pen 24/7 with her chickens. So, ducks that are given a much larger area to range than chickens will forage and fertilize as they go, unlike chickens that tend to scratch down to dirt with negative results. Many times I have let my gals in my vegetable patch to probe around in the earth with very little interest in nipping at leaves, although they did take out my broccoli starts once, when I forgot.
And then there are the assumptions. Ducks don’t need a pond. I have a large wading pool that I re-fill with a portion of water from my rain barrels about twice a week. I use the ‘dirty’ water as fertilizer on different parts of the yard, sometimes filling a watering can and using it in the greenhouse or on planters along the driveway. And then I also have a water container about the size of a casserole dish which I change about two or three times a day, usually when I am feeding them. Ducks need this water to clean the vents in their beak and to wash food down.
My gals are handsome. They are spoiled with scraps of veggies and fruit. They entertain with proud silliness; one looks up in the sky; they all look; then I look and there is nothing there! When they are alarmed it is impossible to not giggle as they put out their wings like full skirts and dash for the enclosed pen shrieking like debutants.
Awhile back I had a pantry makeover which the lovely Kat won. I brought my friend Joshua with me to capture some of it on video which I’ll be editing sometime this month (maybe when we are on vacation?) But rather than waiting I really want to wrap up what we found and our suggested alternatives.
Darn if she wasn’t pretty squeaky clean when we got there! I was really impressed with the things I found, although there were some things (mostly gifted by friends and family) that we had to work with. The first thing we did was go through all the cupboards, fridge and freezer. We talked about what she used some of the ingredients for and I went away for several weeks while I pulled together alternative ingredients and replacement recipes for things she was currently buying.
Then we went back again, arms laden with gifts and examples, grain grinders to demonstrate how they are used and left her with a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread dough in her bread maker to wake up to.
I had a blast meeting Kat, her garden and her young chickens. She is the perfect example of someone making a difference: an ethical pescitarian volunteering in the greater community, committed to biking, consuming less and producing more. My kind of gal.
My goal with this makeover was not only to reduce the number of non-local, not-so-environmentally-friendly or produced by mega corporations items, but also to help Kat reduce her grocery bill. Rather than list the entire contents of her kitchen since most of it was great local stuff I’m going to list the dirty laundry along with my replacement suggestions.
Dirty Laundry List – with Replacements
Canned beans – replace with local beans, cooked and frozen until needed.
Hot house red peppers – replace with canned roasted or pickled peppers from the farmer’s market.
Lara bars – replace with Wardeh’s larabars
Costco Popsicles (gifted) – replace with smoothies or juices frozen in popsicle molds
Jello brand pudding (gifted) – replace with pantry pudding
Boxed breakfast cereal – replace with waffles, pancakes and muffins for freezer
Libby’s canned pumpkin – replace with local sweetmeat or pumpkin pureed and frozen
Sweetened condensed milk for fudge – replace with a recipe not using this ingredient
Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup – replace with a white sauce based recipe or a great mushroom casserole recipe
Canned coconut milk – replace with Wilderness Family Naturals dried coconut milk
Boxed vegetable broth – replace with homemade
Morningstar Burgers – replace with bean burgers for freezer
Great Harvest Bread (not dirty but spendy) – replace with homemade whole wheat bread
Crisco and Vegetable (soybean) oil – replace with Napa Naturals Olive and Sunflower Oil
Local Beans
Because beans represent a large part of Kat’s vegetarian diet, she needs a local, non-canned source for them. Rockridge Orchards just took over the country store in Enumclaw and is now carrying a wide selection of organic, local beans for just over $2 per pound. It’s worth the trek out to stock up. Dried beans last quite awhile stored in air tight jars in a dark location like a pantry. I cook up a pot at a time then drain and freeze them in ziplocks so that I can take out a can’s worth as I need them. I am using plastic in the storing of them but I feel it’s a much more sustainable method than paying for beans from China which are then trucked around the country in BPA laden cans. If you don’t want to use plastic bags for freezing you could freeze them on a cookie sheet and then pour them into a re-usable plastic freezer container. The idea is to be able to remove them one serving at a time rather than freezing them into one big blob.
Red Peppers
Kat frequently makes grain salads with fresh red peppers. In a few short months you will begin to see local red peppers at farmers markets near you. Peppers are easy to roast and can (in jars of course), or pickle without roasting. Sometimes you can find an enterprising farmer selling pre-roasted peppers and save some time. We found over the winter that canned red peppers retain a beautiful texture and color that tomatoes just don’t. They easily replaced hot house tomatoes or peppers in sandwiches, salads and pizzas and look great on any appetizer platter. I plan to put up more jars of these this summer because they make delightful gifts and require no special canning skills. Look for a recipe soon…
Larabars and Granola Bars
I’ve trialed a few granola bar recipes this year and not found one yet that I’m completely satisfied with. This is the closest I’ve come but I’m still not completely happy with it in terms of replacing portable granola bars. However, I think Wardeh has come up a great replacement for Larabars and so has Kimi. These would be great substitutes for Kat to keep in her desk drawer at work or bring in her backpack to fuel her while riding her bike across town.
Costco Popsicles
I found a Costco box of popsicles in Kat’s freezer which appeared to be an impulse buy on the part of her husband. But can you blame him? Popsicles are one of those things that take you back to carefree no-shoe days as a kid and that’s something I don’t want to deprive her of. Popsicles are one of those things I think everyone needs to be making. Kat admitted she frequently does make homemade popsicles. I have several popsicle molds that are in constant service in my house. You can juice any type of fruit (and frequently veggies) for sugar free treats but we most often fill them with extra smoothies from breakfast. You can also freeze Rockridge Orchards apple cider for quick and easy popsicles, or be like me and freeze chai or coffee lattes for an afternoon pick me up.
Pantry Pudding
In my household pudding and ice cream are pretty much disguised omelets so I serve them with abandon. Kat had several flavors of pudding gifted by her mom for use in beloved childhood recipes. Homemade pudding is as easy to make as the cooked kind that you get from a box. The cool thing about it is you can customize the flavors to suit you. Like mint and chocolate together? Steep some of your chocolate mint in the milk first. Replace some of the milk with strong espresso or chai latte, or replace some of the sugar with brown sugar and add scotch for a knock-your-socks-off butterscotch (or scotch butter as I like to call it.) You are only limited by your imagination with this master recipe. I’ve even been known to eat it for breakfast and if you make it yourself with lots of eggs and dairy and less sugar why not? It’s still way healthier for you than the next item, boxed breakfast cereal.
Breakfast Cereal
Cereal is one of the hardest things to give up. It makes a quick breakfast you don’t have to think about while you are still blurry-eyed and fumbling to get ready for work in the morning. However, environmentally and health-wise it’s appalling, not to mention it’s one of the items with the largest profit margin for manufacturers. We eat a lot of power pancakes,overnight oat waffles or overnight wheat or spelt waffles at my house, which I make in big batches to freeze and pop into the toaster as needed. I also make large batches of morning glory muffins using seasonal fruit and dried apples as the year wears on. Zuchini can be replaced with carrots or beets or winter squash, giving you options regardless of seasonality. You can also freeze muffins and thaw them the night before then pop them in a 350 degree oven or toaster oven for 5-10 minutes in the morning. We also eat Swedish pancakes once or twice a week and I’ve not yet posted my recipe. I use about 1 cup of ground spelt, 1/2 stick melted butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 dash salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar for some nice browning. If you omit the sugar you can fill them with savory things like cheese and chives but right now we are serving them filled with whipped cream and berries. They don’t store though so plan to eat them all in one sitting or bring the rest to work for lunch.
Canned Pumpkin
Winter squash are one of the most gratifying things for a new gardener to grow but they are also inexpensive to buy at the farmer’s market in the fall. Sweet meat, kabocha and pumpkin all have similar flavors. It’s easy to remove the seeds, cut them into quarters, roast in the oven and then puree in a food processer before freezing. No trucking or BPA required. I brought Kat a quart of frozen sweet meat squash that I had processed last fall. It makes a tasty pumpkin curry soup, quick bread, muffins or pie.
Sweetened Condensed Milk
Kat had several cans of this on hand for making fudge to take to work. Rather than buying heavy cans filled with BPA I found her a fudge recipe that didn’t need it.
Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup
Kat had a can of cream of mushroom soup on hand for using in casseroles. I showed her how to make a simple white sauce like the one I use in my Can of casserole which can be used as a base for any casserole, pot pie, creamed spinach or kale or the basis of cheese sauce to cover pasta or veggies. I also shared a great recipe for mushroom casserole with her.
Canned Coconut Milk
Despite that coconuts will never be local I have no plans to give them up. But rather than buy heavy cans of coconut milk shipped from overseas in BPA lined cans I now buy dehydrated coconut milk powder from Wilderness Family Naturals. It’s shelf-stable and a great addition to our emergency kit in case we ever need to filter and drink lake water following an earthquake. I particularly love that it reconstitutes beautifully and can be added to just about any recipe in strength without affecting it since it’s not liquid. I add it to pancakes, ice cream, smoothies and Thai-style curries. I think this is such an undiscovered product – I love it! It’s nothing like it’s cousin, dehydrated cow’s milk which makes me shudder to think.
Boxed Vegetable Broth
Kat mentioned she wanted to start making her own vegetable broth so I found her this recipe which is straightforward and simple to make plus who doesn’t want to read through one of Molly’s blog entries to find the recipe?
Morningstar Soy Burgers
Morningstar burgers used to be a staple in my freezer as well. They were a beloved camping breakfast, easier to cook and clean up after in the great outdoors than sausage and eggs, and quick to throw on the grill for a last minute dinner. Back in the day they were a staple for me, just as they are for Kat. But genetically modified soy, Kellogg and MSG are not things I want to support any longer so they’ve long been banned from my freezer. Instead I gave Kat a recipe for bean burgers that she could customize depending on the type of bean and mood she is in. These are also easy to par-fry then freeze so you can later pull them out and grill. By adding mushrooms and rice to the mix you can get something closer to the texture and flavor of Morningstar, otherwise you can alter the spices and bean varieties to your liking.
Great Harvest Bread
Great Harvest is an amazing company, making wonderful whole wheat loaves. The only problem I have with them is the bread costs around $6 per loaf! But the grains aren’t local, nor are they soaked overnight to improve digestibility. So I left Kat with my recipe for whole wheat soaked bread. I use this base loaf to make hamburger and hot dog buns as well, simply by shaping them into other things. Getting her own grain grinder would allow Kat to buy local grains and grind them fresh to increase her mineral uptake as well.
Crisco
Kat doesn’t fry frequently but when she does she’s using Crisco or Vegetable Oil. While she knew the Crisco contained trans fats, she was surprised when I had her read the ingredients on the vegetable oil and saw it contained 100% soybean oil.
Your turn
Kat’s makeover was fairly easy, even though it’s taken me so long to wrap this up. What I’d really like to do is open this up to YOU. Do you have any suggestions or recipes that would replace some of her demons? And what are YOUR demons that you would like help with? I’d love to open this up, both for you asking for replacements and for you with suggestions. Let’s make this a community pantry makeover!
This blog represents my journey as an urban mom with two small kids going from supermarket to farmer-fresh food one step at a time.
In 2009 I vowed to re-channel my grocery money away from mono-crop farmers, processed food companies and animal feed lots. I did not buy foods from outside Washington state until I had exhausted all local options and I gave up out of season foods.
When it was all said and done the garden met all our veggie needs from May (when it was planted) until mid December and then started producing for us again by February. The orchard will require several more years before we are able to eat exclusively from it.
In 2010 I've resolved to growing even more of our fruits and veggies in the front and side sections of our in-city 1/5 acre lot. I took out the parking strip and some backyard space to increase growing space so that I no longer need to buy any veggies any time of year.
We now have 22 fruits or berries, 2 nut varieties, roots and tubers, vegetables, black pepper, tea, medicinals and countless herbs in addition to our backyard chickens, mason bees and composting worms.
My future food goals include adding honey bees, mushrooms, meat rabbits, dairy goats and perhaps garage tilapia. Rather than canning, freezing and drying so much food in 2010 I intend to lacto-ferment more and simply eat seasonally in order to maximize our nutritional intake and reduce our carbon footprint.
Keeping this blog is my way of chronicling my successess, failures and struggles and giving other local families ideas, encouragement and resources to make this same journey.
The Rules
The rules of my experiment are:
Finish eating what we have in the cupboards.
New purchases must meet the local, seasonal, organic, sustainably farmed criteria.
Meat must be pastured, grass fed, humanely treated while living and processing or hunted and local.
Fish must be wild and caught in a sustainable manner and as local as possible.
Eggs must be cage free, with an organic diet. Update - they now come from our backyard chickens!
Poultry must be pastured, fed an organic diet and local.
Milk and cream must come from local dairies (not dairy pools).
Honey must be organic or close as possible and local.
Fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains must be local and organic from sustainable farms.
Cheese must be local and from organic milk.
Anything not on this list must be made by me from the above ingredients or by local farmers or food artisans.
Coffee, chocolate, coconut oil and sugar are exempt but must be fair trade and shade grown (except sugar which must still be organic and fair trade.)
Any other purchases must be from US sources (i.e. olive oil from Napa, popcorn from Oregon) only once local sources have been exhausted.
