Fresh Year New Vote

After making it the better part of a year and managing to eat almost exclusively from local sources we are lightening our rules somewhat. Each month every family member gets to choose one non-local item from the grocery store. At first Chicken Little was thrilled but then I explained it had to be something I would have bought in 2008 so lunchables don’t qualify. I’ll never understand the lure of the packaging there – we have local sausage or pepperoni, cheese and make crackers. What’s the difference?

So here’s what we brought home from the store: crab that turned out local so my husband’s vote remains intact (too bad I’m not planning another trip to the store until Feb!), crackers that turned out to be local but I don’t know where they grew the grain so that was my vote, squeezy yogurt for preschooler and potato chips for Chicken Little, even though we occasionally fry our own chips apparently you just can’t beat the crinkle of eating them straight out of a foil-lined bag.

The loaf of bread is from a local bakery but again, not sure where the grains are from and the pepperoni is pure contraband since I forgot to buy some at the market.

And speaking of the market, here is my score for the week.

Carrots, beets, cabbages and kale from Nash’s, pork lard for rendering to use in baking from Eiko of Skagit Ranch, kombucha from Jerry, smoked salmon from Dylan of Loki and two pints of cream from Golden Glen. I’ve been shopping almost exclusively at the market all year and just found out that it’s cheaper to buy the cream and milk there then PCC. I learn something new every week and this time of year even more so because the vendors actually have time to chat with you in the winter.

I thought I was so smart planning my fall and winter garden so that it would feed us straight through to March but I didn’t get things planted by the summer solstice like I should have. And then I was so busy with Grandma visiting during that early December cold stretch I never got out to cover the beds. Total newbie move but it won’t happen next year. And just maybe I’ll have my cold frames done by then.

The turnips are going strong but probably need some thinning love. Or maybe I’ll just eat the greens and call that dinner.

Just a few carrots and parsnips left in the first planting. I probably need to harvest and pickle them so I can start some crimson clover cover crop in there and get it ready for early spring plantings.

The oat experiment did not work out so well. They rolled over and died at the first sign of frost. So much for growing my own breakfast!

Some scruffy looking kale and pac choi hanging tough but all the salad greens and mustards have bit the dust. I should probably take them out of their misery so the interplanted mache gets more sunlight.

I do have a large bed of carrots sitting pretty in the dirt. Many of the tops have died back but new ones seem to be coming up just fine.

My poor brassicas aren’t happy, although many are just waiting for better weather. The big leafy cabbages froze but the tight heads seem fine. Sprouting broccoli still in early sprouting stages, brussel sprouts thinking about forming on stalks and cauliflower is doing just what it did last spring – taking up valuable real estate. I think I’ll be giving up on cauliflower unless it really wows me somehow in a few months. But I seriously doubt it could do that.

Chickens more interested in bugs than the cover crop I planted just for them. In it’s defense, though, most of it died back so it looks like just the flax is left and I don’t think the chickens were terribly impressed with the flax plants. I was hoping they would actually go to seed. No dice.

So there you have it – a big learning curve for me this year. The garden did manage to feed us until the end of December and I will be putting in some starts in the next few weeks. Last year the beds weren’t in until early April and literally 3 weeks later we were eating spring greens – purslane, claytonia, sorrel and one other that I can’t now recall.

I’m hoping it works that way again only this year I’ll be putting out my European greens in March, when I start the peas. All in all I’m pretty impressed with the way the garden has fed us. There is still quite a bit of stuff out there like all the carrots and onions that were somehow hidden under the rose geranium.

Although the celery finally died I still have celeriac. The parsnips look good and I can pick them at my leisure. And the kale and collard greens we can eat whenever we want. There are also some cabbages we can pick. But probably just a few weeks worth of food at best.

It’s a good thing there is a world-class farmer’s market closeby! Otherwise this would be one long, hungry winter indeed.

And as proud as I am of my little front lawn garden I have to admit the biggest change I made in 2009 was not growing our own produce – it was NOT buying junk from the store. It was meeting the farmers at the market who told me about other local farmers who might not have sold at the market.

I’ve sourced local cheeses, grains and meats in many cases directly from the farmers and it’s worked out great for both of us because the farmer was able to keep that margin and pass some of it on to me.

Rather than buying spendy jams, preserves, or canned conventional fruits I bought #2 organic fruits and canned or froze them myself. By putting up jars of homegrown or Billy’s #2 tomatoes into things like red chile sauce, Italian tomato “gravy” or green tomato chile sauce I have the basis for quick, organic meals at my fingertips.

By asking fishermen and cheesemongers and grain growers if they have wholesale buying clubs or case discounts I’ve managed to stock up on local, real foods for a hefty discount. That has kept us from buying Kirkland brand canned salmon with it’s red food dye and sordid past or spendy cheeses from overseas.

And because I got the wild hair and bought a grain grinder last Christmas it made me commit to baking all our breads, muffins, pancakes, tortillas and crackers from scratch. At first it seemed fringe and over the top. It paid for itself so quickly though and cost less than my latte machine which I would never require to pay for itself.

These are the things that have made the biggest differences in my kitchen and in my kids bellies. The food they eat is the most nutrient dense, freshest, real food they could be getting. And that makes it worthwhile.

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