Annette is the mom of two former colic and reflux babies. In her spare time she operates http://www.pollywogbaby.com, a website and resource for caregivers of babies with reflux and colic. Her other personal blog is http://www.theburprag.com where she chronicles random thoughts and family life.
Her interests are green living, food, and nurturing two highly active boys.
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 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.
© 2006–2007 Sustainable Eats — Sitemap — Cutline by Chris Pearson
17 responses so far ↓
1 Elizabeth Sorby // Jun 9, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Annette, I love this blog! Please keep it up! I am also a Seattle mom of two young boys (only one with colic/reflux) who is making the transition to sustainable eating. You are a powerhouse of information and can-do effort and I completely appreciate it!
2 Stephanie Jeroslow // Jun 15, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Just found your blog looking for local sources of kefir grains. Are you still interested in getting rid of some of yours? I live in Woodinville and could definitely find my way to Seattle if you’re interested.
Thanks for all the info! We’re going to check out the Kenmore Milkshed, too!!
3 admin // Jun 16, 2009 at 2:11 am
Hi Stephanie,
I am! I will be at the UW farmer’s market on Sat or we can try to find another time to hook up. Just email me (annette at pollywogbaby.com) and we’ll figure it out.
4 admin // Jun 16, 2009 at 2:12 am
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks so much! I’ve been pre-occupied with school ending and the irrigation system (you know it hasn’t rained here in forever!) but hoping to get back to blogging later in the week. I have fall seeds to talk about, progress updates to make and of course the irrigation post is on it’s way…
5 Dan Martin // Jun 25, 2009 at 1:34 am
You may find this odd, but when you mentioned Praying Mantises, the info you gave (2 weeks @ 80 degrees f) is info I have been searching for for 2 months now. I have 4 Oothecas I have been trying to hatch since April, knowing that they are fertile since I collected them last year from my own captured Mantids. Tonight I will be raising my aquarium temp approx. 5-10 degrees to see what happens.
6 admin // Jun 25, 2009 at 1:41 am
Dan I hope my memory was right – it seems like that is what I read last year or was told by the garden person. We finally gave up checking on the egg sack and then one day I looked at a leaf and there was a mantis staring at me. We found several others throughout the garden, but it seems like it was late July or early Aug. We had a really crummy summer last year though! Good luck with them – they are so fun.
7 RobertJ // Jul 2, 2009 at 10:34 pm
WOW! I just found your blog and websites. Amazing stuff. I am blown away with all you have accomplished (garden/children/websites/rules of conduct/determination and so well written and shared with the rest of us. I have a “sprig” of a fig tree (18 inches tall now) that I planted this year. Will you send it some good thoughts to help it along? And if you need a day of labor in the garden I am available and willing. I do not have the space for a garden and miss getting hand dirty.
8 admin // Jul 3, 2009 at 12:40 am
Hi Robert,
You are welcome to come help out anytime – time is the one thing I am always constrained by with the kids. I *think* I just finished the front & side irrigation tonight which will help out tremendously as I’ve been spending an hour a day watering. What kind of fig tree did you get? I’m excited for figs even though I expect it will be several years before I see any. The garden is a marvelous thing and we are so lucky to have the room for it. Sending good figgy thoughts your way…
9 Stacy (Mama-Om) // Aug 27, 2009 at 11:00 am
Hello!
A friend from the homeschooling group (Shannon) just shared your link, and I recognize your name/company from a Seattle Bloggers Meetup last year (or whenever it was that Bossy was in town).
I love what I see here. Wow. I’m subscribing to your blog!
Best,
Stacy
10 admin // Aug 27, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Hi Stacy, I’m so glad to see you here! Seattle is such a small place. I hope you’ve been doing well – I’ve been to your blog several times since so it will be fun to keep up.
11 Mags // May 7, 2010 at 9:25 am
Neat blog, neat rules! Do you document how long you spend sourcing and preparing the foods and meals for your family? It would also be interesting to hear about how much you budgeted to make this switch to sustainable.
Keep up the good work/ good eats!
12 admin // May 9, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Hi Mags (love your name!) I don’t document it now. Now that I know the farmers and we get meat once a year basically and I grow the produce sourcing is a breeze. The first year, however, I spent a lot of time talking to farmers at the farmers market asking if they know anyone who grew x or emailing my local ag school extension and then anyone they gave me.
Preparation is much easier now too. This (our second) year we now each get to pick 1 thing per month from the store and mine is always something that will save me time like dried pasta or crackers. I find that organizing removes many of the panic and meltdowns but I’m not going to lie to you and say those never happen.
There is lots of info on here about costs as well if you click on the “saving money” category. We honestly spend much less money than we ever did on food now because we aren’t buying breakfast cereals and prepared things. But that means that right now at 10:00 I’m starting bread for tomorrow since we are out, for instance. That loaf costs me probably about 30 cents but it will take 15 min of my time to grind grains and mix dough then another 10 min in the morning to finish kneading it while I’m getting the kids ready or cleaning the kitchen. I enjoy it though!
13 Kathy M // May 28, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Hi Annette, I meet you during the Edible Garden Tour last weekend and you recommended a website that discussed plant spacing for maximum density in the garden. I can’t remember the name. Can you please post the name of the site? Thanks!
Kathy
14 admin // May 28, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Hi Kathy, what a beautiful blog you have! It’s http://www.groworganic.com. I can’t say enough good things about it. I got a membership again this year because I’m still overwhelmed in the winter while planning the garden out. Someday I might not need it but for now it really helps me maximize my space and plan for how many starts of things I can fit. I’ve really added quite a bit this year and we are looking at having plenty of surplus for my son to sell to the neighbors. We are getting him setup with a wagon that he can use to peddle dinner salads at dinner time. He’s enterprising. Plus it gets him out of my kitchen when I’m trying to get dinner on the table. ;p It was so nice to meet you!
15 Kathy M // Jun 1, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Thanks Annette!
What a great way for your son to earn money. Lots of great lessons happening at your home. We have a friend that used to sell berries when she was young. For advertising, she used a couple of sandwich boards with the name of her business “Berry Blast” and phone number. I wish your son success with his new endeavor!
16 Barbara O' Brien // Jun 2, 2010 at 11:49 am
Dear Annette,
I have a quick question for you but couldn’t find an email address. Please email me back at barbaraobrien@maacenter.org when you get a moment.
Thanks
17 admin // Jun 2, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Kathy I’m working on it. It’s always a struggle with how much to push them towards independence. Things are definitely different today, especially in my neighborhood. What a great idea for the sandwich boards – maybe we’ll do that!
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