Plant something: lettuce, spinach, beets, yellow waxed beans. Last year the birds got all my bean plants. This year I’m going to post a child over them vigilantly as a scare-robin. And though it wasn’t my doing, my neighbor and another colleague at work started tomatoes and are sharing their bounty with my in the form of well-started plants.
Harvest something: chives, spinach, onions and rhubarb. The spinach is last fall’s, so very dense and best for soup. Good thing I love soup!
Preserve something: nothing.
Waste not: lots of laundry dried in the sunshine and wind; the compost is cooking well.
Want not: In March and April we received lots of hand-me-down clothes and pulled out clothes from cousins that we’d been storing while people grew. Last fall I asked friends for some of their leaves, and these have made a significant difference in my compost (both its speed cooking and its odor).
Build Community Food Systems: My friend has started a monthly potluck to build a local-food community, and went to the March potluck. It was great to see her chicken coop and garden in person, and to meet other people excited about building a sustainable food system. We have continued our dinner-swap with our friends, and she is so good about trying out recipes with new (and local) ingredients. It’s been fun.
Eat the food: We’re still enjoying last summer’s harvest in the form of peaches, applesauce, frozen berries and jam. We have lots of beef from my friend’s ranch, and… well, we’re eating a lot of grass-fed beef.