Independence Days: March & April 2012

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.

Riot for Austerity

Have you heard of the Riot for Austerity?  I am just an observer of it, but I admit to being very intrigued.  When I look at the Occupy movement, I long for a viable alternative.  It’s fine to protest, but tell me what the other option is. Riot for Austerity is an alternative: a challenge to reduce your household emissions in seven categories to 90% less than (of 10% of) the average American household and keep it there for a year.  Like a diet on consumerism.  But unlike a crash diet, the maintenance of these changes can have a real lasting effect on our use.

My friend Anisa introduced me to it.  She’s doing a “Quiet Riot.”  We’re not shooting for 90%, but like any of my efforts to reduce, it is so helpful for me to see actual numbers.  How much natural gas are we using?  How much electricity?  Water?  Transportation fuel?  Water?  Garbage?  Food that is not local, or not sustainably grown?

I admit that I had hoped we were already using considerably less than average, but that wasn’t the case.  It takes a lot of heat to warm this house, even with good windows and insulation.  And we like our showers hot and long around here.  It’s hard to measure exactly how much of our food is local vs. not.  Do I measure in pounds, or dollars?

But charting the actual numbers has made me realize what we use and has started me thinking more concretely.  We hung fewer Christmas lights, and now that I’m turning the computers off every night (rather than just letting them sleep) we used 10% less electricity than for the same 3-month period a year ago.  Our natural gas use is down 18% from last year (based on 5 months of bills each year).  And none of our changes– using the clothesline or turning our heat down earlier in the evening (at 8:30 p.m. instead of 9:30 p.m.)– really bother us at all.  For now, comparing our use to our own use a year ago has been helpful.  I don’t know when I’ll be ready to dive into the R4A for real, but I’m learning so much from thinking about it.

If you look at the R4A from a Christian perspective, I’d strongly encourage you to read Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity with it.  He writes about Simplicity as an end in itself simply being one more dead end. But if we use a holy practice of simplicty as a tool to identity with the world’s poor and to become more like Jesus in the process, then we’re getting somewhere.

 

2011 Harvest

The ground is frozen today.  They’re predicting 8-12 inches of snow.  Our breath steams in the air, and the hair in my nose prickles as I breathe in.

The garden is asleep; we put it to bed this weekend.  O and Sam harvested 140 green tomatoes, which are ripening on the counter.  I made another two quarts of tomato puree out of cherry and grape tomatoes.  We found a cauliflower that had gone to seed, and we brought in the last watermelon.  The raspberry bushes were picked faithfully every day, and the strawberries and rhubarb outdid our expectations.  Our potatoes are beautiful, but won’t last long.  I have spinach and lettuce seedlings out there, but I’ll be surprised if I harvest anything from them.  We pulled (and have already eaten) the twelve carrots the rabbits didn’t eat.  I had several meals of zucchini, three eggplants, ten red peppers (a first this year!), and one acorn squash.

Our spring harvest included several pickings of sweet peas, one harvest of pea pods, tons of lettuce and spinach.

Saturday my friend Renee and I drove 500 miles round-trip to pick up beef (we split it with another family as well) from the butcher.  Here is what 200 (or so) pounds of beef looks like in my freezer:

I still have 40 pounds of apples coming at the end of the week to make into sauce, and I’m thrilled that the store of our local farm will be staying open for the weekend so I can buy as we go, instead of trying to store it all myself.  My little basement is not anything like a root cellar, though every time I go down and see what’s for dinner for the rest of the winter, I feel happy.  Very happy.

How was your harvest?

Peaches

I know I yabber on about food all the time, but a gal’s gotta eat, right?

I mentioned my friend Pam brought me 100 lbs of western slope freestone peaches last week.  (Yum!)

So other than eating them by the pound out of the box, what did I do with them?

I canned (hot water bath method) 22 quarts.  This involved washing the jars in my dishwasher, and then processing the peaches: washing and halving them, dipping them in boiling water, immersing them in ice water (or maybe just a sink full of cold water), slipping their skins off and pits out, making a very light syrup (4 cups water to 1.5 cups sugar), boiling the fruit and syrup together, and putting them in the jars.  Then I use fresh lids (pulled out of boiling water) and old bands and invert the jars for 5 minutes.  All 22 sealed without a problem.  As crazy as this sounds, each 25 lb box took about an hour and a half to do.

I also washed/sliced and froze halves and sixths.  Some I froze on parchment-lined cookie sheets and then slipped them into gallon bags.  This is Christy’s method.  Because they are individually frozen, I’m hoping these will look decent enough to serve in a fruit salad.  We’ll see.  Some I peeled, pitted, halved and froze 12 halves-per-bag to thaw and serve at dinner (as a substitute for canned.) This is Dell’s method.   Others I washed and froze whole.  This is Carolyn’s method and by far the quickest, but all the freezing methods were much quicker than canning.  Next summer I want to try Christine’s method, which involved packing cold fruit, pouring boiling syrup over, and processing in a water bath (it’s really the Indiana Dept of Agriculture’s method.)

One could easily get the erroneous impression that all I do is sit around with my friends and talk about fruit.   I’m going to compare the texture/color of them, and I’ll let you know next summer what my findings are.

Totals: 100 lbs fruit.  We ate at least 20 lbs fresh.  22 quarts canned.  6 gallon-bags of halves.  6 gallon-bags of smoothies sixths.  6 peaches frozen whole.  One really sticky floor.

Independence Days: End of the Year

Last year, from mid-March 2010 to the mid-March 2011, I kept track of my steps toward Food and Energy Independence.  When I look at where I am now, it doesn’t feel like I got very far– others made it much farther.  (Look at Schell Urban Homestead or SouleMama if you want to be inspired!)  But then I remember that THIS is MY life, not theirs.  And if I break it down, I made steady steps– one by one by one– in multiple areas.

The “Independence Days” idea came from Sharon Astyk.  She breaks down our steps in 7 categories of intentional steps toward using less from outside, doing more for ourselves.  It was a very useful exercise, because thinking of my consumerism in these terms made me think about it in a way I hadn’t before.  And I got credit for really small things.  I gave myself credit for taking small steps.

So in conclusion, during the second week of March:

Plant Something: I put the last of November’s 50 lbs of potatoes (about 10 of them that had sprouted legs and were trying to walk away) into the garden.  Many of them actually are now sprouting leaves.

Harvest Something: nothing

Preserve Something: nothing

Waste Not: We consolidated our two sandboxes into one, and I used the box on the garden side to make a strawberry bed. (The strawberries came later and were planted.)  I also have started hanging the laundry out again– it works as long as I get it outside (very) early in the day.  My Lenten discipline did free up many little bits of time which served to get all sorts of things mended so they can be used: curtain rods, pants, shirts, pants, stuffed animals, pants…

Want Not: Just in the nick of time, our beef grower called to see if we wanted another 1/4 cow.  We did!  So the freezer is full again.  My friend Renee stocked us up on Costco butter and croutons and sugar and yeast.

Build Community Food Systems: One of our homeschooling acquaintances (she’s in our once a week “school”) raises chickens, so I have a new source for eggs from pastured chickens.  Yum!

Eat the Food: Looking at my pantry now, as we have several months before much produce comes out of the garden, always informs my next year’s planning.  We are still stocked with peaches.  We’re completely out of tomatoes, though we have some roast tomato soup still.  Our berries are gone.  A quarter-cow held us close to a year, so that’s a good fit for us for now (I see times a-comin’ soon when we’re going to be a double-recipe family, rather than eat-exactly-all-of-the-recipe family.  And just a year or two ago, we were a  family who could eat dinner and have several days of leftovers from a recipe.)

What I learned: I’m so glad I kept track of this.  Perhaps the blog wasn’t the ideal way to do it– a paper journal might have been enough– but it kept me accountable.  Had I not been sharing it with you, I might have given up halfway.  I noticed a lot of patterns in my thinking (and therefore, my doing), and this discipline helped me over the hump in a few– like planting a little bit frequently, instead of thinking I have to plant a farm one weekend.  I think I have a ways to go in spreading the joy of living locally, and I’m still tongue-tied when I try to explain to folks who don’t know my why we do the things we do, but this Independence Days challenge gave me some good ways to think about it.  Thanks, Sharon Astyk.

Independence Days: Weeks 49-50

I expect to post just once more in this series of Independence Days posts, but it won’t come till after Easter.  I’ve enjoyed keeping track of all the little ways we’re tried to be faithful stewards of our small bit of earth, and the relationships it provides.

Plant Something: We put in spinach, lettuce, and peas, though nothing has sprouted and the mornings have been so cold, I don’t think I’d want to sprout either.

Harvest Something: nothing.

Preserve Something: my sanity?  Just kidding.

Waste Not: It irks me that it is often cheaper (and certainly easier!) to replace something altogether than to fix it.  So last week, I dug around online to find replacement wheels for the dishwasher rack, and foam covers for the headphones.  (SweetP likes to take things apart, and then chew the foam covers.  I know: Ewww.)  Also, I patched the holes in the wall that have been there… er, two and a half years?We’re going to use an old 4’x4′ square garden frame that Sam replaced in the vegetable garden as a flower bed in front of the fence.  This week we worked on moving the river rock.  Also, we’ve been taking care of the compost.

Want Not: my friend Renee shared some of her red lentils with me.  They make the yummiest Jerusalem Lentil Soup.

Build Community Food Systems:  Nothing.  But Sam has me contemplating chickens.  Of course, our HOA forbids them.

Eat the food:  Ah, here we excel.  We had a most delicious Plum-berry tart this week, make from the description in Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food.  Yum.

Also, we enjoyed pantry onions, peaches, tomatoes, and jam; and frozen peaches, raspberries (in that there tart), plums, beef, sausage, and tomato soup.

Independence Days: Weeks 47-48

Plant Something: spinach and potatoes.  I know it’s really early, but the groundhog didn’t see his shadow, did he?

Harvest Something: nothing

Preserve Something: nothing

Waste Not: I caught the bananas just in time and made some yummy banana bread.  Also, I went through the seeds I saved so I wouldn’t be buying what I already have on hand.

Want Not: I ordered our seeds.

Build Community Food Systems: I had a conversation with my grocery store (you know, when they ask you at check out, “Did you find everything you were looking for today?”) about how I appreciate their local produce and would like to see more local products.

Eat the food: We’re still enjoying lots of local jam, honey, beef, onions, potatoes, peppers (frozen), smoothies with peaches and raspberries we froze.  We had a really good NY strip steak this week with a rub of salt, pepper, brown sugar, and garlic.  Perhaps you heard the smoke alarm going off?  It was delicious, if noisy.

Independence Days: Weeks 44-46

Plant Something: nothing, but I’ve got a tentative order for seeds written out.  I just need to go through the seeds I saved so I’m not ordering what I don’t need.

Harvest Something: nada

Waste Not: the DAV came by last week and picked up all sorts of things culled from our drawers and bedrooms during winter cleaning.  And my friend Amy was able to use a pair of linen pants that were too small for me– hooray!

Want Not: my neighbor Renee passed down lots of pajamas for O– he’s very happy!, and she gave me a beautiful blouse.  Also, I found some great casual bamboo pants at www.mountaingreengoods.com. 

Build Community Food Systems: nada.  Have you read Tough Choices: Facing the Challenge of Food Scarcityby Lester Brown?  I heard him interviewed on the BBC a few days ago about the world food crisis.  Very thought provoking.  It makes me sad to think of the price of rice doubling in the Philippines, or the soaring price of cabbage in China.  Those are staples I completely take for granted.  All the more reason we need local food options that are sustainable.

Eat the food: jam (raspberry & strawberry), pumpkin, squash, the last of our onions and potatoes, beef (we’re getting down to the end of the cow), peaches, and applesauce.

Independence Days: Weeks 38-43

Even though it seems like there wouldn’t be a lot going on in the darkest part of winter, I’m surprised by how much local food we’re eating.

Plant/Harvest/Preserve something: nothing

Waste Not: We make a lot of little adjustments in the winter to save heat.  Not only does it save money (yea!), but it’s best for the environment.  We continue to hang-dry many of our clothes indoors (putting the rack over the heating vent, or hanging them in the shower).  The added moisture in the air is no small benefit.  We program our thermostat to 62 from 9:15 p.m. to 6:30 am, and we keep it at 68 during the day.  We have a lot of sweatshirts and blankets hanging around, for snuggling on couches to read.  Instead of electric blankets, everyone has a ricebag (which we call bedwarmers).  They go into the microwave for a minute or two and then get tucked in to warm us up until we fall asleep.

Want Not: I stocked up before Christmas on my local butter and sausage from Costco.  Also, I found a local tortilleria and have been buying their tortillas.  They are so fresh and yummy!

Build Community Food Systems:  Local tortilleria as above.

Eat the Food: This is where I’ve been seeing my local food pay off.  From the freezer I’ve been pulling: beef roasts, pureed basil, tomatoes, frozen berries and peaches for smoothies, tomato soup, apple pie filling, and chiles and peppers.  In the crawl space, I still have garlic, shallots, black beans, cannelini beans, potatoes, squashes, and onions– I haven’t bought any from the store since June.  And on the shelves of my pantry, I keep pulling off canned peaches, applesauce, and jam (strawberry, raspberry and grape).  Those look like they’ll hold out for awhile.  I’m looking forward to seeing how my winter grocery budget reflects my summer storage.

Independence Days: Weeks 32-33

Plant Something: nothing.  In fact, with our trip and illness, I barely could keep the spinach watered.

Harvest Something: more tomatoes that didn’t freeze, zinnias, and another watermelon that had been hiding under the sailboat

Preserve Something: 10 cups of pumpkin puree, and frozen tomatoes

Waste Not: I’ve been using the Diva Cup (thumbs up, if you were curious).  And hanging wash out to dry.  And composting and recycling.

Want Not/Build Community Food Systems: nothing

Eat the Food: Again, travel and illness interfered with this some.  But we’ve been eating squash, carrots, pumpkin, watermelon (ours needed another 1-2 weeks in the garden to get sweeter, but we’re eating them anyway), potatoes, tomatoes, and apples.