2012 Local Eating Goals

Now that (I hate to say it) we've passed the middle point of summer, I am thinking about and preparing for Fall. This year, more than ever, I am trying to live in the moment and truly enjoy each day and revel in the season- the sweltering hot days, the strangely-cool days, and everything in between. 

However, part of appreciating these summer days is putting up some of my favorite fruits and vegetables for later on the in the year, and planting in preparation for fall. Every year I have a sort of mental list of Homestead-y things I'd like to accomplish- things to grow, things to can, things to freeze, things to dry and store through winter. I'm proud to say that this year, I have actually done some significant fall planting, and I've also done a pretty fair job at "putting up" or canning/preserving/storing & locally sourcing a good deal of the things that were on said mental list! 

I will say that I've give myself some exceptions- this list applies most to food that is eaten in my home. While eating out and about, I do try to have a strong focus on local food, supporting local businesses, and avoiding questionable meat (essentially, it's questionable unless I know where it's sourced from). BUT it's hard to find places to eat that meet all of my strict qualifications! So while I am an intentional eater at restaurants, I am my best locavore self at home, where I can better control what comes into my home, where it comes from, and what I spend our $$$ on.

As I have moved towards eating more and more locally, there is a natural shift towards eating things in the season they grow in. For example, when I say that I eat only local potatoes all year long, it is because I plant potatoes in the spring, I harvest them in the summer, and store them to eat throughout summer, fall, and into winter. Then I stop eating potatoes until I can find them locally again in the spring, or grow them myself once again!

With all that stuff in mind, here's an attempt at a typed version of my 2012 Local Eating Goals.

Happy Home 2012 Local Eating Goals
* crossed off= already preserved or ready to store

Veggies to store/source locally for the entire year-
(successfully achieved this part of the list last year!)
Onions
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Acorn Squash
Carrots
Garlic (50 heads)

Other food products to source locally for the entire year-
Wheat
Bread
Bagels
Butter 
Milk 
Eggs
Meat products

Herbs to dry & store/grow indoors for the entire year-
Cilantro/Coriander
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Sage

Locally grown veggies & fruits to Can-
6 pints Pickles
5 pints Tomato Sauce 
10 pints and 12 half-pints Corn
10 pints Green beans
25 half-pints Peaches
15 half-pints Pears
6 pints Apricots
3 pints Cranberry Sauce
15 half-pints Applesauce
3 pints Blueberry jam

Locally grown veggies & fruits to Freeze-
5 quarts Blueberries 
1 quart Cherries 
1 quart Raspberries
2 quarts Strawberries 
3 quarts Corn

Locally grown fruits to Dehydrate-
2 bags dried cranberries

If you'd like to set some local eating goals for yourself, I have a few tips:

• Set some perimeters for yourself- be realistic about what you think you can do
• Have strategies in mind- Where will you shop/how will you grow things to meet your goals?
• Think it out- If you want to can 60 pints of tomatoes, when will that actually happen and do you truly have the time & resources to do that?
• Pat yourself on the back, even if you don't accomplish everything you set out to! You're still making progress, and you'll have a better idea of how you can improve in future years.

What do you try to eat locally year round? 

Are there things that you think are more important to source locally than others?

Drying & Saving Seeds for Future Planting

Earlier in the month I posted about drying veggies and herbs in the garden for later use. In a similar vein, it's fairly easy to dry lots of different seeds for planting next year if you know how to do it!

Over the past week, I've been starting to harvest and dry seeds from Bell peppers, Cantaloupe, and Kidney and Provider bush beans. I scoop out the seeds from the veggie of choice, rinse them off gently to clear them of all that inner-vegetable juice, and then I spread them out on a kitchen towel to dry for several days.

Make sure there is enough space between each seed so they can dry properly!


When they're dry to the touch, I gather up the seeds, make sure they're separated by type, and then place them in ziploc bags or 8 oz canning jars. Then, they get labeled with a permanent marker, and I store them in the refrigerator for next year! They seem to store quite well that way- I kept pepper seeds (in a plastic bag) and dried beans (in a glass jar) in the fridge over last season and those plants did very nicely this season!

If you're growing beans now and you'd like to save some for drying, here's a tip- let them dry outdoors right on the plant! This year, I planted about 20 kidney beans and 20 provider green beans, all for saving. I just let my bean plants grow throughout the spring and summer- at a certain point they look optimal to harvest for green bean stage, and then they start to get fatter and puffier. Instead of harvesting then, I let about 3/4ths of my crop dry, cutting back on the water I give the plants and eventually not watering them at all.




When the bean pods are beige-white and quite dry to the touch (if you shake them, you should hear rattling inside), they're ready to harvest! Pull the pods from the plant, and you'll have a pile of dried bean pods, like the picture to the left.

Yesterday, I spent 20 relaxing minutes cracking open each pod, and collecting the 2 -5 beans that lay within each one. I ended up with about 100 kidney beans! It's not enough to store as beans for much of anything- really it would only be enough for 1 or 2 winter batches of chilli.

What I'm going to do instead is just save all the kidney beans, as I did last year. Next year, I'll plant all 100 of them in the garden, and have a really big harvest, enough to save as dried beans for future use!




Have you dried and saved any seeds from your garden?  


If so, what was the easiest to save or the most successful plant the next season?

Grow Your Own- Setting Self-Sufficiency Gardening Goals

This year I've been able to check a homesteading goal off of my list- having vegetable storage that
lasts through the Winter! I wasn't able to grow enough of these things for me to only use home-grown veggies through the winter, but I was able to source these things locally all year, to date:

Onions
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Acorn Squash
Carrot
Kale

That means I have been eating all of these veggies, sourced from Michigan if not Southeastern Michigan! I'm pretty geeked about it- all the above veggies store well so I was able to buy a large amount and then store them in our mudroom, and purchase more as needed.
Next year, I hope to grow enough of these things to supply myself with homegrown root veggies all winter! Based on my success this year, here's my goals for next year:

Veggies-
Onions
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Acorn Squash
Carrots

Herbs-
Cilantro/Corriander
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Cumin
Sage
If you're making your own goals for this gardening season, start with the things you really enjoy! If you love carrots, maybe you want to try to grow a bunch of carrots, and store them in a cool, moist place for the Winter. If you're a squash fan, grow some butternuts or delicatas and save a few for those cold December nights!
Wherever you start, and what ever goal you set, it'll be satisfying to grow some of your own food and to rely on that food in the Winter. Good luck :)

Root Cellar is a success!!

These carrots look amazing!

I went out and spent some time mulling over the garden today, since all the snow has melted here and it's a breezy 40 degrees. We've had a warm spell here, which everyone is enjoying but I have been feeling suspicious of. Global-warming-induced higher temps are somehow less enjoyable then a truly fluke of a nice day.

looking good, spud.

Peak oil aside, while I was out in my yard today, I thought to check on the root cellar that I built, and the veggies that have been hanging out in the cold by the side of my house under one of the eaves; I hadn't peeked my head out there in a while!

To my delight, both the potatoes and the carrots looked GREAT! The potatoes were still firm and looked fresh, and the carrots had seemed to be holding up as nicely as the day I put them in there, which was October 9th!  While it has been a mild Winter so far, to be able to say that I can grow my own roots and store them for almost 4 months is just so satisfying and awesome.

carnival squashes-so happy & bright!

I also have a bag of onions I bought from the Farmers' Market 2-3 months ago that have been storing well, as well as some acorn squash from the end of October! The storing capability of these winter veggies is just truly amazing me lately. While I've been lax about actually cooking for the Dark Days Challenge, looking at other recipes has inspired me to steal some of their ideas, and really incorporate these winter veggies into delicious meals. The most delicious looking one I'm excited to try is homemade sweet potato gnocci- If I could make homemade gnocci I would consider myself to be a badass. A nerdy, seasonally-eating badass.

pretty impressive, huh? ;)

On my way back in the house, I noticed and then remembered that I had some small red kidney beans and some provider bush beans hanging to dry in the mudroom. I took them down and shucked the hulls off. I always chuckle to myself when I harvest these beans- I'm intent on drying them to save, and then when I'm done with a season of growing as well as several months of drying, I get done and I have about 60 beans total- woohoo! I think that I might save these and see if they could be my planting beans for this year's harvest.

Do you have anything put away for the winter? If so, are you digging into your winter veggies?

Late Summer Project #1

I have lately been falling in love with the idea of a trash can root cellar. It's a funny thing to fall in love with, huh? Since I've started to grow my own carrots, potatoes, and onions, I've been thinking about how to store them through the winter. My basement isn't cool enough in the winter to keep the veggies at the temp they need to be, and I don't have one of those awesome, old-fashioned root cellars. I've looked and done some research about building your own outdoor root cellar, which seems awesome but like a lot of work that I don't have time or money to do right now. I did find a easy, do-able, cheap, and cute (of course a major factor haha) method from Mother Earth News, here.

Cute!

Basically, it details the process of making a miniature root cellar:

1. Purchase a 5- gallon bucket
2. Cut the bottom from the bucket
3. Dig a hole in the ground just big enough to hold the bucket with the top of it flush with the ground
4. Fill the bucket with carrots (or onions, potatoes, turnips, etc)
5. Place the lid on the bucket and place a bale of straw on top for insulation

5-gallon buckets seem like a great size too, because a whole standard-sized trash can seems like a lot! Also, what if I want a carrot and two potatoes and I've put all my storage crop into one trash can? Would I just reach my hand down through the levels o' veggies? Seems like having separate 5-gallons for each type is more practical for usage throughout the winter. Stay tuned for 'implementation phase' :)