Independence Days Challenge - Week 1

1. Plant Something.

I didn't get anything planted, but I did finalize my seed order, and placed one order. The other orders will be placed next week. I also got this:

This will make seed starting and plant over-wintering SO much easier! No, I didn't buy it new - it was Dad's, but he didn't want it anymore, so I bought it from him. And, since he's a good guy, he delivered it and helped set it up too :)


2. Harvest Something.


Nada. It's February!

3. Preserve Something.

Not in the traditional sense, but I did make a huge batch of not-quite-beef-stroganoff, and put half in the freezer for a future meal.

4. Waste Not.


Started my veggie stock stash!

5. Want Not.

I didn't add anything to my food stash, but I started something equally as important: sorting through what I already have. I realize most people may not understand this, but remember - I live in a half-renovated house. With a VERY limited kitchen area. So a lot of my food (that which doesn't live in the fridge or freezer) is in a series of bags, boxes and totes, and I've found myself re-buying something simply because I can't find it in the mess. 


6. Eat the Food. 


I used the last of the garden onions (sad face) in the not-quite-beef-stroganoff. There were still some onion-like things left, but they had morphed into something I wasn't willing to eat ;) Which is actually interesting (to me, at least) - the onions and potatoes lasted this long, at room temperature, with no protection or specialized storage at all. I simply left them in the baskets, and put them on the floor in the back addition. And they lasted 5 months. Not bad!


I also made a quick veggie soup from storage: onions, canned tomatoes, store-bought beef stock, barley and frozen veggies. This was lunch for Dad and I yesterday, and today. And there is probably enough for Dad's lunch if he comes over tomorrow as well. Good, cheap food - have I mentioned before how much I love soup?

7. Build Community Food Systems.


Nothing to report.

8. Skill Up.

I bought this:

 Okay, I know that simply buying a book doesn't actually do anything, but...

This is the first River Cottage book I've bought, and I like it - it's small, but filled with a lot of information. It covers all aspects of bread making, including non-yeast breads (but misses out on baking-power biscuit - what?!?! Life isn't worth living without biscuits!) in enough detail to make my inner-geek quite happy. And I love the fact that, while the author points out options and why certain ones are better in his opinion, he doesn't belabor the point that one must always use only hand-picked, stone-ground-at-a-mill-powered-by-fairy-dust, heirloom-wheat-found-in-an-Egyptian-tomb wheat that is only sold at one store, open Tuesdays to Friday and alternate Saturdays.

Okay, I'll try to tone back the sarcasm, but nothing makes me NOT want to try something as much as the insane limitations certain authors self-righteously put on their recipes. This books makes bread baking accessible to everyone - even me ;)

Guess what I did?

Yep! I started my freezer stash of veggie odds and ends for stock making. Yea me! :)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I should have been doing this years ago, and I should come up with a system other than a plastic ziplock bag. But, hey, baby steps...

The above is the trimmings from some onions and celery I used for a beef stroganoff-type stew I made this week. I only used the inner peels from the onion, since the outer looked like this:

A lot of onions will have mold on the outer peels. It's most often a smut-type fungus (yes, it's really called smut. Try explaining to your IT guys why you are googling smut - fun times!), and isn't a big issue, but I still don't want it in my stock.

I don't have a lot of meals planned for the next while that use fresh ingredients (trying to use up some of my stores), so the bag won't get filled soon, but once the growing season starts...

Everybody was bulk food shopping...

I often talk here about buying food at my local bulk food store. I'm lucky I have a good quality one nearby, and I shop there regularly. But I've learned one thing - I can't assume they have the best prices on all items. Here, items like flour, white sugar and all dried beans/peas/lentils etc. are significantly cheaper in the grocery stores, especially if you hit the sales. But other items, like whole grains and spices, are significantly cheaper in bulk.

I also often get coupons for the bulk food store, which makes shopping there even better. Generally, a flyer comes out once a month or so and will have three weeks worth of coupons: two for $3 off a purchase over $10, and the third for something different - a free reusable shopping bag, a gift certificate, etc.

And this is an example of how I make it work for me:

This month's flyer had the two traditional $3.00 off coupons (one good for a week each) and a third for a $5.00 gift certificate for a purchase over $15.

First week:
 

• 1.56 kg of steel-cut oats (on sale for an insane $1.75/kg - the standard brand found in the grocery store is over $4/kg) = $2.73
• 1.045 kg pot barley (not on sale, but I was low), $2.19/kg = $2.29
• 0.43 kg cavenda nuda (aka naked oats, on "sale"), $8.80/kg = $3.78
  
• a really bad treat which shall remain nameless, and is one of the bad things about bulk food stores - the temptation of the "bad" aisles  = $2.82
• tax = $0.37

Total: $11.99 - $3.00 off = $8.99

 Over 3 kg ( 6.5 pounds) of whole grains for $9. And a treat. Not too bad!

Second week:

• 1.765 kg brown sugar, on sale for $1.88/kg = $3.32
• 0.920 kg couscous, on sale for $3.97/kg = $3.65
• 0.045 kg paprika, $12.35/kg = $0.56
• 0.060 kg smoked paprika, $12.35/kg = $0.74
• mini hippo cookie cutter = $0.69
• chocolate, because I have no will power = $4.80
• tax: $0.71

Total: $14.47 - $3.00 off = $11.47

This trip wasn't as good, since I don't know the grocery store price of either the sugar or the couscous, but I'm pretty sure they are both cheaper at the bulk food store, especially when on sale. And it also shows what a great deal spices are - I wanted to try out a new recipe that required paprika, and wanted to also try smoked paprika after a friend raved about it, and for just over a dollar I was able to get both. The cost in the grocery store would have been vastly more - $3 - $6 for each of them. And again with the bad treat. This is my bulk store Achilles heel :(

This week, I'll go and source some items I need to make dog treats, and if I don't hit the magical $15 mark, I'll stock up on some things I know I'll use (like Dutch-process cocoa and skim milk powder), and possibly another small cookie cutter or seven. And I'll try not to go down the bad aisles!!

You can see from the pictures the one thing I really don't like about shopping there - the plastic. And they will not allow any type of container to be brought into the store - the policy is clearly posted on the door, and I even asked the store owner. No go.

You can also see the temptation bulk food stores can offer - both in treats, and in expensive items you might not otherwise buy (like the naked oats - don't need them, but they were on sale...).

However, for me, the pros outweigh the cons: I can find items that aren't carried by my local grocery stores (like Dutch-processed cocoa and unusual grains like buckwheat and amaranth), there are certain items that are significantly cheaper (whole grains and spices), and if I combine my trips with coupon offers, I can save even more money. Of course, I don't do these big trips every month - I know what I use and what I'm getting low on, and only shop when I have enough to buy to go over the dollar amount required in the offer. And since the store is in the same plaza as the grocery store, making three separate trips to take advantage of all the coupon offers, instead of one big trip, isn't costing me more in gas. 

One caveat: I have never (knock on wood) had any problems with pests from buying bulk food. And every time I'm in there, I see the store staff rotating and cleaning the containers. The store is CLEAN. But there are certain thing I won't buy in bulk, like coffee - it goes stale so quickly when exposed to air, and to me, it's not worth any potential savings. Yes, I am a coffee snob!

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I take no responsibility if the title of the post resulted in you having this song stuck in your head. Completely coincidental. Really. Honest. :)

Hungry, hungry hippos!

One plan this year is to start making treats for the dogs. I needed some small cookie cutters, so I looked for one the last time I was at the local bulk food store (it also has a large cake decorating section, hence the cookie cutters). While they had the traditional dog bone shape, they also had this:

I don't know why I would possibly think a hippo would make be a good choice...

What about seed miles?

More and more, people are paying attention to their food miles. And it is something we all should pay attention to. Of course, we backyard gardeners smugly proclaim that our food miles are zero for anything we grow ourselves.

But what about our seed miles?

I really got thinking about this when I put in my first-ever seed order to what I thought was a local source.

When the seeds arrived, I was amazed, and not in a good way, to find out just how many of them came from overseas.

Of course, it takes much less energy to ship a packet of seeds as compared to the food that packet represents, but by out-sourcing our seed production business we are, once more, neglecting the development of a critical step in local, sustainable food production. So while I used those seeds, I looked for alternatives for future seed purchases.

And I've narrowed it down to three main sources:

1. Local grower and tomato-growing virtuoso, Linda from Tree & Twig Farm. This farm is just down the highway from me, and is where I got my tomato and pepper transplants last year. Linda is also the one that gave out the free beet seed late last summer for the Great Beet Challenge. Which reminds me, I never did a follow-up on that.  I planted. They grew. Something ate them at the seedling stage, killing Every. Last. One. Grrrr.....

2. The Cottage Gardener. Not quite local, but within the fabled 100 miles (almost at the very edge, but still inside it), and certified organic, this mail order site is the next place I look for anything I can't find from Tree & Twig.

3. Richter's Herbs. The go-to company for all my herb needs. They sell both seeds and live plants, and without exception, every thing I have ever bought from them was of excellent quality. And they too are within that 100 mile boundary. And as many of my herbs are either perennials or self-seeding, I rarely buy anything here. What I do look for every year though, is what they offer from their SeedZoo, a source for very rare and different crop varieties.

On the odd chance I can't find what I want from these three suppliers, then, and only then, will I go to one of the big companies.

To go off on a tangent, do you realize just how MANY choices there are for seed? The sheer number of choices astounded me - especially considering how little advertising most of them do. And if I can offer a bit of advice, a bit more advertising might be a good thing - I cannot count the number of times I see one, and only one, Canadian seed producer mentioned in any blog post or on-line article talking about sourcing sustainably-grown seeds. And while I have nothing personal against Salt Spring Seeds (although I do have to admit I find some of his conspiracy theories a bit... odd), I cannot help but think that maybe, just maybe, crops that grow well a few miles down the road might be a bit more suitable for my garden than those growing in a completely different climate on a Pacific-coast island over 4500 km away.

I do realize that at least some, if not all, of the seeds offered by these sources aren't actually from local sources. I know some of the seeds offered at Tree & Twig are actually grown there, while the rest come from SSE. I haven't found a source that offers 100% locally grown seed (nor have I found a source yet for seed potatoes), and so, this is the best I can do for now.

Of course, saving my own seeds would effectively reduce my "seed miles" to zero...

The most important thing to remember...

... when buying living room furniture?

Make sure it's low enough to the ground that tennis balls won't fit underneath.

Do you have any idea how much time this is going to save me??? Genius!

Oh, and please ignore the crappy green carpet.  One of these day, it will go to live at the dump... one of theses days...

It was 35 years ago...

... and I remember it like it was yesterday.

What was it?

The Blizzard of '77, of course!

What, you don't remember it?  :)

I remember walking to school, about half a mile away, that morning. My brother and I were still in grade school - I was in Grade 2, he was in Grade 5. My sister was in Grade 7, attending junior high, and would have taken the bus to school that morning.

As far as I can remember, the morning was quite nice.

Then, it started to snow. And snow. And snow.

Now, this is Canada. Snow is not unusual, nor are blizzards. Growing up, snow days were plentiful, but this storm was different.

Very different.

I still remember someone's father coming to the school with a rope. For all the kids walking home in his direction to hold onto, so they wouldn't get lost. (SO "Little House on the Prairie"!!)

Yes, it was THAT bad.

I also remember him turning off into the subdivision before our house, leaving me and my brother to carry on alone.

And I still remember starting to cry after another block or so, thinking we were not going to make it home.

Yes, it was THAT bad ;)

That is the only time I remember anything like that happening - generally, if school closed, we were left to our own devices for getting home (well, at least those of us who walked to school). I don't remember what the policy was for kids who didn't have a parent at home, but I also don't remember too many mothers who worked full time.

We finally did make it home safe and sound (and really, it wasn't that far from where everyone else turned off, it just seems a LOT further when you are seven and scared!).

What I also remember about the storm is the aftermath.

The area was closed down for days afterwards, and the roads were impassable. The snow was so deep, especially the drifts, that vehicles, including buses, were completely buried.

Yes, that is the roof of a car.

It's a good thing many local residents had snowmobiles, since those, along with the local radio stations, were what literally saved the day. People would call into the station and request help for whatever emergency they were facing, and squads of people on snowmobiles would go and help. They rescued people stranded in cars, help get emergency food and medications to those that needed it, and were, for at least two days after the blizzard, the only things moving.

Dad's co-worker had snowmobiles, and I remember him coming by to get Dad to help. I also remember, after the true emergency was over, them bringing the snowmobiles by the house to give all of us kids rides - the first and only time I've been on one!

I have two lasting impressions of that storm:

1. How a community can come together to help out in an emergency. Without the rescue efforts co-ordinated by the radio stations and carried out by the snowmobilers, I'm sure the death toll would have been much higher. One school friend ended up staying at her bus driver's house - along with every other kid on the bus - when the driver realized she wasn't going to be able to do the run safely. There was more than one example of people banding together to help out, to take in stranded strangers, to share food with others.

2. How unprepared MANY people were to go even 3 days without access to stores. I can remember my Mom being aghast at the number of people calling in to request things like disposable diapers and food. 

And I'm quite sure that second impression is part of what makes me stock up on food and other emergency items, because I don't want to be the one asking for help when the next big blizzard hits!

Wow - 35 years! We've had some big storms since then, but this is the one that sticks in my memory, and I'm sure in the memory of many other who lived through it.

And looking out on the green, green grass this February, it's hard to remember just how much snow there was on the ground 35 years ago!

Things I don't buy: ground meat

Oh, don't worry - I eat ground meat. But I haven't actually bought any for the last couple of years. Not since Mom bought this:

We both have Kitchen Aid mixers, and over the last few years, have been buying attachments for them which we share. She has the meat grinder and food mill, I have the pasta rollers, and the other pasta maker is on my wish list :)

But the meat grinder is one that I would buy myself if I couldn't borrow Mom's. 

Why grind your own meat? It can be safer - store-bought ground meat tends to be the source of a lot of food-borne illness, and it is definitely cheaper, since you can find whole cuts of meat on sale for much less than their ground counterparts, especially meats other than beef. Have you priced ground chicken or turkey lately?  Yikes! You can also control the amount of fat that goes in, but one word of warning: you do need some fat, or you'll end up adding oil to your meat to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Trust me on this ;)

I also like the ability to package the ground meat in portions that make sense to me, instead of trying to find the quantity I need for any given recipe at the store. I generally freeze in one pound portions, and seldom have to pull out more than one package for any recipe I'm making.

So, when meat is on sale for a good price, I buy enough to grind some. I recently did 25 pounds of pork (yes, 25 pounds!), and just used up the last of last year's ground beef, so I'll be keeping an eye out for a good beef sale.

Eventually, I want to source all my meat from local, sustainable producers, but I'm not there yet. And for beef and pork, the price of ground is generally cheaper, but I would still save money by grinding my own turkey and chicken.

And once you have ground meat, you can make so many other things...

I can't believe I just bought this...

And it's plastic even!

Yes, this is the first time I have ever owned a pitcher for bagged milk.  You see, I'm not a big milk drinker, so I've always just bought a 1 or 2 liter carton when I needed some.

Until now.

Thanks to my new latte addiction, I'm going through a lot more milk.  And the price for a 2 L carton is almost the same as the price for a 4L bag.

Go figure.

So, I have, for the first time in my adult life, bought a 4 L bag of milk.

And, of course, a pitcher to keep it in!

Now all I need is one of these...

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It has come to my attention that not every country has bagged milk.  If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, this is the site for you: Milk Bags.

Independence Days Challenge!

It's back!

And for the first time, I'm in.  

So what is the Independence Days Challenge?   You can read more about it here, but it is basically a way of thinking about food, broken down into a manageable number of steps.

I think a lot of people are concerned about their local food systems, food safety and quality, and other food issues, but get bogged down in the complexity of it all.

And it is complex.  There are so many factors to consider, and everyone has their own priorities, skills and limitations. One reason I like this challenge is that it isn't a set of "rules" about what to eat, what not to eat, how much money to spend, etc.  It's simply a number of items to try to accomplish, in your own way, on a weekly basis. 

And just what are those items?

1. Plant Something. Obviously, those of us in the north aren't going to be out planting seeds in our garden in February, but this also can include garden planning, seed starting, etc.

2. Harvest Something. Again, unless you have a way of growing year round (and there are cheap ways of doing this), most of us won't be harvesting in the winter, but it can include things like sprouting and microgreens - which also count under "plant something".

3. Preserve Something. This is something I need to get better at.  Many of us do the big canning sessions during the harvest season, but preserving is something that can happen year round.  It obviously includes traditional winter preserves such as marmalade, but can also include making applesauce out of those apples that aren't storing well, freezing the last of the winter squash that are staring to soften, pressure canning the stock you made from Sunday's roast, etc.

4. Waste Not. This is one that I REALLY need to address.  I'm embarrassed at the amount of food I waste, and it needs to stop.  One big step: I need to get better at saving scraps for stock.

5. Want Not. This is about building up your food stash for emergencies and long-term needs.  And no, it's NOT hoarding ;)

6. Eat the Food. Yes, this is important. It covers such things as rotating your food storage, and eating out of that storage. It also covers trying new recipes - and for me, it covers giving myself permission to eat my preserved food.

7. Build Community Food Systems.  This is one I think I'll have the biggest problem with, given my hermit-loner proclivities, but it is important. It addresses improving your local food systems, but I think, for me, it will be more about hunting out local resources. I think this is one that really depends on where you are on your journey - if you know all your local producers, you can work more on sharing that information. But you have to know your local producers first :)

8. Skill Up.  This is new this year, and it addresses learning new skills that may come in useful in the coming years. I'm choosing not to limit this to food, but to include any new skill I want to learn - from seed storage to soap making, and everything in between! 

I choose to do this challenge according to my own resources and priorities, and so for now, items 7 & 8 will be monthly items, while I hope to report on the other six weekly.

So, how about it? Are you in? And even if you aren't completely in, try to at least keep these steps in mind and think about where your food comes from, and how resilient your local food system is. And how resilient you are when it comes to feeding yourself and your families.

And really, it will be FUN!  Really.  :)


Side note: Sharon Astyk is an incredible resource and I cannot recommend both her blog and her books enough. I have her first three books, and re-read them often for both information and inspiration. And I'll be first in line to buy her fourth when it is published this year.