Monday, January 4, 2010

Dark Days Meal #7

Week #7 already....and already I had a hard week. This week really opened up my eyes to what I should try to work on this year. I am a die hard farmers market shopper, who goes every weekend, gets my food for the week (with a few extras that'll keep longer) and cooks it. Besides that my involvment is limited. I had tomatoes and herbs growing last year, but no other garden. I live in an apartment and have very little space that gets good sun and being that most of my life I despised getting dirty, I didn't know much and messed up the other things I tried to grow. I don't preserve food in any kind of way and this week that is why I got into trouble. I hadn't gotten to the market during the holidays and couldn't again this weekend and had used up ALL of my food...Thankfully I had some Lundberg rice still in the cupboard and I had made another batch of bean/squash soup from last week, so I simply poured the soup over the cooked rice and added some local sun dried heirloom tomatoes from Schaner Farms. It was a delicious meal, but all week I felt dragged down about the food choices I had in my house. I realized I needed to try again at a garden this year, so I've been combing the catalogs looking for the best container seeds *If you know of any, please let me know*, and I realized I needed to start learning to preserve! I'm not sure all that that will entail, but I'm ready to learn and take the next step in my local food journey. I definitely will not have a harvest '0 plenty to put up myself, but I can definitely buy extra from my farmers and work with that. Again any tips, suggestions, advice you have, please share...because just like gardening last year I don't know anything and am starting from scratch. I will definitely keep you updated on my journey, and I feel wonderful going in to my next phase!

2 comments:

  1. I have the perfect book for you - it's called http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/fresh_food_from_small_spaces:paperback Fresh food from small spaces. I started with that book and it got me all excited. I had been trying to grow a few things in my shady back yard and nothing was working out. That book really made me rethink everything and now I have a ton of food growing! Granted I had a front lawn to rip out but he's lived in apartments and container grown but also does lots of other things like sprouting which is super easy and you can do it indoors with no special equipment. Talk about an enzyme bonanaza! And it only takes a few days to salad too.

    My advice is to start small with a few things - unusual things or easy things or fun things. Everything else you can buy at the market and then just put up. You don't need to grow everything to be self-sufficient in the city. Don't bite off more than you can chew or you'll give up.

    I'm excited to see the changes you make!

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  2. Thanks for the encouragement and advice, I'll definitely check out the book and I was just thinking about sprouting yesterday! I used to sprout years ago in college and it is so simple and inexpensive. I don't plan on biting off more than I can chew...

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