Independence Days 5-27-2010

In the past I've kept track of my harvest by weight. That was really interesting, but again this year, more trouble than I have time for. So, as veggie production starts to ramp up, I will try to keep posting what I harvest and when, but more in general terms like "4 radishes." It will allow me to continue to track what peaks and when it peaks and compare gardens from year to year.

Plant the food: Green Beans! Some of my purple bush beans.

Harvest the food: 2 salads harvested this week, spinach and lettuce and field greens. 10 radishes harvested. A dozen stalks of rhubarb gathered from my neighbor who was just going to throw them away! Half of the rhubarb is chopped and in the freezer, waiting to be made into pies or tossed into apple sauce. The other half is chopped and in the fridge ready to be tasty filling or compote or something. :-) Dave is voting pie, but we'll see.
Preserve the food: Rhubarb is frozen, 3-4 cups worth. Dried some lambsquarters (picture above for those wondering about this weed I eat so much of) and radish greens to powder into potherbs. I'll do the same this fall with kale, and add the powdered greens into soups all winter as thickener and nutrient booster.

Waste Not: nada

Want Not: My stack of small sticks blown off the trees is getting quite big. They are a little too big to break down easily in my compost pile, so I've been stacking them up, hoping I can use them to burn. I've been researching designs on rocket stoves, because I think I can use them to cook food. More on this project later.

Build community food: Donating corn/squash/bean seeds to the local 3rd graders to use in their new garden.
I heard back from the food pantry in my town, regarding accepting excess produce from the community garden I want to set up, it seems like they'd like to see such a project, but they are worried about liability, so more work to be done on that front. Next step is probably approaching a church or the city council for some land.

Eat the food: Several pantry meals lately, including a rare meal of fish for baby and I while Dave was out doing his thing yesterday. (I have a bunch of canned fish, but Dave hates fish so we rarely eat it) We've cycled through a LOT of the flour lately, with Dave baking so much bread. That's awesome because some of it was approaching the limit for stored flour tastiness. I makes me a little antsy to see so many empty jars on the shelves, I can't wait to start filling them again.