 |
| Can't really complain =) |
 |
| Tomatoes |
 |
| Fresh red beet eggs, note the fresh herbs in the background! |
 |
| This is my dog wondering why we let the cat drink out of his bowl... Well this summer has been a fantastic experiment! I am so excited about planning my garden for next year. I have learned so many useful things about gardening and preserving. Let's see, what is new? Well we had a smidge of a hurricane here, which shredded some of the garden, not horrible though, just some lost tomatoes and bent over pepper plants. I had already torn out some of the little pear tomatoes, they were out of control and strangling everything else, making it hard to harvest them as well as the other tomatoes, and causing some fungal growth. I am still bringing in alot of tomatoes daily, but slightly less than before. Still getting plenty of squash and banana and pablano peppers, and have enjoyed a couple new things from the farm. A couple weeks ago, Farmer Lady was in the field when I drove up, and she held up a handful of beets fresh from the soil. I wasn't very excited, but I took them anyway, and (drumroll please!) LOVED EM! Using her instructions I made several (my bf assures me that 3=several hehehe) quarts of red beet eggs with real actual beets! Delicious, easy, and kinda fun.... I have another batch of fresh beets in the fridge right now, I just need a day off to make them. And the bonus is: fresh beets come with their own 'beet greens' which you can use like any other green, salad, sauté, etc! It is like making your own butter, it comes with free buttermilk lol! |
I would like to make an interesting observation, which is that although I haven't been keeping up with my blog as much as I would like, I have been able to keep up with my local/sustainable eating practices, even with a 20-30 hr a week job, 2 teenagers, a husband and a special needs dog, PLUS I've been gettting back into my stand-up comedy hobby, as well as taking 3 college classes (made the Dean's list!) and started a jogging program ('Couch to 5K' OMG it is awesome!!! And this is coming from a morbidly obese sweet-aholic!). My point is...I am not finding it too difficult to do in addition to my life. I remember how easy it seemed before it started, how hard it seemed for a month or two, and now I am amazed at how easily we have all fallen into a routine of doing things this new way, and so far no food poisoning (which many nay-sayers were predicting!) and we are not starving!
Of course we have had to make many adjustments along the way, but I think that in order to achieve big goals, it is always necessary to make adjustments to the original plans.
Another interesting note is how many like-minded people I have had the pleasure of meeting along the way. Of course Farmer Lady has been an amazing resource, plus a never-ending source of entertainment! Recently I have been working with an 80-yr old lady who shares many of my concerns and feelings about our food sources, we compare notes alot about our food choices, and have each learned alot from the other. I met another awesome person, the owner of a house that acts as a csa drop off spot for Farmer's other csa. Have learned alot from him as well. I have also read many incredible blogs written by many incredible people who live the lifestyle I aspire to, and I have learned SO much from them!
My husband and I have learned alot about each other through all this, and we have both learned alot about our dream of owning a working, self-sufficient homestead one day. If nothing else, this whole thing has been a wonderful learning and growing experience for our entire family.
Well, I have to be at work in 20 mins, so I better wrap this up for today. I just wanted to post a quick catch-up, since it has been three weeks since my last! Hopefully I'll have some time next week to post again!
"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes
