August 8, 2010

My "I Don't Need That Kind of Help" IDC Update


No Katy.


are


not


toys.

And my update:

1. Plant something -
  • potatoes
  • zucchini
2. Harvest something
  • tomatoes
  • okra
  • potatoes (uncovered a few more while tilling for the fall garden)
  • blueberries - (probably the last ones  :(
  • yellow summer squash
  • black turtle beans
  • cucumbers
  • watermelons
  • figs
  • sweet basil
  • eggs
  • chicken
  • strawberries (just a few)
  • dried state half-runner beans
  • cantaloupes
3. Preserve something
  • canned figs
  • froze blueberries
  • dried sweet basil
  • canned tomatoes, onions, & okra
  • shelling & drying black turtle beans
4. Waste not - the usual

5. Want not -
6. Build community food systems -
  • Blogging about it of course
  • giving away extra produce & eggs to friends and family
  • I've been buying local milk for my yogurt making, but am switching to raw.  This presents particular problems in making yogurt, but so did the ultra-pasteurized non-homogenized brand.  I'll blog more about that soon.    
7. Eat the food - Last time I analyzed this according to food categories. This time I want to look at it in terms of meals.
  • Breakfast - From the homestead: fruit, tomatoes, & eggs.  From food storage: grains and cereals.  Yogurt from local milk. Toast from homemade sourdough yeast bread
  • Lunch - Eggs sometimes.  Bread for sandwiches same as above 
  • Dinner - All our veggies (salads and cooked) are from the garden.  Our meat is either our own chicken or local grass fed beef or pork. Starting to use more potatoes as the starch, but we still like pasta and especially brown rice, both of which I buy in bulk.  Trying to make more of our desserts fruit based, though I do buy naturally processed cocoa powder in bulk..
I've tried to figure out the percentage of each meal that we're producing for ourselves, but I'm not exactly sure how to do that except eyeball it.  At least half; I'm guesstimating 50 to 75%.

I think that's it for this week.

Riley, that goes for you too. 


13 comments:

Theresa said...

What pretty kitties! I guess they've found a feline use for spuds. How clever of them.;)

Woolly Bits said...

oh come on, mom, how can they not be toys - the way the tumble and roll, when you give them a kick?:)) and that innocent face...
at least they don't do that much damage - your handspun or knitting would be worse!

your harvest looks very good so far - I never manage to dig out all the potatoes - which I only find out when the leftovers send up new shoots:))

Renee Nefe said...

my friend baked 4 loaves of zucchini bread the other night. She left two in plastic bags on the counter and put two in the freezer.
She came back to evidence of kitty consumption of the two loaves. She cut off that part and put those loaves in the freezer, but pulled out loaf #3 to take to a friend...she buried the loaf in a shopping bag under other items. Came back and that loaf had been munched too. Bad kitty!

Razzberry Corner said...

But didn't you put those potatoes there just for Katy and Riley to play with?

It is so amazing that you are producing so much of your own food. I don't know how you find the time to do it all! You are an encouragement to us all!

~Lynn

Mama Pea said...

Very nice looking potatoes! How/where do you store yours?

Leigh said...

Theresa, in a cat's world, everythings a toy :)

Bettina, that photo gets me every time I look at it. She's too cute to fuss at, but they're rolling potatoes everywhere!

I just planted some for a fall crop, so I'm hoping to have some new shoots soon!

Renee, I've never known a cat to like zucchini bread! How funny. Don't tell Riley though, he'd definitely give it a try.

Lynn, we just make it a priority. Just don't ask what's getting neglected in the meantime!

Mama Pea, storage is what I'm concerned about. My storage shelves have openings and so do the crates. I read that they need some air circulation for best results. I put the two crates in my pantry, but it stays pretty warm in there so I'm going to have to keep an eye on them. In the meantime, we'll keep eating potatoes and hope the fall crop does well!

meemsnyc said...

Oh wow, taters galore! Nice.

Sara said...

Aren't kitties fun? At least they keep themselves entertained!

Question - how do you keep all those potatoes from going bad???

Nina said...

Anything which moves or rolls seems to be fair game for kitty toys! My sweetie was changing guitar strings yesterday and our old cat still had to come, investigate and give the strings a few bats.
Nice harvest of potatoes though. Ours aren't quite ready to harvest yet. We've had so much rain though that my fingers are crossed they'll be fine.

Leigh said...

Meemsync, that could also be "toys galore!" :)

Sara, good question! This is my first time to grow them, so I'll be learning about that. My summer storage is not exceptionally cool, so I'm not sure how long those 'taters will last. We're just going to have to eat them regularly and I'll to have to keep an eye on them.

Nina, I did get mine in the ground pretty early, though I wish it could have been later.

Cats are so funny. I had the potatoes spread on on an old sheet on the porch to cure. The cats were constantly rolling them around out there. A couple of them went bad and of course they didn't smell too good. Riley thought so too and made an attempt to bury the stinky things for me! What a guy. :)

m said...

We store our potatoes in paper or hessian sacks, which stops them sweating and the light getting to them. We put them in the coolest part of our unheated garage (which is frost free), and haven't had problems with them. Mind you with our small vegetable beds we don't get vast harvests anyway.

Tina T-P said...

I blanched & froze 2 heads of cauliflower last night, but oh, man, the slugs are just about deal breakers for me... Eeeewww! T.

P.S. Glad to see your snoopervisors are on the job...

Leigh said...

Mary, that's a good point about the light, so you've got me thinking I should cover my potato crates. An unheated garage makes a good storage place. We don't have one, but I do use an unheated room in the house for my storage. I'd love to build a real root cellar.

Tina, ugh on slugs! We get them too, but they aren't too bad. Surely there's something to be done about them. (Another research project!)