Christmas Countdown Clock

Thursday 6 November 2008

Independence Day #7

1. Plant Something: Still failing miserably on the whole planting front. If I had a bit more space indoors I'd plant some herbs etc ... & if we had actually got as far as making a cold frame I could plant that too - but we haven't - so I didn't! LOL
2. Harvest Something: crops are fast dwindling now ... pretty soon I guess there will be no harvesting until late spring - a sobering thought. But right now we are doing pretty well.
8oz Spring Greens (Value 35p)
1 lbs 13oz New Potatoes (Value £1.30)
12oz Carrots (Value £1.11 )
Herbs for cooking (Value £1.50)
Total Value This Week: £4.26
3. Preserve Something: Still not doing so well on this front. Nothing again this week.
4. Prep Something (clean, mend, declutter, organise, learn new skills - be ready for what might come). Although technically last week, due to the scheduled post I didn't include it. A massive 10 squares of the shaker blanket I've been knitting for what seems like forever (23 squares knitted; 67 to go!)- & that also means I learned 4 new stitches - so I'll count that as my new skill for this week too :o)
The winter weather is just starting to bite here, so our prep involved hanging a couple new doors I took a whole bunch of Christmas cards up to the relatives over half term ... & very well received they were too!
5. Cook Something (experiment for variation!) Ummmm ... nothing earth shattering. But with harvesting our own veggies & potatoes, we have managed a couple of meals that are 75% home grown - next year, I'd hope that would be the case for most of our meals, all year around.
6. Manage Reserves (don't waste bounty). We are getting rather good at using left overs. Much as I'm veggie, I live in a house full of meat eaters ... who eat a lot of fried food (!). We have a bowl of dripping (meat fat/juices) in the fridge to use for frying meat & it gets topped up again afterward. My mum always had one when we were small - saves a fortune on buying oil if you are gonna fry stuff anyway.
I'm also saving any leftover gravy & veg from each meal - great as a base for stews, casseroles & soups.
7. Work on local food systems (buy local, promote green, give away seeds or plants, start local initiatives) Still sharing a few veggies with mum ... mostly greens as I've not finished thinning them yet! LOL. I guess in some way I must be promoting green: mum told me today that she had made a couple changes to save fuel, like cooking 2 meats at the same time *smiles*. I'm gonna take a look at the 'landshare' scheme too ... watch out for an update soon!
8. Reduce Waste: This is getting harder to achieve the greener we are. Our food waste is minimal, especially since we got good at both using leftovers & shopping/cooking to a menu - if you don't buy it, you can't waste it! Our recycling is mostly 'repurposing' nowadays, so there's not much making it as far as the recycling bin. So if anyone has any ideas for further steps ... drop us a comment!!