Grow and Make All the Food!

[Emilyngh]

Eating lunch today, it hit me how much of what we were eating today is homemade and/or from the garden:

Lunch: - homemade whole wheat bread (DH makes several times a week,
           - with peanut butter that was homemade (peanuts in Vitamix=done),
           - and homemade strawberry jam (berries picked locally and jam made during the summer),
           - and a side of homemade apple/plum sauce (made on stove in about 1/2 an hour from food that was getting old)

dinner:- homemade pizza with homemade whole wheat crust
          -pesto homemade over the summer with basil from the garden and frozen
          -mozzarella (store bought-booo)
          -homemade tomato sauce made from garden tomatoes
           -sliced garden tomatoes
           -salad with greens from garden

What are you eating that's homemade and/or homegrown?

[abhe8]

Dinner:
Chicken we grew and butchered
Garden veggies: potatos, carrots, green beans.

Breakfast:
Eggs from our hens
Veggies from garden: garlic, tomatoes, spinach
Blackberries from our garden
Yogurt made from milk we buy from our neighbor

Not sure yet what is for supper :)

[MustacheNorway]

Unfortunatly I havn't started this yet.
I would like to have my own hens , and having a patch with some potatoes and veggies.

My next project will be building a house for the hens, and maybe checking out how to do the veggies and potatoes in my area. :)

[JeffC]

I made a couple pints of hot sauce from my garden, which I use every day.  I just reset all my greens for cool weather, eating okra and tomatoes on my salad for dinner, with sautéed eggplant.

I hope to someday have chickens, as eggs are my primary protein source and it is very hard to find local eggs here in the Atlanta suburbs.

Food tastes better when there is meaning associated with it, it is a symbol of working with nature to sustain oneself. 

[NV Teacher]

Good for you.  Growing up we grew/raised almost all of our food.  There were ten of us and we ate really well.

Milk was straight from Grandpa's cows, sometimes still warm.  We raised cattle and sheep and would butcher a couple every fall.  Dad supplemented that with venison and elk meat.  We did buy pork and chicken and they were a treat for us.

The garden had raspberries, strawberries, apples, corn, green beans, carrots, beets, swiss chard, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, pickling cucumbers, peas, onions, and radishes.  Anything that could be bottled or frozen was put away for winter.

We'd buy bulk fruit from local orchards and bottle peaches, apricots, pears, cherries, applesauce, fruit cocktail, raspberries, and apple slices.  We made raspberry and strawberry jam and several kinds of jelly.  Beet jelly was my favorite.
We would also go along the creek and pick wild choke cherries, elder berries, and currents for jam/jelly.

We made sweet pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, relish, mustard pickles, and dilly beans.  We bottled salsa, tomato sauce, and chili sauce.  Mom baked 20 loaves of bread a week.  She also made all the hamburger and hot dog buns, rolls, and biscuits. 

It was a good life.  We were blessed.

[Bob W]

Good for you.  Growing up we grew/raised almost all of our food.  There were ten of us and we ate really well.

Milk was straight from Grandpa's cows, sometimes still warm.  We raised cattle and sheep and would butcher a couple every fall.  Dad supplemented that with venison and elk meat.  We did buy pork and chicken and they were a treat for us.

The garden had raspberries, strawberries, apples, corn, green beans, carrots, beets, swiss chard, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, pickling cucumbers, peas, onions, and radishes.  Anything that could be bottled or frozen was put away for winter.

We'd buy bulk fruit from local orchards and bottle peaches, apricots, pears, cherries, applesauce, fruit cocktail, raspberries, and apple slices.  We made raspberry and strawberry jam and several kinds of jelly.  Beet jelly was my favorite.
We would also go along the creek and pick wild choke cherries, elder berries, and currents for jam/jelly.

We made sweet pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, relish, mustard pickles, and dilly beans.  We bottled salsa, tomato sauce, and chili sauce.  Mom baked 20 loaves of bread a week.  She also made all the hamburger and hot dog buns, rolls, and biscuits. 

It was a good life.  We were blessed.

Sounds awesome!  I have dreams of retiring to a hobby farm and growing enough food to feed the family and sell/trade to reduce food budget to zero.  So this is an inspiration to me.

[mrsggrowsveg]

My dream is to eat about 90% of food from our own farm.  Here was my homegrown/homemade meal from yesterday:

Breakfast:  2 fried eggs from our chickens, Leftover Pear Sauce Cornmeal Pancakes with Pear Syrup (pears from our tree)
Lunch:  Watermelon from the garden.
Dinner:  Shredded Pork Steamed bun Tacos with Pear Sauce.  Pears and Pork from our farm and steamed buns were homemade
Dessert:  Peach Pie.  The crust was homemade and the peaches were picked and frozen last year.

During the week, I don't eat as much from the farm.

[Emilyngh]

Unfortunatly I havn't started this yet.
I would like to have my own hens , and having a patch with some potatoes and veggies.

My next project will be building a house for the hens, and maybe checking out how to do the veggies and potatoes in my area. :)

Have fun!   I did potatoes in chicken feed sacks before and it worked well.   Like this: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/05/tater-totes-feed-bag-potato-patch.html

We have chickens, and only two 8x4 ft raised garden beds and some berry bushes in a field.   We'll put in a third bed next spring, but since we use square foot gardening with excellent soil (used chicken bedding and compost), it's amazing how super productive the beds are for as small as they are!

We're vegetarian, so really, between our eggs, our berry bushes (freezing and making jam), the garden (and pickling/freezing from it), and then buying staples and baking/cooking from scratch, it's amazing how much of our food it's possible to have homegrown and/or homemade without a large farm or ton of effort.   

[MustacheNorway]

Have fun!   I did potatoes in chicken feed sacks before and it worked well.   Like this: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/05/tater-totes-feed-bag-potato-patch.html

Thanks for the tip , this looks awesome..  I'll try this next year , now it soon winter in Norway , so it's too late.. :(

[Sphinx]

Sounds awesome!  I have dreams of retiring to a hobby farm and growing enough food to feed the family and sell/trade to reduce food budget to zero.  So this is an inspiration to me.
[/quote]


You don't have to retire to a farm to have a large garden, and make a big difference in your
food budget.  I took early retirement at age 55, and bought an old brick house on a quarter acre in the middle of a small rural town.  The property was much less than in a city 25 miles from here, and the taxes are much lower too.  I like gardening, and grew up on a farm, so having a large vegetable garden, berry patch, and fruit trees is a pleasure.  I mulch a great deal with my own compost, straw, and leaves.  This provides fertilizer, and cuts down on watering and weeding significantly.  My large freezer is full of fruit and veggies. I also can some things. Since I specialize in heirloom plants, I save seeds for free, and once you join a good local horticultural society, many things can be traded or are just offered at low cost, perhaps even free.  My garden costs me almost nothing, and it has been that way for many years.  It is all organic  which is another benefit.  Have you seen the cost of organic produce lately at your supermarket ?  I also get some exercise and fresh air most days in the garden.  There are so many birds, and butterflies around that it is a very pleasant place to be.  I looked out my kitchen window this morning and counted 5 different species of birds on my row of sunflowers.  My old, well maintained house has a large front and back porch, as well as a sunroom -- all are great for entertaining, and relaxing.  The large yard also gives me privacy, peace and quiet.  I love the country , but being a senior, and alone, I decided that the convenience of a small town would be better. I have family here too. When the time comes that I cannot drive, I hope to stay in my own home, and take taxis.  I used to ride a mountain bike to and from work, and those were good times, but I have to use a car most of the time now.  I am just saying that a lot of  produce can be grown in a small space. My house and garage take up quite a bit of the quarter acre, yet there seems to be lots of room left for the garden.  I like the lifestyle very much, and if I have to get more help later on to stay here, and enjoy my house and garden, then I just will, but so far I can do everything myself.  I hire some help for the really heavy work like rototilling, and moving stones, or cutting trees, but that is very infrequent. If you cannot afford a farm, you might consider a house with a large lot. Life is for living, and enjoying, even if we are frugal !

[MayDay]

I like to play this game as it has the bonus of being cheap!

Breakfast: eggs from local farmer, cheese from grocery (boo) sauteed peppers from garden.

Lunch: chiles en nogada made almost entirely from garden (rice and nuts were from grocery)

Dinner: roasted parsnips, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peppers, and butternut squash, all from garden, and rice and beans (grocery)

My beans and grains are mostly from a local store that gets them from within my state, so still fairly local, and cheaper than Costco or other wholesale prices in my area.  We are eating almost all our own veggies right now, and all local fruit either from the farmers market or my garden.

[Penny Lane]

We find this so rewarding as well.  In under an acre, we have hens (3-5), 2 bee hives and lots of gardens and fruit trees.  Fun!  But I do recognize this is not everyone's dream.  Oh, and free lobsters.

[10dollarsatatime]

Not there yet... I've got a quarter acre and did spend a lot of time with the tiller taking out lawn this spring for my garden.  It's much smaller than I would like, but I have large trees that make most of the yard useless for gardening.  Long term plan is to plant new trees (including fruit) in less awkward places and take out the old ones so I can expand the garden.  I'm also planning on chickens this spring for eggs, and rabbits for meat. 

I'm just now canning a batch of tomatoes out of the garden, and roasting anaheim peppers to can.  I had to pick most of the red peppers before they actually turned red, so I'm hoping I can ripen them on the counter to use in roasted red pepper sauce.  I've got a pile of winter squash, about 50 pounds of purple potatoes, and a few cucumbers left.  I think I didn't do too bad for my first garden.

Someday I'd like to move to a small house on two or three acres.  But I'm happy where I am for now.