Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Saturday, January 02, 2010

This year I'm going to set a goal of drastically reducing the amount of ready made pantry items I purchase. Obviously, there are staples such as flour, milk, eggs, olive oil, etc. that I can not make myself. But gone will be ready made crackers, cereals, cookies ... and much more. I have been practicing this goal for the past three or four months. Even with the holidays, I found ways to cut back ... less baking, making recipes from scratch (just where did that phrase originate?;) And I will take planting my garden more seriously with great planning strategy to produce more in the space I have plotted. This will be my third year of planting a veggie garden ... still a novice ... but with a better grip on what is involved. Below is a list of practices I hope to employ:

  • never take my hungry children grocery shopping
  • take my own reusable grocery bags WITH me instead of leaving them at home or in the car trunk
  • grow, can, preserve, freeze enough food to last from summer to summer
  • purchase no out of season ... grown out of country produce
  • buy local and organic when possible
  • buy only local farm meats (Thanks to watching the movie Food, Inc.;)
  • use my crock pot more often
  • plant only open pollinated, organic, heirloom veggie seeds
  • use no toxic products in the garden or for cleaning purposes
This should be a good start for the new year.

6 comments:

cherokeefox said...

I would love to have a big garden but just don't have the space right now. I will have another container garden this year. Why do you want to use only heirloom veggie seeds. I don't know much about the different seeds. Thanks & good luck

Troy said...

The term "made from scratch" originally started out as "start from scratch". It was a reference to races, where the runners would all start from the start line or "scratch". A runner who got a head start, or an advantage did not start from scratch.

Making from scrath is when we start at the very beginning, with no head start and no advantage.

Good luck with your goals. I am looking forward to reading about your garden. I recently discovered how theraputic gardening can be. It allows me to take a little while and escape the stress of everyday life. I can't wait until spring so I can go out and play in the garden again.

cherokeefox said...

That you for the info on heirloom seeds...that is the way I need to go. I will try to start with those this year.

Kathryn said...

Some of those just become habit after a while, new mindset.

When i first started using reusable bags (3+ years ago) i forgot to take them about 50% of the time. Now i remember them 99% of the time. New habit. But i don't always remember them for other places: drugstore, hardware store, etc. Need to chang my mindset again.

Happy New Year!

Margie said...

you are so inspiring!!

Felisol said...

Dear Mrs. Mac,
I like making things from scratch. I buy all purpose flour, much cheaper than the waffle mix or bread mix bags. Less synthetic remedies added as well.
Now I have opened my boxes of frozen black elder flower juice. I have saved them for January, the month of colds and lowered immune defense.
This July I will definitely triple my elderflower juice production.
The scent of summer when the frozen juice is melting cannot be paid with money, only with easy labor.
I'm also digging deep into the frozen herbs compartment. Delicious soups and bread are perfuming my kitchen.

I know it's primarily healthy, but using the summer's crops are like opening for happy memories and hopes for a new spring to come.

Aren't we lucky?
From Felisol