From Princess of Pink (who I found through Ravelry) and Casaubon’s Book (the original source of the following challenge) I found the Independence Days Challenge. You’re supposed to do the following as you are able (as often as possible, daily if possible)

  • Plant something
  • Harvest something
  • Preserve something
  • Plan/Manage
  • Cook Something New
  • Work on Local Food Systems
  • Reduce Waste
  • Learned a new skill

Planting:  right now I don’t have anywhere to plant anything else.  I do want to make some self-watering containers out of some currently unused storage bins ala The Urban Homestead book so I can start some summer lettuces, chives, etc.

Harvesting:  well, we do have leeks we can harvest.  Because I was late planting my tomatoes, we don’t have any of those yet.  And we have been harvesting a small amount of fruit from our trees as it becomes ripe.

Preserving:  um, this goes under learning a new skill first.  I want to learn how to can this summer.  Or else our surplus tomatoes will be sundried.

Cook something new:  Will look for something new at the Hermosa FM this Friday.  Does this mean a new sort of foodstuff?  or a new recipe?

Work on local food systems:  I’m currently trying to identify sources of chicken & grass fed & finished beef.   I thought I was being good getting these at Whole Foods til I read the corporate organic chapters in Omnivore’s Dilemma.  We usually get our fruits & veggies from the FM but I want to make this a weekly habit instead of a ‘oops, we forgot to go to the FM and now we need to get these at Whole Foods’ situation.

I’ve been going through sites/stores at Local Harvest, Eat Wild, and Eat Well Guide.

Plan/manage:  A lot can go into this.  Let’s make the immediate goals include

  1. making self-watering containers (a subset of this is cleaning out the garage to identify the best containers for this)
  2. picking out appropriate veggies/lettuce for said containers
  3. ordering said seeds
  4. finalizing my yearly garden calendar (for native plants, fruit trees, and veggies) so I don’t get such a late start on various things (and so Dave knows the overall picture)
  5. finding the local food sources for meat
  6. learning about canning and ordering equipment
  7. set up my ‘dye studio’
  8. watering system for the fruit trees and food garden and containers

Reduce waste:  We already compost all our vegetable & fruit scraps.  I recently bought some Pyrex containers with lids so I wouldn’t be using ziplock baggies as much.

Learn a new skill:  Well, as noted, I want to learn different ways of preserving our garden bounty.  I’d like to make different cheeses, too (all I’ve made is mozzarella). I’m still very much learning to spin, and would like to learn to dye this summer.  I’m also learning how to prepare fleece including using Ma Petite.