Independence Days update

It’s been awhile, so here we are with another update on the Independence Days project. :)

Planted: At long last, it is time to start the planting! I have done a lot of work planning and preparing for planting season, and I’ve finally got a few things started. A few tomatoes are in (and sprouted!), the one lonely garlic clove I had that was growing a green tip got put in dirt and it has grown beautifully, several cabbage plants were started in newspaper pots and just yesterday I noticed one had come up. There’s also a couple of Italian sweet peppers poking heads above the soil, and the catnip and lemon basil finally sprouted. I also have an experiment with some tea plant seeds (yes, the shrub that black and green tea grows on): they can be grown as house plants here, so I’m giving that a try. Oh, there are also apple seeds in dirt in the freezer, stratifying.

Harvested: Eggs! Finally, we have eggs again. That is all for harvesting, unless you count the 1 cm leaf of garlic greens that fell off the plant and I nibbled. (It is delicious!)

Preserved: Nothing at present to preserve. Oh, I did dry some orange peel for Gram when we had a pile of oranges on the counter awhile back. That counts.

Waste Not: The dried greens from last summer have been brought inside and we’re feeding them to the bunnies, and crumbling some for the chickens as well. Leftovers are being fed to humans or animals, as usual, nothing particularly exciting on this front.

Want Not (Preparations): We have eggs in the incubator preparing to hatch (it’s always good to be able to ‘grown your own’ of anything!), and I think the documentation I’ve been doing for the garden journal probably falls in this category as well (having the information you need in analog form is a good idea in case of extended internet outage, for instance).

Community Food Systems: The Boy worked at the WECAN food distribution centre last month, and is volunteering again next month. While he was there, he told some of the other volunteers about our meat and had some potentially interested customers. :) We continue to have interest in lamb meat sales, and are finally able to sell eggs again.

Eat the Food: Eggs, of course, we managed to get through the ‘egg strike’ without purchasing store eggs at all. I have realized that next fall I need to freeze a few eggs to get through the dark days of winter, as I really don’t want to have to buy store eggs at all! We’ve been using up our squash (which has stored beautifully) in soup, we made salad from our WECAN food basket lettuce and carrots, and a pureed vegetable soup from potatoes, carrots and celery (also from the WECAN purchase). Gram’s cranberry-crabapple jelly is a standard feature of my oatmeal breakfasts (a spoonful of jelly added to quick oats and hot water is a great way to start the day).