Independence Days Challenge 2012 – Week 6

Producing more food for my family and becoming generally more self-sufficient has been one of my long time goals now, so I was excited to see the Independence Days Challenge is back on Sharon Astyk’s excellent blog The Chatelaine’s Keys. So each week on Thursdays I’m going to post what I’ve done in each category in the past week.  I’m hoping that this will be the additional motivation I need to reach real food independence!

Plant Something:  I reseeded some beds that didn’t germinate well, and I’m starting cucumber and zucchini indoors.

Harvest Something:  Herbs, and a little spinach and arugula.  Luckily the arugula plants have not seemed to lose their flavor even though they’re going to seed.

Preserve Something:  About to freeze some bought strawberries, but right now there’s just not much preservable available right now locally.

Waste Not:  We’re steadily pushing through applesauce from last year’s apples, and I’m about to bring up some peaches I canned last summer.  Hopefully this year I’ll be canning my own peaches!!

Want Not:  I bought several packages of actually tasty strawberries, and I’m going to cut them up and freeze them for yogurt additions and the like.

Eat the Food:  Not a whole lot interesting going on here this week, although I did make a nice sandwich yesterday out of homemade bread, lettuce from my garden, and some grilled chicken.

Build Community Food Systems:  My local (read: walking distance) farmer’s market opens April 14, and I can’t wait!  I’m honestly not sure why it’s not open earlier, we have such a mild climate in Georgia that I’m sure there would be quite a few vendors with greens and the like.

Skill Up:  With the help of my husband and brother, I set up an entirely new garden bed on the side of the garage.  This area gets about 4 hours of strong morning sun in the summer, so I’m hoping to grow asparagus (which can tolerate some shade) and some tender annuals that otherwise wither and die in the hot Georgia summer.  We used cedar posts as a retaining wall, and there was a bit of a learning curve on our part to get it all assembled (the hubs slung the sledgehammer though!).

Previous Weeks:  Week 5 | Week 4 | Week 3 | Week 2 | Week 1