57 replies to this topic

[Andrea]

Living on a 1/3 acre urban lot, there is no way I could produce all of our food.  But, living in Central CA, I can garden year round.  My goal is to eat something out of my yard every single day of the year, even if it's only picking a fresh bay leaf and tossing it in the soup pot.  Wish me luck!  (I plan on posting a few pictures as soon as I figure out how!)

January 1 - mandarin oranges

January 2 - mandarin oranges

[Mt_Rider]

I like this idea, Andrea!  Not that it would work in my climate zone.....

 

MtRider  ---we'll be cheering for your project. 

[Annarchy]

Awesome idea Andrea.

[dogmom4]

That's a fantastic idea Andrea! Mind if I join you? Since I'm only a little further north I could probably manage it too. Some of my days might seem unusual because I try every year to see how long I can keep my hot weather plants going (partly as an experiment, partly because I was too busy to pull them up). So, here's my first two days.

January 1: bell pepper
January 2: bell pepper

Edited by dogmom4, 03 January 2013 - 11:31 AM.

[Jeepers]

Great idea! My climate zone wouldn't allow it either though. We only have 4-5 months where anything can grow outside. 

[Philbe]

NICE!!!  But...we don't have that warmth here in the midwest.  We do get a little bit of a head start because we square foot garden, and cover the beds with an opaque-type milar that Mountain Man bought (on a roll) to keep the frost etc. off the newly planted seeds (usually sometime in March) but we really have to watch the temps and watch for frost warnings so we can make a run to the homestead house and get them covered.  Planted early last year and didn't lose anything, other than our corn due to drought.  Seems no matter how much we watered the corn, it just would not produce...neither the hybrid nor the heirloom.  Didn't get not one ear of corn!!!  All ears were dwarfed or sterile of nibblets. We usually can keep "something" growing until fall.

[Andrea]

The more the merrier, Dogmom!  LOL - one year I was making salsa in late December because my tomatoes and peppers were still producing!  I ripped them all up in October this year though to make room for favas and onions.  

 

For those who aren't able to garden year round, can you eat something with a homegrown product that you put up during the warmer months?  For example, for lunch today, I had vegetable soup that I had frozen a few months back.  I grew the cilantro, New Zealand spinach and the celery that went into the soup in my yard.  As far as I'm concerned, that counts for my challenge!  I'm also about to start dehydrating orange and lemon peels from my citrus trees to use for tea flavoring during the summer.  I'm totally counting that come August when it's 5,000 degrees outside and I can't peel myself off of the couch to go pick a zucchini!  Or, what about sprouting?   My lettuce beds are lousy this year.  I'm hoping I'll get a months worth of salad fixings out of them in the early spring but in the meantime, I'm sprouting!  Who needs lettuce on a sandwich when you've got fresh grown sprouts?  They were grown on my property, so I'm counting those too!

 

My goal is to be more mindful of what I eat and produce.  I can't grow 100% of my families needs, but I can try and make us more sustainable.  

[Andrea]

1/1/13 - mandarin oranges

1/2/13 - mandarin oranges

1/3/13 - mandarins, soup with New Zealand Spinach, celery, & cilantro (not listing ingredients I didn't grow!)

[dogmom4]

I'm also including eggs because we usually get 4 eggs a day...although right now it's one or two because my girls are coming out of a molt.

Jan 3: 2 eggs ( used to make scrambled eggs)

Edited by dogmom4, 03 January 2013 - 08:34 PM.

[Ambergris]

I have plenty of citrus ripe at the moment, but to get through February I'd have to include sprouts from the kitchen counter.

[Andrea]

dogmom and Ambergris - if it was produced on your "urban homestead" then it's fair!  From eggs to sprouts, if you produced it on your urban lot, it counts!

 

I wish I could raise chickens but we just don't have the lifestyle for livestock right now - we travel too much for work. 

[Andrea]

1/1/13 - mandarin oranges

1/2/13 - mandarin oranges

1/3/13 - mandarins, soup with New Zealand Spinach, celery, & cilantro (not listing ingredients I didn't grow!)

1/4/13 - orange & Jerusalem artichoke & potato soup with fresh garlic chives. (I didn't grow the potatoes)

[Ambergris]

1/1/13 Pomelo

1/2/13 Random kind of citrus, probably a satsuma or a satsuma's daughter.

1/3/13 Random kind of citrus, same as yesterday.

1/4/13 A measly little excuse for a sweet potato.

[dogmom4]

January 1: bell pepper
January 2: bell pepper
January 3: 2 eggs ( used to make scrambled eggs)
January 4: 2 eggs, 1 bell pepper

Edited by dogmom4, 04 January 2013 - 10:16 PM.

[Andrea]

1/1/13 - mandarin oranges

1/2/13 - mandarin oranges

1/3/13 - mandarins, soup with New Zealand Spinach, celery, & cilantro (not listing ingredients I didn't grow!)

1/4/13 - orange & Jerusalem artichoke & potato soup with fresh garlic chives. (I didn't grow the potatoes)

1/5/13 - orange, leftover soup, made a new soup with jerusalem artichokes, cilantro, new zealand spinach, bay leaf, & dehydrated tomatoes among other things I didn't grow!

[dogmom4]

January 1: bell pepper
January 2: bell pepper
January 3: 2 eggs ( used to make scrambled eggs)
January 4: 2 eggs, 1 bell pepper
January 5: 2 eggs, 1 chili pepper (last one...had to pull up hot weather plants because we ended up with 3 days of a hard freeze. Still have two pepper plants in greenhouse. We'll see what they do.)

Edited by dogmom4, 06 January 2013 - 02:19 AM.

[Philbe]

I don't think I'll dip into any of my stored/dehydrated foods. Need to save them for an emergency. Just have to wait for gardening season here and help myself to our tomato's lettuces, radishes and then the other goodies when they come in...LOL We'll be moving our square foot gardening system before too long to a larger part of the yardage (4 lots) because we want to put in four more squares.

[Andrea]

1/1/13 - mandarin oranges

1/2/13 - mandarin oranges

1/3/13 - mandarins, soup with New Zealand Spinach, celery, & cilantro (not listing ingredients I didn't grow!)

1/4/13 - orange & Jerusalem artichoke & potato soup with fresh garlic chives. (I didn't grow the potatoes)

1/5/13 - orange, leftover soup, made a new soup with jerusalem artichokes, cilantro, new zealand spinach, bay leaf, & dehydrated tomatoes among other things I didn't grow!

1/6/13 - citrus & soup & a salad from home grown lettuce & fresh sprouts for dinner

[dogmom4]

January 1: bell pepper
January 2: bell pepper
January 3: 2 eggs ( used to make scrambled eggs)
January 4: 2 eggs, 1 bell pepper
January 5: 2 eggs, 1 chili pepper (last one...had to pull up hot weather plants because we ended up with 3 days of a hard freeze. Still have two pepper plants in greenhouse. We'll see what they do.)
January 6: 2 eggs

Edited by dogmom4, 06 January 2013 - 11:40 PM.

[Andrea]

1/1/13 - mandarin oranges

1/2/13 - mandarin oranges

1/3/13 - mandarins, soup with New Zealand Spinach, celery, & cilantro (not listing ingredients I didn't grow!)

1/4/13 - orange & Jerusalem artichoke & potato soup with fresh garlic chives. (I didn't grow the potatoes)

1/5/13 - orange, leftover soup, made a new soup with jerusalem artichokes, cilantro, new zealand spinach, bay leaf, & dehydrated tomatoes among other things I didn't grow!

1/6/13 - citrus & soup & a salad from home grown lettuce & fresh sprouts for dinner

1/7/13 - same as yesterday plus I whipped up a new batch of potato & jerusalem artichoke soup.