More Pickles and Downsizing

Until this year, I had never made pickles before. Now, I've made 2 batches. Last week were the dill spears and yesterday we made some sweet pickle chips. I now have 10 pints of homemade pickles stored up. The kids aren't all that thrilled that we have to wait at least 4 weeks to eat them, though. I hope they aren't totally horrible.

The other thing I've been busy with is downsizing all of our "stuff". We have so much of it. I'm starting with some clothes. I've gone through my closet and put aside everything I never wear sorted for stuff I can sell on eBay and stuff to donate to The Salvation Army or Goodwill. I also finally got my son to realize that he had to weed out his dresser because he couldn't close the drawers and he never wore all of the stuff anyway (especially since he goes to a parochial school and wears uniforms there). I also told him that if he wants any new clothes, he has to take out an item for every new item. Next are my daughter's clothes. I'm not sure I can get my husband to take care of his. He has more stuff that he never wears than any of us, but he hates getting rid of any of his stuff.

We also have tons of outgrown clothes from the kids, some of it handed down from my sister that we never even used. There are bags and Rubbermaid containers full of clothes all over the basement. I'm working on sorting them out by stuff we can still use, stuff to keep to pass on to my pregnant niece, stuff to sell on eBay and stuff to donate. I'm hoping to end up with much less than half of the stuff we have right now. The stuff we'll keep are only items that the kids haven't grown into yet that they've already decided they would wear. And for outgrown items, only the really special stuff to pass on. I know from experience that it was great to get some clothes handed down, but we don't need as much as we got.

I'm also going to donate a lot of their older toys and maybe sell some of it on eBay. We kept all of it originally for when we had other kids and to pass on. But, the kids always get their own new stuff on birthdays and Christmas, so they really don't need all of the other stuff. It's just taking up space.

I really am starting to feel freer now that I'm getting rid of stuff and have a plan to get rid of more. It will be so much easier to keep the house decluttered and find the things we need when we need them. It will make our lives much simpler and that's what I'm striving for. I think it will also be a headstart for when we can finally move. And if I can make even a little money selling any of this stuff that's a plus.

What Won't I Do for Fresh Veggies?

We had a not-so-successful trip to the farmers market today. It was looking a little like rain, so I decided to go early even though I knew it would be busier then. We apparently did not go early enough. We were only there a couple of minutes when it started raining very lightly. So, we went about our business of checking out what everyone had. We only got around to picking up some peppers, carrots and onions before it started raining harder. So, we got in line at the one booth to pay (a long line) and it started pouring. And I mean pouring like buckets. Soaking wet in seconds. Since we were already wet, I figured we would stay in line and get what we'd already picked out. The line did get shorter because other people didn't wait.

I did not, however, feel like taking the time to pick out anything else. I didn't think it could rain any harder, but it did while we were walking to the car. My 3yo daughter was crying because she was wearing some of her new clothes and what if they were ruined! She's very dramatic. I couldn't see where we were going because I kept getting a bunch of water in my eyes. My son had to lead us the rest of the way to the car. I wasn't thrilled about all of us getting in my car so wet, but I wasn't about to stay outside. Of course, once we got in the car, the rain slowed down considerably. And my daughter realized because we left before going to other booths, she didn't get any cherries. Luckily for her, there was a parking spot opening up right near the market as we drove by, so I asked my son to jump out and get some cherries since it was barely raining anymore. So he did. And as he was walking over to the booth, it started pouring again. We had a good laugh over that, but he didn't seem to think it was so funny.

At least the rest of the day was better. We went to the Lowell Folk Festival and met my parents there. We got to listen to a guitar jam from a bunch of the performers and a group from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They were great. Oh, I almost forgot the accordion jam before we left. We only had a couple of very light showers while we were there. We even saw the sun a few times. It was a lot of fun.

This Weekend's Farmers Market and our Garden

I took my 3yo daughter to her first farmers market this weekend. She loved it. She wants to get all of our fruits and veggies there now. It was a small one in the town near us, only three farms and a baker. But, we got organic potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, corn and a couple of plums for a snack. We didn't need to buy and zucchini, yellow squash or cucumbers because we are getting plenty of those from our garden and there are plenty more coming in.

My husband actually does most of the gardening, but he doesn't eat most of what we grow. He won't eat squash, cucumbers or tomatoes and that's what we get most of. I feel bad for him. Plus, he eats more than the rest of us, so I have to be creative to use up what we do get. We've had squash either with dinner or lunch every day. I'm going to try to make some zucchini bread this week. Can you freeze zucchini and squash and, if so, is it good? When the tomatoes come in, I'll try to can some of them and also make some spaghetti sauce and can or freeze that. At least my husband will eat the sauce. The cucumbers are the biggest problem. I havent' really got enough at once for any of the pickle recipes I have, but too much to just eat in salads, etc. I'll need to make a smaller recipe of pickles, I guess. Hey, my husband will eat those!

The only things we plant that he does eat are strawberries and hot peppers. We've tried to plant green beans, peas and carrots before for him, but we've never had any luck with them. We'll have to try again next year, though. In the meantime, I'm buying veggies for him locally, so he's getting some nice fresh stuff, too.

If anyone happens to read this, feel free to offer any advice on how to use up our zucchini and cucumbers and any advice on growing veggies for my husband next year would be appreciated.

Eating Local

I just started reading the book "Animal, Vegetable Miracle" and it is so inspiring and thought-provoking. If you're not familiar with the book, the author and her family moved to a small farm in Virginia and decided to spend a year eating only foods that they grew themselves or that were available locally. The whole concept of eating what's available seasonally sounds really difficult. We're all so used to being able to get whatever we want, whenever we want it, at the supermarket. But, as they point out in the book, in order for us to get that, we are wasting a lot of fossil fuels transporting this food all over the world. Plus, all of that transportation and mass-production of produce and meats required more use of chemicals in the foods. So, eating locally allows you to get fresher food and to be more aware of how your food is raised and what's in it (or not).

While looking more into this whole "eating locally" thing, I found this great website - One Local Summer. This blog follows the participants as they try to eat at least one completely local meal each week. I've found some great ideas for how to eat locally and different foods to look for from this site.

My efforts to eat more locally are starting with eating the foods that I am beginning to get from our garden and buying from local farmers at farmers markets. Today, I bought milk from a local dairy. My next step is going to be trying to find a local farm where I can buy eggs. I'm not sure about buying beef or poultry, but I think I might be able to find some sources.

And, believe it or not, I am going to try to make my own cheese. This is one of those things that I just assumed was difficult and time consuming and probably gross. But, I just finished a chapter in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" about making cheese. She made her own mozzarella, and included the recipe, and it didn't sound too gross at all. It also takes only about 30 minutes and the cost of the ingredients would be less than I would pay for mozzarella at the store. If that goes well, maybe I'll try some cheddar, which we use more often. I'll definitely post about that when I try it.

If you already try to eat locally, or are interested in trying it, post a comment and let me know.

Finally Getting Stuff From the Garden

This week we are finally starting to see some results in our garden. I love the planning part - deciding what to plant, buying seeds and plants, figuring out where they should go, etc. But, once that's all done, I hate waiting for everything to come out. Earlier this week, the kids were very excited to harvest our first summer squash and a cucumber. We've already eaten both. Today, I brought in a summer squash, a pretty big cucumber and two zucchinis. And there are plenty more of all of them not too far behind. We'll be eating plenty of fresh veggies in the weeks to come. I also discovered a few of our Sun Gold Tomatoes are almost ripe. There a lot more coming in, too, and plenty of slicing tomatoes. The Sun Golds probably won't even make it into the house since there are only about 5 or 6 of them. I'll be lucky if the kids share one with me before they eat them while they pick them. Before long, we'll be able to pick bunches of them every 2 or 3 days. I can't wait. I think I'll use the zucchini in an omelet or frittata tonight.

Can I Live Rural in the City?

I live in a small city, but I dream of moving to a rural area all the time. My husband would love to do this as well. Unfortunately, that kind of move isn't in the cards right now. In the meantime, I daydream about my future homestead while I read blogs from other homesteaders and small farmers. This blog will be about my journey to a more homestead-y kind of life. I figure just because I can't move to the country just yet doesn't mean I can't start living like a country girl so I'll be more prepared when my dreams come true. No, I can't have chickens or sheep in my back yard. But, we do have a garden. It's a little bigger every year. My husband has done most of the work with it, but I want to get more involved with that. We're only just starting to see stuff coming out in the garden now. This year, we planted tomatoes, both slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, jalapeno peppers and chile peppers.

Hopefully, we'll get plenty from our garden to be able to can and/or freeze some of it. I'm also planning on getting other local fresh stuff from local farms and farmers' markets to preserve so I won't have to pay outrageous prices for produce during the winter. That will also give me some practice for when we have a bigger garden and more of our own food to preserve.

My son's school did a breadmaking program sponsored by King Arthur Flour. We din't realize at first that it meant he'd be baking his bread at home. But, it all worked out and we actually enjoyed it. We've done it a few more times since. I'd like to do it more often and try some different varieties. Who knows, maybe pretty soon I'll be baking all of the bread we use.

Other than the gardening and the baking, most of my preparation is reading books and websites to familiarize myself with all I'd need to know on my own homestead. I'll post any new knowledge and experiments here.

Well, enough talking about it. I should head out to the garden and see if anything's ready yet.