lilith's dreams

independence days

10:56, Thursday, May 1, 2008 .. 0 comments .. Link

as some of you know, i'm a fan of sharon astyk's blog "casaubon's book"
she discusses topics of interest to me--peak oil, global climate change, sustainability, preserving and storing food, and a number of other related topics.   in all of these, i find her to be level headed and generally not alarmist.   she recently encouraged her readers to take part in an 'independence days' project (read about it here) where the idea is to think in terms of taking small steps toward our own self sufficiency. each week we'll post any activities in which we engage in planting, harvesting, preserving, storing, and prepping, in terms of food.    so here's my first installment (for the last week of april).

Planted: repotted tomato seedlings into larger pots. I thought I would start some lettuces, but i need to raid more yogurt cups and pop bottles (to cut down into pots) from the recycle bin at work. ;-)         I noticed that my potted mint plant is showing some new growth. I was afraid that leaving the pot on the porch over the winter had killed it.

Harvested: a few chives from the pot on the window sill. I need to get more in the habit of thinking about things that can be wild harvested this time of year.

Preserved: nothing. :-(         I had intended to make a batch of grape jelly from some of last season's grape juice, but it will have to wait a few days.

Stored: hmmmm.   formally, nothing. I did buy dry garbanzo beans that i intend to can. I love the convenience of canned beans, because I've never had good luck with soaking and cooking and not having crunchy beans, lol.    I've had to admit, however, that at least until we move, i've got more room to store things dried or frozen and canned. :-(    unless i clean out under the bed to make more room for jars, lol.

Prepped: bought 2 packages of regular canning lids, and one package of widemouth. I've been doing this once a week or so, whenever i stop at the store on my way home. had someone come in and look at our oven.   the circuit board went out about six months ago, and my preliminary research suggested it was going to cost between 200-300 to fix.   since the stovetop still worked, and we have a microwave and toaster oven, we decided to just do without for a while. he will return tomorrow or monday with the part and it will, indeed, cost almost $200 for the part and $80 for the service call. sigh.    but I will be able to bake bread again.

I don't feel like I get much accomplished in regard to these things. I'm hoping that keeping track this way will help me to remember that every little thing makes a difference.
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