And so it begins

 

The wait is over, I sowed my first seeds of the year.  It was so fun to play in the starter mix.  Getting it to soak up the water and getting muddy was refreshing to my winter weary soul.  On the top shelf, only part of the flat is planted.  There is dill, basil and 2 types of lettuce.  The bottom is filled with yellow and red onions.  

This year I am trying to keep meticulous notes on what I've done.  In years past I've kept more haphazard notes.  Last year I was so sick that I was happy to just get things planted.  Every year I think that I'll remember all the details, but my addled mind can hardly remember my name these days. 

Better than candy

 

Ok, so I've said before that I have a bit of a seed/gardening supply habit.  It has now passed onto the kids.  These things happen.  I should have known that if I used these things in front of my kids, that they would think it was ok and start experimenting themselves.  They've branched out into flowers more than I usually do though.  They want to attract the bee crowd and possibly set up a hive.  They keep begging every time we pass a seed display.  The other day they decided that it would be cool to look at all my garden porn.  I guess I didn't hide it well enough. 

Seriously though, do you see that electronic soil tester?  It gives readings for ph and organic matter.  How cool is that?  I had seen one before on another blog, and now I have my own!  I had to get some new gloves as well.  I'm hoping that the red color will stand out better, so that when I set them down, I can find them.  

I now have everything that I need to start my gardening year off.  We got the lights for my new seed starting shelves, soil, containers and seeds.  I'm sure that I'll be tempted into buying other things along the way, but for now, I'm good.  Off to start some onion seeds!

There's a change coming

I woke up this morning in a wonderful mood.  That mood got even better when I logged onto my Facebook account.  Apparently Oprah had Michael Pollan on her show yesterday.  I didn't watch it, but have read great things on her site.  There were so many people talking about it on Facebook.  They were linking to Oprah, saying they needed to make a change and talking about Food Inc.    I had to join in and link to local Farmer's Markets that are running in the winter. 

It makes me feel hopeful for some significant changes.  It would be even better if these same people would look into planting a few edibles in their yard this year.  I swear that gardening is like crack, you get hooked and you can't stop at just the tomato plant, you have to have more!  Well, maybe that's just me.  If this groundswell from Oprah's show gets a real toehold, there could be major change this year.

There have already been huge numbers of new gardeners.  Anybody who tried to order seeds last Spring, quickly found out that things were rapidly running out and many were unable to get the varieties that they wanted.  I just got my Fedco order and along with it was a letter in Fedco style.  It talked about the politics of farming, how they are continuing to see record sales and struggling to keep up with them.  The types of veggies are changing too.  It seems that more and more of us are looking to grow veggies that are good keepers over the winter.  This is important.  If more of us have fruits and veggies in the basement, there will be less demand for those summer fruits and veggies from our Southern neighbors.  We need to get people hooked on the taste of fresh from the garden foods.  How can you even look at a grocery store tomato, when a little patience brings you a garden tomato. 

There are so many delicious things that people have forgotten about.  Take our dinner tonight for an example.  We'll be having roasted veggies.  They all come from either our own garden or the farmer's market.  With sweet potatoes, carrots, beets and onions, the taste is amazing.  Why have a tasteless imported tomato, when I can have those gorgeous root veggies.  The flavors can't even compete.

Then there is the taste of real meat.  The chicken that we've been eating lately are from the local slaughterhouse.  They aren't those quick grow chickens.  These are dual purpose birds that were running around in someone's backyard.  The legs tend to be a bit tougher, since they actually use their legs, but the taste is incredible.  It actually tastes like chicken.  This is the same with all the meats that we've gotten from there or other local places.  You don't need to eat as much of this kind of meat, there is so much flavor, you don't need to. 

I'm amazed at how far our local eating journey has taken us.  We still have a long way to go, but its been amazing.  If more people become interested, it can only get better.

What I've Been Doing This Week

This is my kitchen.  It's not huge, but the space I had was not being used well.  It frequently looked like this.

That is the exact same corner.  With all the recycling, canning, baking, cooking and everything else I do, I needed more space to put my stuff.  It's amazing that with simplifying, you end up needing more space.  Odd, but in my case, true.  If I don't want to go to the store all the time, I need to have someplace to put all of the stuff needed to preserve and use all of our food.

I've always been a kitchen kind of person, so over the years I've acquired a good deal of kitchen stuff.  It all gets used and it all takes up space.  Before, I was storing a lot of this in my basement.  After I almost killed myself dragging things up and down the stairs, I decided it would be prudent to have it stored nicely up here.

The new shelving is Gorm from Ikea.  I was able to put it together by myself, but needed J to come over and bolt it to the wall.  The baking cart and other shelves have been around for a while and came from stuffmart.

I had originally planned to get rid of the shelves, but I think I may keep them.  The jury is still out.  The baking cart is staying.  J really wants it, but he can't have it!  It holds my Kitchen Aid and all my baking supplies.  I just wheel it over to the counter and do my thing.   You can see that my kitchen leads into my school room.  That is my main bookshelf for my school supplies.  The wall hanging was made by my very talented mother. 

So, that took me a bit, and will continue to take up quite a bit of my time.  It is however, functional now and I can actually cook dinner without a major breakdown.  Hubby will be very excited. 

Lights and More Seeds

Ah, yes, J comes through again.  He built me these fabulous shelves for my seed starting.  There are 3 levels each about 20x30.  The shelves stack, so that I can move them relatively easily.  They are each electrified separately as well.  I can't believe how much space I now have to start my babies!    For the past few years I've been using 2 elevated grow lights, each about 30 inches long.  You should have seen the tin foil contraptions I made to try to grow more seedlings under my very small light space.  These will now be my back ups.  If I run out of space here, those will be put into use.  Since I had J put 2 lights on each shelf, everything will get plenty of light.

As you can see they are in my school room.  This is wonderful for a few reasons.  It is right off my kitchen, which is where I do all my seed sowing.  It is also right off my deck, which is where I do all my hardening off.  The room is full of windows as well, so that should help to further supplement the light for the seedlings.  It is warmer than the basement by a good 10 degrees as well.  Finally there is a good amount of traffic here, so the movement should be good for toughening up those baby plants.  It is certainly not what one expects to see in a school room, but it works for me and that is all that matters.  My house will never make it into House Beautiful.  (is that still a magazine?) 

I also received my seed order from Pinetree, which is actually the bulk of my order this year.  I'm a little sad, because my Cascadia peas were out of stock.  Hopefully they'll be here before March, so that I can get them into the ground.  I may be scrambling for a replacement though.  The last order to arrive will be Fedco.   My onion seeds are in that one.  Those will be the first things to be sown, as soon as they get here.

I'm in the process of a major reorganization project in the house right now.   I'm trying to get that finished in the next week, so that I can concentrate on the spring projects later.  I'll post pictures of what I'm doing when it's finished.  My friend S and I had a lovely field trip to Ikea for the project.  She is a wonderful help with all things shopping and organizing.  For those of us who are shopping phobic, it's nice to have some help sometimes. 

The First Seeds Arrive

Baker Creek was quite speedy this year.  These wonderful seeds arrived on Saturday.  As usual, they sent along a free pack of seeds, this year it was Mizuna.  It was awfully thoughtful of them to realize that it would fit nicely in my garden this year!  Many of these seeds will go to friends.  Beans and spinach to K and J.  Cukes to K. 

You may notice that there is a very silly little girl trying to get in the picture above.  I thought she needed her own picture.

She can't wait to help Mom plant the garden this summer.  She is my best helper.  As soon as the onion seeds get here, we'll see those inside.  Dirt in the house.  Does it get any better?

Staying Home

I've always been a bit of a homebody.  Every few days or so, I get the urge to go and do something.  Overall, I'd rather stay home.  In the winter, there is not much that draws me out of the house.

All that squirreling away of food that I do over the course of the rest of the year, comes in mighty handy.  I used to go grocery shopping frequently.  It felt like the thing to do every few days.  Of course, with all that shopping, came lots of waste.  The packaging alone filled a huge barrel from the trash company to overflowing each week.  I bought all kinds of things that I meant to use, but forgot, or wasn't in the mood to eat them.  They got tossed with the packaging to rot. 

I've gotten a lot better at not wasting these days.  The grocery store is rarely darkened by my shadow.  Hubby picks up the odd item for me while he is out.  The remainder comes from bulk purchased ingredients, my garden, animals that were purchased from local farmers and stored in the freezer and a coop that a few homeschooling friends and I participate in.

It all adds up to help me not have to run out.  My car sits in the driveway, warming in the sun.  The kids and I stay in our pjs for much of the day.  The chickens are quite used to me in my bathrobe.  The neighbors are too, for that matter.  It's kind of nice being thought of as eccentric already, people don't question you being in your pjs at 3 in the afternoon, outside in the snow. 

I made bread yesterday that refused to rise and ended up a brick.  (my yeast was getting too old)  I woke up this morning thinking that I would just go and buy some bread.  Instead I pulled out the freshly ground flour and my kitchen aid and the kids helped me make some better bread.  It's currently rising on the counter.  That fresh brick of yeast I had in the freezer did the trick nicely.  No need to go out.  I can remain in my pjs a bit longer.  There's no place like home.