Garden update

Here's a tomato for Mommy! Now if I could only teach him to pick only the ripe ones...




A Charentais melon. How the heck do I know when this sucker is ripe? I can't wait!

Look at those beans go. The cucumbers are trying to take over the fence, too.

The vast cucumber sea... As you can see, I planted these too close together. It's making harvesting a bitch!

A volunteer pumpkin plant. Isn't that awesome? I think there will be one for each child! Thank you, universe.

I wanted to put more pictures on here, but Blogger isn't as generous as she used to be, so I'll have to post more later...

In other news, I stepped on a bumblebee a couple of days ago and my foot is huge and red and hot. So, I've been resting and eating lots of local organic watermelon (and other stuff, lest you think I'm monomealing). I have way too many cucumbers! If you need some, come on over... :)

And of course, the best news of the day is that my sweet little Salome is 6 years old today. Happy birthday, Sali-cakes.

My excuse for not blogging...I'm in the garden!

See the Scarlet Runner beans and Christmas limas on the fence behind me? Hopefully I'll spot a hummingbird sipping from the red flowers...

My landlord was kind enough to rototill these strips in a sunny location. Here's where my melons and tomatoes are planted.

I made an hugelkulture bed and planted potatoes in it. This was quite an endevour to build and I was lucky to get free soil from a neighbor.

This is the original garden plot. As you can see, there is a big tree shading it, and there is also a tree on the other side, not shown in this picture. Not enough sun for melons or tomatoes, but other things manage. I have a lot of different things interplanted, as well as weeds. If you were to blow this up, you could pick out lettuce, beets, peas, kale, and sunflowers. In the back, in front of and beside the bean fence, are dry beans, lots of cucumber hills, and more potatoes.

This is a cute picture of my baby's butt right next to a banana tree. This little table houses all of my new dwarf fruit trees. 3 bananas, a fig, a pomegranate, a pineapple (not a tree), and a quartet of citrus. They are doing great. More pictures and garden info coming soon!

Feast Days 3 & 4

Day 2, May 28

Movement: Cardio Salsa workout, Feldenkrais Lesson "Freeing the Hip Joint"

Food: Mangoes, Cherry-banana smoothie, romaine lettuce

Joy: I finally got the last of my melons planted! My baby is so happy to spend some time naked now that the weather is nice. Nothin' is cuter than a naked baby running about happy and free.

Day 3, May 29

Movement: Slim and Sleek Fast workout, walking

Food Nightmare!!! I tried so hard today. We only had 3 ripe mangos left, so I enjoyed those. I went to a different Farmer's Market, as I had a class to attend in a different town. No ripe strawberries yet. :( I went to the store after my class but could not get anything ripe, so the pile of "ripening" fruit in my kitchen has grown, but nothing to eat. I ate two pints of sour raspberries that were starting to mold on the way home. How can they look so pretty and be so sour?

I was really hungry and really annoyed by the time I got home. First I cut up a pineapple. Not ripe, too sour for me. I tried the papaya that was yellow as can be and starting to mold a bit. I knew by smell that it might need a couple more days, but I had to try. Unfortunately, some rot had gotten into the stem and invaded the seed cavity. I tried to salvage some undamaged fruit, but it was, of course, unripe. Then I tried the last watermelon. No good. Over-ripe, slimy, verging on fermented... I had one bunch of bananas that had sugar spots, but they looked a bit hard and green still. I tried. As I suspected, not ripe. With no options left, I blended 5 of them with some frozen sweet cherries. I also had some delicious baby bok choy from my garden, and some Freckles lettuce from the Farmer's Market. This tided me over for a little while, but not surprisingly, by dinner time, I was eating cooked lentils and brown rice and veggies because I was hungry and frustrated. Hey Universe, I need at least 3000 calories of good quality fruit per day!

I really start feeling despair when I spend so much of our limited resources on fruit that ends up in the compost. I have to predict how much to buy when my children's eating habits can be unpredictable. Some times I have too many ripe bananas, other times we run out. I have to order my bulk produce sight unseen, and pray that it is good quality and will be ripe in a reasonable amount of time... about half the time something goes wrong in this equation. And the worst is when I have to take a risk on buying unripe fruit, like pineapples, papayas and mangoes, and hope they will ripen before they rot. Or when I have to buy fruits, like melons, that might look fine on the outside but are horrible inside. Ack!

\

Well, chalk it up to a learning curve that I am going to master. (But I am afraid the real solution here is to move to a farm in a semi-tropical location, or become moderately wealthy and increase my produce budget by 300%.)

In other complaining news, I stepped on a bee today and was in horrible pain for about 2 hours afterward. And so, no gardening.

Self-Love: I love that I am a work in progress. I love that I am beginning to have clarity about some of my stumbling blocks in my raw journey, so that I can start to attract solutions.

Joy: Got to reconnect with some good friends at the Farmer's Market today. And I got to see Trudi Temple speak. She is a fabulous, funny, inspirational firecracker of a person.

40 Day Feast

Connie at Naked Food Cafe has inspired me to a 40 day feast of self-care. Just what I need right now. Here are my 40 day goals.

1) I will love myself deeply and sweetly no matter what.

2) I will eat the foods that my body was designed to digest and use for fuel.

3) I will continue to move my body joyfully for at least 45 minutes per day.

4) I will continue to focus on my healing work, and I will celebrate each tiny bit of progress and accept that it may take time.

5) I will take time to express gratitude and love often.

I really want to blog more, but I often feel that I have so much going on, and my emotions are so up and down, I don't know what to share. Here's an update on the last month or so:

My eating has been up and down dramatically, but fruit is my main source of calories. My exercise is consistent. (Walking, rebounding, cardio videos, jumproping, dancing!) My garden is ambitious and I am nervous but excited about it. I planted 7 varieties of melons this week and have more to plant. My snow peas, sugar snaps and potatoes are 2 inches high and baby lettuces, beets, beans, and carrots are poking out everywhere. So far I am keeping my potted baby fruit trees and my tomato seedlings alive. Fingers crossed.

I want to share that I have been turned on to the amazing benefits of Feldenkrais and have been really enjoying doing some of the free lessons found here. It is changing my life!

I am so grateful for the sunshine, and for my beautiful family, and for the fresh local organic strawberries I have been enjoying this week.

I will try to post my progress regularly on this feast.

In local news...

Our town got hit with quite a storm on Monday. It made CNN, I was told (though I didn't see it). Some shingles blew off our roof and we lost 4 large trees, but none of them hit anything. Luckily, we're renters and not responsible for the repairs or cleanup. If you follow this link, you can see some pictures. The church that had the wall blow down is a block away! Funny enough, all of my children totally slept through the storm. The damaging winds rattled our whole house fiercely for about five minutes and then it was very calm.

In other news, I have taken up knitting. I have joined a group class with my sister-in-law and her mom and sister. I am really pleased at how relaxed I am and how quickly I am picking it up. This has not been my experience before with handicrafts. LOL! I think I am growing in self-confidence.

Another area where I am picking up steam is my exercise. Speed, endurance, core strength, yay! I actually look forward to sweating. A big motivator for me is that I want to be in "fighting shape" for gardening season this year. I plan to do a separate post soon about my garden projects.

Happy Spring everyone!

Settling in and enjoying Spring

This blog is going to be sporadic at best from now on. We don't have internet service at home, and I am focusing on family time and working in the gardens (both the big market garden and the community garden). Believe it or not, I'm also starting to go to bed and get up early. I'll let you know when I get healthy, wealthy and wise. LOL!

Anyway, we are still settling in to our new home. It had sat unused for many years, and we are close to a major highway, so there is a LOT of dust. Today, we have started hanging pictures and arranging things so that it almost looks like a real home.

Spring has been alternating between frigid, windy, rainy days and lovely warm sunny days. We have been enjoying all of the nature around us. Every morning the kids and I take a little walk around. There are calves and kittens, and a robin sitting on 3 bright blue eggs in the little pear tree behind our house.

So far, I have participated in planting onions (plants and sets), fava beans, potatoes, parsnips, and peas. Well, there's at least one thing I eat in there (guess which one.).

Believe it or not, Farmer's Market starts in 2 weeks!

Happy Spring everyone.

I LOVE garden club. I love spending time with interesting people more than twice my age. Seriously... I wish I could recount all of the fascinating and unusual stories and funny jokes I heard tonight. I stayed late with a couple of interesting octagenarians and we talked about everything from what it was like to be a repo man fifty years ago, to why the phone company sucks, to a 92 year-old movie shot by Thomas Edison, to the Renaissance, to San Padre Island and the cheerleaders one can meet there. Gus Petrakis told me that he was in love with me and offered me some uzo. A girl could get used to that. I better be careful, he's got a book called Windows XP for Dummies on his coffee table and may find my mention of his name on Google. (Hi, Gus.)

Anyway, it's past my bedtime. (No, I didn't have any uzo.)

A note about my food record... I am sorry I've been lax about this. I doing well for weeks now eating about 90-5-5. I am eating a lot of bananas and local melons, as well as lettuce. My friend brought me an order of peaches and blueberries from Michigan. The rest of my diet is stuff out of my garden--cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, and tomatillos.

I need to consistently eat more calories. Work is wreaking havoc on my eating schedule. I have to eat way earlier than I want to or wait until 11:30, when I'd be starving. I want to get in some outdoor walking during my lunch break, but I only have 30 minutes to both walk and eat, so it's a bit hairy. I feel lousy if I don't get some exercise, fresh air and sunshine, though. Then I feel ravenous after school and start eating and don't quit until after dinner. So I'm eating too many kinds of foods together in the evening.

I'm sure I'll get into a more comfortable routine soon.

Rainy weekend

Work has started and life is busy. Today, it was raining, so I worked on washing and slicing tomatoes for dehydrating. We've got a lot of tomatoes. I don't know how the rest will do with all of this rain. We've been getting so much rain that the beans are molding on the vine. I have some pinto beans ready to pick, but no customer, so I'm not in a hurry to pick them. It rained off and on all day anyway.

I am reading a fantastic book called "How Children Learn" by John Holt. I recommend it to everyone who will ever interact with a child. Actually, it is giving me some insights into some of my own feelings about learning--for example, why I feel confident and able when approaching certain learning tasks, but incompetent and fearful approaching others. I am really, REALLY looking forward to releasing my children from school next year and feel anxious and impatient about this year. We are struggling financially and I want it to stop. But, I seem to be resisting the jobs that will pay the bills, too. LOL!

I checked my body fat percentage today and it is still hovering about 25%. I really need to get busy on the exercise. I'd feel better, too. So, I'm headed down to do a step aerobics video and maybe a little strength training.

Today's Eating

10 a.m. About 12 C. local watermelon
12 p.m. 9 Calimyrna figs (a gift from a friend)
2 p.m. 6 more cups of watermelon
6 p.m. Organic baby romaine and spinach with tomatoes and Armenian Snake Cucumbers from my garden

Approx. 1500 cal., C-P-F 89-7-4

Too tired to write another Saga

Yummy veggies in the Community Garden

Sorry everyone, the second installment of my Chicago saga will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm wiped out!

I had a full day of errands, dumpster diving (pineapples and cantaloupes--woohooooo!), harvesting in the Community Garden (the girls helped me pick beans and cut chard), and working in my own garden. Whew. And tomorrow promises to be more of the same.

I can't tell you how excited I am now that I have beans and tomatoes to pick. I am growing some wonderful unusual beans--Dragon Langerie and Yellow French Filet are the two that I've started picking so far. Others will be ready later.

Today's Raw Food


10:30 a.m. Smoothie with 6 bananas
2:30 p.m. 2 cups pineapple, 2 cups grapes
3:30-5 p.m. Snacking while harvesting--some beans, some shell peas and sugar snaps, a few tomatoes
6:30 A salad with romaine lettuce, fresh cucumber and yellow zucchini from my garden, and a dressing made from blended red pepper, grape tomatoes, celery, and sunflower seeds (I didn't really like it)
10 p.m. A medium cantaloupe

1470 calories, C-P-F 81-7-11

I am getting in a bad habit of not eating enough fruit calories (for my activity level) early in the day, and then feeling hunger right before bed. Normally, I will just go to bed hungry. But tonight, when I had fleeting thoughts of Oreos and potpies, I decided to just eat, darn it. I never even liked Oreos. LOL!

Exercise


30 minutes low-impact aerobics
30 minutes upper body strength training

Plant a Row

Plant a Row for the Hungry is a program that encourages gardeners to help fight hunger in their own communities. Our Farmer's Market vendors are proud participants in the Plant a Row program. This week alone, our vendors donated 75 pounds of fresh vegetables to our local food pantry. The demand for these items is enormous, as the clients would only get nonperishable canned and boxed items otherwise.

Think it's too late to plant? You can often find seedlings at your local nurseries, grocery and big box stores at a deep discount during early July. I personally planted 8 pepper plants today. Depending on your climate and growing season, you still have plenty of time to plant short season crops such as snap beans. And of course, there are crops to plant that like cool weather, such as lettuce. Depending on your season, you can plant these as late as August or September.

Today's Food--finally back on track! I actually experienced TRUE HUNGER today (I think?)

11 a.m. Smoothie with 5 bananas and 2 cups curly endive
3 p.m. 1/2 large cucumber, 3 Romas, 1/2 cup Chinese cabbage sprouts, juice of 1 lime
5 p.m. A handful of sugar snap peas in the garden
7:15 p.m A large salad with romaine, Chinese cabbage sprouts, and Romas, a dressing made from 1/4 avocado and a bit of lime juice, smoothie with 4 bananas and mint, a couple tablespoons of raisins as garnish

About 1370 calories, C-P-F 85-7-8

Today's exercise

30 minute Body by Victoria video, aerobics and circuit training with weights

What happened to Friday?

One of the residents of PIGS, a Santuary

I had a busy day yesterday! I took the kids out to the garden in the morning. We saw our farmer friends' 2 new piggies. They're so cute. "Are they going to kill them, Mama?" asked my oldest daughter. She's such a sensitive sweetie.

They tried picking mulberries, but didn't get much. We found a warren of baby rabbits that drowned in the 2 inches of rain we got the other day. The kids were interested to see them and talk about death. They weren't upset, but they did think the maggots and ants eating them were kinda gross.

Then they went and swung on the tire swing.

On the way home, we did a dumpster run. We got a lot of good stuff, but 28 avocados! I was smart enough to give a bunch away. Still, I ended up eating 5 by the end of the day.

I brought the kids home and headed back to the garden to work off some debt to my farmer friend, Phil. At the beginning of the summer, he bought most of my seedlings (with his discount) and sold me his old seeder. I have owed him about $50 forever.

Phil and I weeded side-by-side for about 5 hours, so we had a fun time talking. He's 79 and has had an interesting life. He has been pestering me to "help him" lose 12 pounds--he's not overweight but he does have a spare tire he wants to lose. He has decided to give up sugary drinks like lemonade and sugared juices that his wife makes from plums and other fruit. Talking about food got him telling stories about his travels in the Navy during the Korean War. He was a meteorologist, so he had lots of free time to explore when the ship was docked. He told about the little pizza place with red checkered tablecloths in Hong Kong, and a fancy restaurant on a ship where you could pick your live shrimp out of baskets hung over the side in the ocean water. He said the best meal of his life was in a little hamlet in Hawaii where he got a big lobster dinner and lots of drinks for $2.

I worked hard in the garden until sundown and didn't get home until almost 10 p.m. I should have gone to bed, but instead, I started eating guacamole. Naughty me.

My food

10:30 a.m. 5 bananas, 3 cups romaine
1 p.m. 3 cups romaine, 1 avocado, a dressing made with avocado, grape tomatoes, orange pepper, celery, and a tiny bit of onion, more celery for dipping
6 p.m. 1/2 cup raspberries
9 p.m. About 2 cups sugar snap peas
10 p.m. 3 mashed avocados, lime juice, and a little onion powder with 3 large stalks of celery to dip

* A note: My 2 year-old dumped the last of our expensive unheated Utah red salt. So, we're off the salt (for good?!?).

2260 calories, C-P-F 44-6-50 (Yikes!)

Exercise

1 plank, 1 set of tricep dips, 2 pushups

July Food Expenses

Photo from the Greensboro News-Record

This month's goals are to reduce our spending on groceries and gasoline. We plan to take fewer trips to the grocery store and to limit 90% of our grocery spending to local foods and bananas.


Grocery Receipts

7/1 Cub Foods, $5.52, 6 gallons reverse osmosis water, 1 12 oz. package cherries
7/2 Freeport Food Co-op (United Foods International), $63.99, 5 lbs. organic raw hulled sunflower seeds, 8 lbs. organic Medjool dates, 2 10 oz. bags organic frozen cherries, 4 rolls recycled toilet paper
7/3 Chana Outdoor Auction, $13, 2 huge watermelons and 1 large muskmelon
7/5 Aldi $6.06, 10 lbs. bananas, 2 lbs romaine hearts
7/6 Cub Foods, $6.42, 9 gallons reverse osmosis water, 1 1/2 lbs. Fuji apples, 1 bunch organic celery
7/6 320 Store (purchased by a friend), $5, Mission figs
7/6 Farmer's Market, $10.75, tomatoes, eggs (for the cat), Crispy Mint lettuce, cucumbers
7/7 Cub Foods, $3.52, 12 oz. frozen cherries
7/10 Cub Foods, $3, 9 gallons water
7/10 Aldi, $4.47, 5 lbs. bananas, 3 lbs. oranges
7/12 local chicken for the cat, $5
7/13 Woodman's Market, $71.08, 4 mangoes, 14 lbs. organic bananas, 6 lbs. organic apples, 3 12 oz. packages organic dates, 4 organic kiwis, 2 large honeydew melons, 3 seedless watermelon, 2 lbs. sunflower seeds, 2 lbs. raw cashews
7/13 Walgreens, $3, raisins
7/14 Cub Foods, $3, 6 gallons reverse osmosis water, 3 oz. cinnamon
7/14 Freeport Farmer's Market, $9, iceberg lettuce, raspberries, blackberries, tomatoes
7/16 Aldi, $23.93, 10 nectarines, 20 lbs. bananas, 9 lbs. Gala apples, 1 large pineapple, 1 cantaloupe
7/16 Sav-A-Lot,$9.48, 1 seedless watermelon, almost 1 lb. plums, almost 3 lbs. of ripe bananas, 3.5 lbs. peaches
7/16 Cub Foods, $30.75, 2 large seeded watermelon, 8 lbs. bing cherries, 1 cantaloupe, 1 honeydew, 2 bunches organic celery
7/16 Cub Foods (my husband), $8.97, 3 12 oz. bags frozen mango
7/18 Cub Foods, $5.56, 6 gallons reverse osmosis water, 3 lbs. Fuji apples
7/19 Devon Market, $22.17, 8 ears corn, 4 ripe mangos, 2 packages dried figs, 1 package fresh green figs, 1 package fresh Black Mission figs, 1 head baby bok choy, 1 young coconut, 1 large container Deglet Noor Dates
7/19 Pars Persian Store, $11.65, 2 lbs. Medjool dates, 1 package halvah (gift), 1 can Iraqi date syrup (gift)
7/19 Cousin's Incredible Vitality (raw restaurant), $73.38, 5 All-You-Can Eat "Salad" Bars, 1 flax pizza, 2 different smoothies (both with raw cacao), gratuity
7/19 Whole Foods, $3.27, fresh lychee
7/20 Whole Foods, $30.60, 6 Lara Bars, 2 Raw Revolution bars, 3 lbs. fresh lychee, 1 lb. Southern Rose apples
7/23 Huron Market (roadside stand), bicolor sweet corn, $4--seller claimed it was locally-grown, but others have raised doubts
7/23 Cub Foods, $3, 9 gallons reverse osmosis water
7/24 Aldi, $2.55, 5 lbs. bananas, 1 honeydew melon
7/25 CVS Pharmacy, $10.06, Roasted cashews, Honey-Roasted Peanuts, 2 Dove bars with Almonds (my husband was on a cheating spree--we ended giving the nuts away, but he ate the chocolate)
7/26 My farmer friend Phil, $5, 5 lbs. raw peanuts bought from a local feed elevator
7/27 Cub Foods, $13.36, 5 lbs. organic bananas, large Crenshaw melon, 6 oz. organic raisins, 2 organic nectarines
7/27 Roadside stand, $12, 13 ears corn, a quart of nectarines, a large muskmelon
7/28 Farmer's Market, $10, 24 ears corn, 2 lbs. sugar snap peas (purchased by my son with his own money)
7/28 Cub Foods, $2, 6 gallons reverse osmosis water
7/29 Sullivan's, $14.12, 4 muskmelons, 2 seedless watermelon (melons grown in Indiana)
7/31 Aldi Foods, $10.92, 6 lbs. Gala apples, 2 honeydew melons, 4 nectarines

Total: $432.75

Free Food

7/1 Aldi dumpster, 1 pineapple, 4 D 'Anjou pears, 1 orange pepper, 1 unripe mango, 5 limes, approx. $7.23, other food not counted because it was given away
7/2 Red and black raspberries from a friend's house, approx. $12
7/3 Black raspberries from the roadside, approx. $2
7/5 Red and black raspberries and mulberries from friends' houses, approx. $6
7/5 Gift of dumpstered food from a friend, 2 heads iceberg and 6 Roma tomatos, approx. $4
7/5 Aldi dumpster, 16 limes, 6 lbs. strawberries, approx. $12
7/6 Aldi dumpster, 4 D 'Anjou pears, 5 heads iceberg lettuce, 4 zucchini, 2 pints grape tomatoes, 16 avocadoes (got 27, but wisely gave some away), 8 lbs. Roma tomatoes, 8 lbs. oranges, 1 lime, approx. $46.62, other food not counted because it was given away
7/6 Gift of apricots, $5
7/7 Aldi dumpster, 50 lbs. very ripe bananas, approx. $16.50
7/7 Gifts of raspberries, sugar snap and shell peas, approx. $5
7/8 Gift of raspberries, approx. $2
7/9 Gift of dumpstered romaine lettuce, approx. $9.52
7/10 Aldi dumpster, 50 lbs. ripe bananas, 5 cantaloupes, 3 lbs. Granny Smith apples, 2 lbs. Red Delicious apples, 2 lbs. strawberries, approx. $35.61
7/11 Aldi dumpster, 3 lbs. Vidalia onions, 2 cantaloupe, $6.50, plus more given away
7/11 Gift of raspberries, $2
7/12 Aldi dumpster, 10 lbs. red grapes, $13.45
7/12 Mother-in-law's garden, cucumbers and sugar snap peas, $10
7/16 Mother-in-law's garden, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, $10
7/16 Aldi dumpster, 3 colored peppers, 1 lime, $3
7/16 Community garden, iceberg lettuce, basil, $3
7/20 Gift of dumpstered food, 6 bags prewashed salad greens, 2 cantaloupes, $14.38
7/20 Aldi dumpster, 3 colored peppers, $1.99, other food given away
7/22 Mother-in-law's garden, 4 large cucumbers, $1.56
7/22 Gift of apples, White transparent and red/green unknown variety, maybe 50 lbs.?, $75.00
7/23 Gift of cantaloupe, $1.19
7/24 Aldi dumpster, 6 pineapples, 6 lbs. green grapes, 8 cantaloupes, 5 packages celery, 5 colored peppers, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 8 heads iceberg lettuce, $48.21
7/26 Aldi dumpster, 4 D'Anjou pears, 2 quarts strawberries, 2 lbs. green grapes, $9.67
7/27 Aldi dumpster, 20 lbs. overripe bananas, 8 colored peppers, $12.12
7/27 Foraging, blackberries and chokecherries, $5
7/30 Aldi dumpster, 2 heads iceberg lettuce, 3 limes, $3
7/31 Aldi dumpster, 40 lbs. bananas, $14

Total: $361.55

Garden Produce (Charging ourselves value we would get at Farmer's Market)

7/3 Endive $0.50
7/4 Endive $1
7/7 Kale, snow peas $4
7/8 Endive, snow peas $3
7/9 Endive, snow peas, sugar snap peas, mint $5
7/10 Endive, purple pepper, snow peas, sugar snap peas, mint $4
7/11 Kale, snow peas, sugar snap peas, mint $3
7/12 Endive, snow peas, sugar snap peas, lettuce, mint $3
7/13 Purple peppers, sugar snap peas, shell peas, mint $3
7/16 Endive, purple peppers, $1
7/20 Snow peas, shell peas, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, $12
7/21 Snow peas, shell peas, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, yellow french filet beans, $15
7/23 Sugar snap peas, snap beans (various types), yellow zucchini, $12
7/24 Shell peas, tomatoes, snap beans (various types, given away as a gift), cucumber, $16
7/26 Sugar snap peas, yellow french filet beans, Dragon Langerie beans, green beans, tomatoes, 1 purple pepper $12
7/27 Sugar snap peas, yellow french filet beans, 1 yellow summer squash, 1 zucchini, 1 overly large cucumber, a few cherry tomatoes, $6
7/28 Sugar snap peas, $6
7/29 Sugar snap peas, purple pepper, green beans, summer squash, $6
7/31 Endive, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, yellow french filet beans, Dragon Langerie beans, summer squash, $12
Total: $115.50

Garden Expenses

7/16 Evergreen Y.H. Enterprises, various Oriental vegetable seeds for fall planting, $14.90
7/31 Fall plants--broccoli, cauliflower, bartered for work in Phil's garden
Total: $14.90

Farmer's Market Income

7/6 $5.00
7/9 $7.50 (sold to a local bakery)
7/14 $8.00
7/21 $6.00
7/28 $10.00
7/31 $7.50 (sold to a local bakery)

Total: $36.50

Voting with my grocery dollars

Some of you may not be aware that I have been painstakingly recording our monthly grocery intake and dollar out-go every day in a post entitled June Food Expenses. Those of you who love to see what I get out of the dumpster and my garden will be really interested in that post.

Since today is the last day of June, I'd like to summarize our purchasing (and foraging) habits and reflect on how they impact our health and the health of our planet.

Total Grocery Receipts: $645.77

Estimated value of Free Food We Obtained This Month: $575.67

Estimated Value of Food We Grew This Month: $57.00

Total Consumption For a Family of 5 plus 1 Cat on a Raw Diet: $1278.44

This works out to $42.61 per day.

At first glance, this seems like an overwhelming number, but there are some mitigating factors to consider.

First, we spent a grand total of $135.81 on cat food for Bart, who we are transitioning to a raw diet. Much of this food is still in the freezer and though we will have continued expenses in future months, this amount will greatly decrease in upcoming months. Subtracting this amount from our total grocery receipts would make our total out-of-pocket expenditures for our 5 humans a total $509.96, much less than we spent before we discovered the amazing combo of raw food AND dumpster diving, when our average was more like $850.

Second, we spent $16.01 on non-raw food. This expense won't continue.

Third, this amount includes paying $0.33 per gallon for the water we drink. In June, we purchased 45 gallons of water. This may not be a concern for families who have water purification systems (or access to a clean spring). Our family spent only $470.10 on raw human food this month.

Finally, we have a large quantity of food remaining in the fridge and the freezer. This "inventory" is always in flux at our house and after months of tracking our expenses, it will balance out and we will be able to see our patterns of consumption more clearly.

$470.10 is NOT too much to invest in optimal health. For that matter, neither is $1278.44, if you have that kind of money to spend. (Check your budget. How much is spent on medications and out-of-pocket health bills? How much do you spend eating out, drinking alchohol or pop, and consuming processed junk foods? How much of your budget is spent on entertainment or luxury items? Are you sure you can't afford some fruit? :)

How do our spending habits affect the health of the planet? This question is so important to me, as I want my children and their children, and all children for that matter, to have the benefit of living in a clean, healthy, beautiful place.

One issue I am particularly interested in is consuming a high percentage of my food from local sources. Buying locally supports my local economy. It means that my food is fresher, healthier, and requires many less resources to deliver to my plate. I can meet (or be) the person who grew the food and have some influence on their practices. This month, $274 of local foods were consumed in my household. This equates to 21% of our total food consumption. However, if each dollar is a "vote" then the picture changes. Because of my gardening and foraging practices, many of our local foods were not "purchases." (Of course, by dumpster diving, much of our non-local consumption was also not purchased.) This means we only spent $35 purchasing food from local producers. This equates to 8% of our actual dollars spent on food.

Another issue is our support of organic (or better) agriculture. Conventional agriculture is doing so much damage to our ecosystem and our bodies, I feel exhausted just thinking about explaining it. In The 80-10-10 Diet, Dr. Graham says that choosing between cooked organic food and raw non-organic food is like "choosing whether to shoot oneself in the foot or shoot oneself in the hand." Unfortunately, though much of the produce we purchase locally is not sprayed with pesticides, much of it is not organic either. Many of the local producers use commercial fertilizer and/or use non-organic seed or seedlings (I do this one myself). Our source of local free-range eggs does feed some commercial chicken food to her chickens.

In our area, organic produce is difficult to find. Certain items are never available--watermelon, for example, or are available for short periods of time (grapes). The cost is quite high, usually at least twice that of conventional produce, and the quality is sometimes poorer. I believe that we will continue to improve our supply only if we demand it and build it. I plan to document my family's moves in this direction in the coming months! This month, we consumed $119.75 in organics, but only $42.78 in actual expenditures (or dollar votes, as I like to call them).

Finally, if you visited the June Food Expenses post, you will note that we went to the store virtually every day this month. This is RIDICULOUS. Sometimes, we went because we were going to our garden and it was on the way, but many times, we were making trips specifically to go to the store. Several days, we actually went to the store more than once. Surely, better planning next month will result in less pollution coming from our tailpipe and less money leaking from our wallet.

Next month, we plan to trim our expenditures by only purchasing bananas, cat food, and water at the grocery store. We will purchase everything else at the Farmer's Market, harvest it from our garden, or get it out of the dumpster.

Gooseberries

Picture found on Wikipedia.com

I went to bed at a proper hour last night, so I didn't get a chance to blog about my day. Imagine that. So here's what happened yesterday.

The weather was nice and cool so my husband worked a bit longer at his painting job than he normally does. This gave me a chance to work on some housework, something I haven't done in ages, it seems. My husband has been taking care of things quite nicely while I've been gardening, but it was nice to scrub the kitchen and hang out some laundry myself.

When he returned, I headed to a friend's house with the girls to pick more raspberries. Mmmmm. Not many came home. My friend is one of my dumpster diving converts and so she also shared some of her dumpster finds with me--peppers, tomatoes, red grapes, and more.

My son has been suffering from some cleansing symptoms, so he rested on the couch all day and read books and slept. My daughter had a similar bout last week, so we all know it will pass. :) For some reason, he became obsessed with wanting to know how big the longest shrimp in the world is--maybe this was inspired by the full-color flier for Long John Silver's I found under his pillow? Anyway, you might like to know that the largest variety of shrimp in the world is the Black Tiger shrimp, which averages 21 centimeters in length, but a fisherman in Colombia caught one that was 40 centimeters long! Check it out here http://www.local6.com/problemsolvers/8755909/detail.html

I headed to my garden in the afternoon and did more weeding and replanted some okra where I didn't get good germination. My garden looks better every day and it is especially nice to have the cool weather to work in this week.

On my way home, I checked out a wild place near my friend's house to see if I could find any ripe berries. I tried some ripe gooseberries for the first time! I can see why they're mainly used in pies. Not bad but bland and somewhat tart at the same time and with a sort of strange consistency. Not something I'd go out of my way to pick again.

Yesterday's Food

12 p.m. About 3 cups black and red raspberries

2 p.m. 5 medium bananas

5 p.m. A few gooseberries, black raspberries, and mulberries

5:30 p.m. Salad with iceberg and endive, half an avocado, and a salsa made with grape tomatoes, zucchini, onion, cilantro, lime juice and a few sprinkles of spices and salt

8 p.m. Another salad with purslane and green leaf lettuce and more salsa

Approx. 1500 calories, C-P-F 80-8-12

No formal exercise.

Thunderstorms are beautiful.

Photo by Hayes Cummins

It is amazing how a different a thunderstorm looks when you're out in open space (as opposed to a city). You can see it approaching in all its glory. Wish I had my camera with me!

This morning, I planted some more beans in our home garden with the kids. The two year-old had a great time mixing all the seeds together, dumping them in her dress and on the ground and then picking them up and sorting them.

Then I went and picked up a lady I've gotten to know through the Farmer's Market so she could come help in my garden. She is an interesting character and was up for a little adventure. We got some Turk's Turban gourds and cucumbers planted, and a bit of weeding done as the storm approached and managed to get in before we got wet. Of course, I ruined my dry clothing by insisting on doing a dumpster run on the way home. Figured in the rain, less chance of getting caught. Made off with tons of oranges and green grapes, which I shared with my friend. She was happy, especially since she didn't have to get out of the car herself. She had fun stomping in puddles on her way into the house, though. "Just because I'm getting old doesn't mean I have to grow up," she told me.

Today's Food

10 a.m. 1 1/2 cups sweet cherries (rushing)

12 p.m. 1 1/2 cups sweet cherries--not that hungry, just eating because others were

2:30 p.m. (after my workout, I WAS hungry), 4 bananas and 3 stalks of celery blended over 3 cups iceberg lettuce

5:30 p.m. 4 cups mixed lettuce, mostly iceberg, with a blended dressing made of avocado, oranges, and celery*, about 1/2 C. sliced zucchini

*For some reason, I thought avocado was an o.k. combination with citrus. Not so, I found out when I examined my chart. One of several less-than-optimal choices today.

Such as:

8:30 p.m. 2 frozen bananas, 1 C. frozen mango, blended

Approx. 1200 calories

Today's Workout: 45 minute Jane Fonda's Step Aerobics, an oldie but a goodie, that oddly, is NOT led by Jane Fonda (unless you do the final 10 minutes of situps, which I always skip).

Let me put a bug in your ear...

Photo by Silvano Cervelli

http://cerbug.interfree.it/index.html

Working in an organic garden gives me new appreciation of insects. Every day, I see hundreds of different varieties of beetles, ants, worms, butterflies, moths, flies, mites, and grubs. I have no idea, for the most part, which insects are "beneficial" and which are going to munch my vegetables. But I appreciate the intricate web of life and enjoy all of the sizes, shapes, and colors of these little beings.

Today, I got some weeding done and planted yellow and white patty-pan squash, more green beans, and cucumbers.

I also made off with an impressive haul from Aldi. Sixteen beautiful just-ripe avocados (not even a bruise on them!) were the prize of the day.

I followed through with my commitment to get more exercise and did Kathy Smith's Functionally Fit Peak Fat Burning video--40 minutes of high intensity intervals mixed with squats and other strength training moves. Whew!

Today's Food

9:30 a.m. About 12 cups of watermelon
12 p.m. About 8 cups of watermelon
4 p.m. 5 small bananas, about 1/4 C. of mulberries off the tree
7 p.m. Lots of red and green leaf lettuce and iceberg dressed with 1 whole avocado mixed with the juice of 2 oranges

About 2,000 calories

Is Greenmama Crazy?

Yes, folks, that's exactly what you think it is... jars of urine in my lovely leaded glass window. Following Jgunn's advice, I have started sprinkling my urine around my garden in an attempt to discourage the groundhogs and the rabbits who are wreaking havoc on all of my tender greens. Is it working? Well, if it's working on some of the critters, I don't know. But it's not working on all of them. Maybe my raw vegan pee isn't stinky enough to scare them. Or maybe I just don't have all right places "watered"--it is a pretty big garden! Pretty soon, I'm going to have to start camping out there! (By the way, before I get any more tips, I have already tried moth balls, Irish Spring soap, and other deterrents. Next year, I plan to invest in a fence.)

Yesterday, I did rest and fast as planned, although I chose to break my fast in the evening and eat a bit. I slept in until 12:30 in the afternoon! I haven't done that (except when very ill) since I've had children. I am feeling better.

Today, I spent a solid 6 hours weeding my corn. I wish I could say I was finished. I also had a fun time picking red and black raspberries with my daughters and planting beans with my son.

This weekend, my husband and I discovered that our son had been convincing neighbor children to give him junk food and he had a major stash hidden in his room. After talking with him, we decided to institute a reward system. If he is able to go one week without eating junk food, he will get a Transformer. He is very excited. I am not sure this is the right way to go, but it seems more productive than our earlier attempts, which included long talks and grounding him when he broke the rules. He understands why we eat the way we do and he agrees with it, but he is just simply compulsively drawn (one might say, addicted) to white flour and sugar.

Today's Food

10 a.m. 4 cups iceberg lettuce, 4 blended bananas over the top
12 p.m. 3 cups red and black raspberries, while picking
5:30 p.m. Some purslane while weeding in the garden, 1 Greek fig (a present)
7 p.m. 4 cups iceberg lettuce, 1 cup raspberries, 8 bananas (4 blended for salad dressing, 4 blended for "ice cream")

Approx. 1700 calories

*I have not lost any weight since June 5th, people. I need to get back on the exercise wagon ASAP!

Too tired to write much!

I'm not kidding--tuck in your shirt!

I spent another day on the go. Various errands and business for the community garden and lots of weeding in my personal garden. I have the intention of gradually moving my bedtime back to a reasonable 10 p.m. no matter what it takes! I'm already an hour late, so short and sweet it is...

Today's Food

10 a.m. 12 C. watermelon
2 p.m. Smoothie with 3 frozen bananas (slightly thawed), 2/3 C. blackberries, and about 2 C. of Four Seasons lettuce
3 p.m. About 1 C. of lamb's quarter while weeding in the garden
7 p.m. 12 C. watermelon
8 p.m. Salad with bibb lettuce and Four Seasons lettuce, dressed with the juice of one lemon and a little bit of dried dill weed

About 1600 calories

Tuck in your shirt

Photo Courtesy of http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info

Last night's excellent rainstorm cooled the weather for us and made the weeds easy to pull, even the gigantic lamb's quarters with huge root structures (see photo above). My farmer friend Phil and I tackled weeds together all day in my garden. We also had fun picking and sampling various varieties of peas he planted. He has sugar snaps, shell peas, snow peas, including a unique yellow snow pea. My favorite sample--the new Eclipse super-sweet shell pea. Wow--super-sweet is right!

The coolness of the day did not negate the affects of the bright sun. Unfortunately, I did not realize until too late that there was a significant gap between my waistband and my shirt when I bent over the rows. I have an extremely painful red strip of skin there. Oops. I don't think that part of my body has ever seen the sun before.

Today's Food

9 a.m. About 12 cups watermelon

2 p.m. About 4 cups of juicy sweet mulberries as big as blackberries right off the tree. Wow!

3-5 p.m. Snacking on random peas

7 p.m. Ice cream made with 3 frozen bananas and a 12 oz. bag of frozen mango

Approx. 1600 calories

Gardening Woes

Picture courtesy of www.nysaes.cornell.edu

Ever have one of those days?

The weather is gorgeous, if you aren't trying to keep a garden alive. Sunny and no rain in sight for almost a week. I had spoken with Linda, a garden volunteer last night, and we agreed to take a turn watering the garden. Many of the annuals we planted on June 5th are looking sickly from heat and lack of moisture (although they have been watered several times, it's just not enough).

We meant to get there by 10 a.m., but it was almost 11 when we did... for no reason than it just takes time to get organized and going. We had a lovely time watering together for an hour and a half. And I got a sunburn because I was not dressed right. I knew I wasn't, but we were going to be there earlier, and not that long (I thought).

Then, I meant to spend some time at home with the family and after the midday sun cooled down a bit, to head over to my garden outside of town. The main thing I wanted to accomplish there was to put up my pea fence!

Fast forward to 6:30. Yes, I finally got to my garden at 6:30 p.m., for no real reason other than disorganization, distraction, and distemper. And, when I got there, I realized I had forgotten my fence.

Of course, since I haven't been there in a few days, I was shocked to discover how high and how fast the weeds had gotten. Yikes. I did some hoeing and pulling, and was depressed by other findings.

My cole crops are being munched by flea beetles and gophers. The early broccoli may be a loss...or at the very least will take forever to give a crop. Darn those varmints! Though most things are up, there is not one single broccoli raab, fennel plant, or Nero di Tuscano kale to be found.

I must get out there and do HOURS of work immediately. Let's just face it. And I am getting behind on lots of other work, too. Now my husband and I are working on a garage sale this weekend, too.

So, I must head to bed in the hopes of getting up early and over to my garden tomorrow.

Today's food:

9:30 a.m. About 8 C. watermelon
10:30 a.m. Collard green thinnings at the garden
1 p.m. Smoothie with 3 medium bananas, 3 C. blueberries, a cup or two of Four Seasons Lettuce
5:30 p.m. About 10 C. watermelon

Total: 1500 calories