Food Roots – July 23: where does your food come from?
āOr what if I had simply grown up in a time when food was seasonal? When there was, in each year, a time of more and a time of less? When food was not just there in packages on the supermarket shelf all year?ā
~ Jessica Prentice ~
Welcome to another edition of Food Roots!
Our food system is destroying the soil, wasting valuable resources and making us sick. The only thing that is sustainable and the only thing that can reverse the many complications of a broken food system is to get back to our food roots. We must plant the seeds ourselves. We must shake the hand of the farmer who grows our food. We must take back our food system.
Where Does My Food Come From?
Things are really starting to pick up now with fruits of every shape and size and vegetables galore being available at all of the farmers market. Yesterday we picked up cherries and peaches from the market and I spent a good part of the morning pitting cherries. Today I hope to make peach sauce or jam. On Friday we picked 14 lbs. of blueberries, dehydrated half and froze and ate the rest. We hope to pick another 14 or so pounds tonight.
Cucumbers are being made into pickles and while the veggies pour in through our csa I freeze a little here and there. With all of these time consuming tasks taking up our days I am struggling to find balance.
Certainly spending time on the computer is not going to help. Which is why I have no second post for you today. Only a new food roots banner, a photo of herbs collected from our garden.
How do you all keep things running smoothly in your home while attempting to put up as much food as possible?
So I ask you againā¦
Where does your food come from?
To participate in Food Rootsā¦
- create a blog post pertaining to local, seasonal foods or what you are doing to find your foodās roots.
- in your post add a link back here so that others can benefit from everyoneās information and encouragement.
- add your name and url to mr. linky below.
Feel free to use the Food Roots banner above, if you wish. If you do not have a blog, please share your thoughts in the comments.
I canāt wait to see what you all come up with. Thank you for participating!
I keep calling the blueberry farm every day. They are still not picking. We have used quite a bit of our strawberries all ready – I need to pick more for sure next year.
i’d be curious to know if you do anything before you dehydrate the blueberries. We’re set to do this soon – I’ve seen one site that says just rinse & go & another that suggests you need to dip in boiling water for 30 seconds to remove some type of coating on the berry. thanks!
I break my computer to eliminate all distractions that could keep me from food preservation tasks. š
On a more serious note, I made freezer meals to be cooked in the crockpot prior to canning season, which has helped bunches and also made sure to stock up on all essentials before beginning any preserving work. Thanks to careful planning, I haven’t gotten into a recipe only to realize I’m out of nutmeg, canning salt, or so forth.
Setting up a washing station outside, where veggies can be washed, peeled, and so forth *before* venturing inside has been helpful as well. Less dirt, less treks to the compost pile, and more food can fit in my produce basket every evening. Last month’s Mother Earth News had an excellent article on this very subject, providing inspiration for a washing station that could be made with an old sink and some wood.
For other household chores, I wake up a bit earlier every day to get more done in the morning and only allow one toy with many pieces (puzzles, blocks, etc) out at a time, on the table only, to help alleviate much of the clutter that would accumulate and need to picked up otherwise.
On a different note, rather than respond to your email, I sent you a *real* letter! Maybe it might arrive today or tomorrow? š I hope you can read my handwriting…*sigh*
I’ve recently discovered local milk produced and sold nearby. Local food and eating local is very new for me so I’m writing about it as I learn about it. I’m quickly discovering local food is truely a wonderful thing š