Homegrown Potato Salad (and a reality check)
I cringed when I read how the Wannabe Homesteader described us in a recent guest post:
I know of some homesteaders, I mean real homesteaders, who live a life completely off-grid and utterly detached from industrialized society. They live a simple, Christian existence surrounded by like-minded people and are dependent on no one except the Lord.
Before you start frothing at the mouth, you need to know they have given up many creature comforts that most of us wannabes would never dream of going without.
And honestly, I’m a little envious. I remember reading that they were helping their neighbors thresh their own wheat field. Can you imagine threshing your own wheat field? The only other time I’ve heard of threshing wheat was in the Bible.
She did a great job of summing up exactly what we are working towards. Unfortunately, we are in the early stages of getting there and the current reality looks very different.
I’m not a fan of making claims that might be construed as true in some regards, but when taken in the full context of reality, really aren’t. So, while I fail at this sometimes, I try to convey the good with the bad; the hope with the reality.
Let’s take a look at our current reality:
- Yes, we are off the grid, but yes we use solar power daily.
- Yes, we work as hard as we can at producing food, but yes probably at least 85% of our food still comes from a conventional grocery store.
- Yes, we participated in the harvesting and threshing of wheat, but that one day of hand-threshing has encouraged us to look into other grain/starch options that are more doable for our family.
- Yes, we have given up many comforts to get here, but we are not immune to feeling discomfort, nor are we somehow stronger than others in order to do so.
- Yes, we spend a great deal of time on simple living homestead endeavors, but I also struggle daily with the dissonance I feel in working through technology in order to create homestead infrastructure in order to more fully separate from the need for that technology.
Homegrown Potato Salad
This potato salad was an exciting meal. The night before we harvested the potatoes from the pallet garden. The eggs were from our hens. The onions were a spring harvest we pulled to make room for more beans.
And if it weren’t such a rarity that we ate something so homegrown, it wouldn’t be quite as celebrated as it was. And I probably wouldn’t be sharing it here, along with some of the many photos I took. And I probably wouldn’t have gone on and on about how potatoey and delicious those potatoes were.
But when things work, when seeds become plants that become food, I just marvel at the miracle of it all.
So, yes we nearly doubled our garden space since last year and have plans to double it again. But yes, it is a rarity that we are feasting from the garden, as we did with this potato salad.
And yes, this was a very, very good potato salad.
Here’s how I made it…
Ingredients
- 2-3 lb red potatoes
- 6 homegrown eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
- 2-3 small onions, diced small
- a generous amount of olive oil
- a couple of glugs of apple cider vinegar
- a couple of tablespoons of mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare hard boiled eggs, transfer to a bowl to cool, and boil potatoes in the same water as the eggs were boiled. Cook until tender.
- Peel and dice eggs finely and add to a medium-sized bowl. Cut potatoes into bite-sized chunks and add to bowl with egg. Dice onions and add to bowl.
- If you have anything pickled, now’s a good time to add it. Lacto-fermented cucumbers, summer squash, or anything tangy that can be chopped will make a good addition.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil over the vegetables. Pour a couple of glugs of apple cider vinegar over the vegetables. Add the mustard and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Stir all gently until completely combined. Taste, add more oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper as needed. Let sit 20-30 minutes for flavors to meld.
- Enjoy.
What are you harvesting and eating?
I love homegrown potato salad and that’s exactly what I bring to celebrations…people look at me and say – you grew this? Yes…all except for the olive oil because I don’t have a press…but I do have olive trees and could make oil if I had a press.
We have Twelve Tribes members near us. Their lifestyle seems pretty attractive to me most of the time. I work in the tech field and would love to get out…but it isn’t possible for many reasons.
I love my children’s school and have no desire to homeschool right now – tehy are in a Waldorf School.
This year my 3rd grader will follow the Jewish calendar. They will be growing and threshing wheat and other grains. They will be building shelters and celebrating the Jewish holidays. Are they Jewish? No. But we feel it is important they explore many aspects of this world and humanity.
We’d love to be off the grid, but alas, we’d set our home up so we wouldn’t miss any conveniences we enjoy now. Hence we’d need solar power, running water and other conveniences…but are open to composting toilets, greywater and wind power as well.
God bless you.
I appreciate your honesty in setting the record straight. I always enjoy the fact that you share you struggles and your triumphs. Our faith increases through God’s faithfulness in spite of our doubts and struggles. God bless!
If I were your neighbor I would gift you with cheese for your potato salad. 🙂 Isn’t it wonderful when you realize that you’ve either created or adapted a recipe that consists of all or almost all home produced ingredients?
As always, your insight and honesty are inspiring and refreshing. It is a quandary we find ourselves in and though it will probably get some better for you I think that as long as the world is out there and functioning we’ll all concourse with it to a certain extent. Hang in there, my friend.
I was in the garden and was quite discouraged. Unlike you folks in Tx, here on the east we’ve had way more than normal rainfall. The tomatos are looking sad, and the cukes and beans are slower than normal due to the excessive wet soil. The only things doing real well are the weeds (as it’s too wet to till – may have to start hoeing the rows) and the sweet potatos (go figure). Wish I could send you some rain. Looks like it’s clouding up again today.:(
Thank you for sharing your joys, struggles and growth through this process. I so appreciate your heart and desire to live your faith in community. Oh my family loves it when we have a meal from our garden as I always announce “we are eating off the fat of the land!” It is a miracle to plant a seed and see it come to fruition. Most of our world has lost touch with the amazing creator and my garden brings me to Him each day. This week we are enjoying red, ripe strawberries, lettuce, radishes, artichokes and spinach. If the rain ever stops here in the Pacific Northwest we might be able to expand our selection of garden fare. Blessings to you and your family.
We’re mainly harvesting lettuce and kale right now! We enjoyed radishes and strawberries-peppers are starting to produce. Can’t wait for the tomatoes and green beans!
I’m w/ Sally Mae, most of the gardens in NC are drowned it seems, & w/ a new baby, I got out there in barely enough time to get the garlic in. Everything not in the raised beds has been eaten by weeds. But we’ve gotten 2 quarts of strawberries, the beans are coming in & potatoes are done. Potato salad is on my menu this week so I was excited to see this post. I’m hoping this rain will help some on the melons & I pulled the first cuke today, every bit is a gift.
Thanks for sharing… Your salad looks so yummy! I personally have a hard time with potato salad. Your recipe looks like a great one and really simple.