Cranky n Stinky.com

Amazingly, and probably in part due to the fact that I didn't want to eat much for 3 months, we saved enough berries last summer to get us through the winter. We have two small bags of blackberries, half a gallon bag of strawberries, and a small bag of blueberries we are finishing up.

But with the arrival of pick-your-own season, it is time to start thinking about the upcoming winter, and with a little one on the way I want to have some extras on hand. Although the baby won't be eating foods right away, knowing we have a good amount of fruit saved up will be a big morale booster for the middle of winter.




Today, I put aside our first two trays of fresh strawberries. I'll go picking at least two more times for strawberries, but coming soon will be blueberry, raspberries, and blackberries. Not to mention the produce that will begin to ripen soon now.



We did plant strawberry plants of our own, and I have gotten one small berry, but I don't expect much from the transplants other than to settle in for next year.

We are continuing to progress... Aaron spent a lot of time (2 days) on the coop, putting up the boards and wire for fencing. This included trenching and putting down the hardware cloth. He also built a door which now just needs a latch and top hardware cloth. I didn't do much, but did finish up the paint job. Here's the punch list:

-Rocks around the base
-Flooring down in coop
-Door latch and finishing
-Securely attach bird netting for coop top
-Kick board for pine shavings
-Pop door latch
-Roosts

Basically a lot of little things. I really hope we finish it this weekend because they are getting squeezed in the brooder. I'm letting them roost on the top tonight, and they've gotten outside play time every day this week but even so I don't like them enclosed for so long, and I can't leave them flapping around during the day...

Our freezer is on its way, and I've been freezing raspberries (4 or 5 quarts so far) since they are fresh in season now. I hope to pick again this weekend. We'll have our meat birds at months' end too.

Here's a picture of the wild raspberries I gathered from our driveway:



Unfortunately, they molded in a day since I had put a cover on it (I know, my fault).

Here's a picture of the coop in it's nearing completed state:



Sorry to be short, but I have a lot of topics running around my head I hope to blog on soon!

Well it has been a very, very long time since I've shared any thoughts on farming and food. Since it is finally starting to feel like winter may end (it did snow today, but the days are getting long now) Aaron and I have turned our thoughts to making some progress on our farm. Our objectives for this summer are fairly simple, yet also complex enough that we will be taking on a lot of new changes. We want to have a garden, establish a chicken flock (egg layers), and at least as of now, get the boys (alpacas) here. I think the girls will continue to board for a bit longer so we can acclimate to alpaca care without having baby arrivals enter into the mix.

There are many steps for each of these activities to occur, but this wasn't meant to be the focus of this entry. But I will say as a side note we'll be starting with our chickens first with a brooder set up, and chicks in April. It will be about four months, so let's say August, when we will get to egg production, but in the meanwhile we'll be enjoying seeing the chicks grow up.

Given all our conversations of farming and food, we share a desire to be producers of some portion of our food, and where we cannot be, to buy local well produced food. Well doesn't necessarily mean organic, but more importantly that food is not overly mass produced, and is raised/grown in a way that is considerate to the animals, plants, and environment. There are other advantages to local food as well - we contribute to the local economy, our neighbors and communities. We cut down a little bit on the environmental impact of moving food around. We also get food that is usually much fresher and flavorful than corresponding store shipped food. It's true we can't know the source of all our foods, even the local ones, but knowing for example that we are buying milk from VT farmers who're milking hormone free cows makes a difference to me.

Getting local isn't easy, especially from the months of November to May where fresh vegetable and fruit just doesn't really exist from local sources. Even so, we are trying to be more attentive to the food supply chain, and in some cases we have gotten foods directly from remote growers such as our annual order of Texas grapefruit and avocados. This, plus some stores of produce we dried in the fall help us make it through the winter. I think it would be extremely hard for me to do the 100 mile challenge year round, but I think we get reasonably close to this in the summer time, and I'll be curious to try and keep track of how we do this summer.

So, here are some of the foods we think we we will be able to get as locally produced over the next year. I am defining local as roughly an area 150 miles from our house. We will probably join a CSA but Aaron is still researching them. A (P) means we think we will produce this ourselves sometime during the year. I'm sure the list will change, but I'd like to get your feedback.

Fruits/veggies:
Raspberries (P)
Blackberries (P)
Strawberries
Blueberries
Apples(P* - we won't grow em but will dry them)
Cranberries
Tomatoes (P)
Corn
Peaches
Pumpkin(P)
Beans
Squash
Zucchini
Turnips/Radishes
Beans
Cucumber (P)
Broccoli (P)
Potatos

Dairy/Ovo:
Eggs (P)
Milk
Cheese
Ice Cream
Sour Cream

Meat:
Beef
Chicken
Turkey
Lobster
Clams
Fish
Bison
Lamb

Prepared foods:
Bread
Potato chips
Pita chips

Other:
Maple syrup
Honey (we'd like to produce but not this year)
Herbs (P)
Wine

I'm sure this is not an exhaustive list but I would like to think about this as the year goes on. Obviously we don't have a lot in the way of local whole grains but even looking at this list there are a great deal of staples here. There are also foods I love and I would be reluctant to give up if I really did a 150 mile challenge, but having a list like this at least ought to keep me thinking about getting local options first. In fact, because we have a good local meat supplier, we really ought to be able to avoid most western grown meat, with their attendant large scale moving, feedlot, and slaughter operations. If nothing else, I think our venture into being small scale food producers will bring us closer to the food supply chain on many levels.

What will you be buying locally this year? What will you be producing? How do you feel about where your food is coming from?