Mendolonium

I actually love grocery shopping – when I have the time to leisurely stroll through the aisles, read labels, and sample the cheese.  Unfortunately, unless I want to go out at night after the bub is bed (Um, no.  Once it is dark I prefer to stay ensconced in our “cave”.), I have to go shopping on my stay-at-home days with Thomas.  And although he is starting to share my fondness for the cheese counter, I would never use the term leisurely to describe a trip to the store with him.  I am also continually on the path to reduce our energy usage and one way to do that is to simply go to the store less often.  I expect that this will have the added bonus of further reducing our food budget – a quest I have been on since July when I started tracking all of our expenditures and our first month’s food tally came in a just shy of $1000 (and that is not including takeout or going out to eat).  I am pleased to report that our food expenditures have declined every month since.  I was particularly happy that last month’s total, including hosting Thanksgiving, was the lowest yet at $600.  So this week’s “change of the week” is to decrease my weekly grocery store trips from once a week to once every two weeks.

In order to do accomplish this, I also need to change my weekly menu to an every-other-weekly menu.  Further, I need to keep more extensive staples on hand for those nights when what I have planned doesn’t jive with what I am craving.  (Note: this is entirely my problem.  Jeff will eat whatever is put in front of him.  As the primary family chef, it is quite nice but also quite foreign to me.)  I was telling Jeff the other day that I could see a Venn diagram in my mind where one circle is “things I want to eat” and the other circle is “food in our house”.  In my diagram, the circles often do not touch.  That said, there are a few quick meals that consistently sound good to me:   pasta with some type of sauce (olive oil and herb, marinara, or cheesy cream), and veggie fajitas/tostadas/burritos.  As I mentioned yesterday I also love soup so one of my culinary goals this winter is to develop a repertoire of quick soups that can be prepared with ingredients that I have on hand.  So far I’ve got Thick and Hearty Minestrone and Black Bean Soup (I need to post the recipe for that one).  I would like to develop (or find)  recipes for a basic tomato soup, a vegetarian tortilla soup, and a vegetarian chili.   If you have a recipe for a quick soup please send it my way.  Tonight I am going to plan another week’s worth of menus and head off to the store tomorrow; hopefully for the last time until December 19th!

I have decided to Join Sharon’s “Independence Days” challenge.  What is the Independence Days Challenge?  In Sharon’s own words:

I challenge myself and all of you to work on creating food Independence Days this year – that all of us try to do one thing every day  to create Food Independence.  That means in each day or week, we would try to:

1. Plant something.  …the idea that you should plant all week and all year is a good reminder to those of us who sometimes don’t get our fall gardens or our succession plantings done regularly…Independence is the bounty of a single seed that creates an abundance of zucchini, and enough seeds to plant your own garden and your neighbor’s.

2. Harvest something. …harvest something from the garden or the wild every day you can…Independence is really appreciating and using the bounty that we have.

3. Preserve something.  Sometimes this will be a big project, but it doesn’t have to be.  It doesn’t take long to slice a couple of tomatoes and set them on a screen in the sun, or to hang up a bunch of sage for winter.  And it adds up fast.  The time you spend now is time you don’t have to spend hauling to the store and cooking later.  Independence is eating our own, and cutting the ties we have to agribusiness.

4. Prep something.  Hit a yard sale and pick up an extra blanket.  Purchase some extra legumes and oatmeal.  Sort out and inventory your pantry.  Make a list of tools you need.  Find a way to give what you don’t need to someone who does.  Fix your bike…Clean, mend, declutter, learn a new skill.  Independence is being ready for whatever comes.

5. Cook something.  Try and new recipe, or an old one with a new ingredient.  Sometimes it is hard to know what to do with all that stuff you are growing or making.  So experiment now… Independence is being able to eat and enjoy what is given to us.

6. Manage your reserves.  Check those apples and take out the ones starting to go bad and make sauce with it.  Label those cans.  Clean out the freezer.  Ration the pickles, so you’ll have enough to last to next season.  Use up those lentils before you take the next ones out of the bag.  Find some use for that can of whatever it is that’s been in the pantry forever.  Sort out what you can donate, and give it to the food pantry.  Make sure the squash are holding out.  Independence means not wasting the bounty we have.

7. Work on local food systems.  This could be as simple as buying something you don’t grow or make from a local grower, or finding a new local source.  It could be as complex as starting a coop or a farmer’s market, creating a CSA or a bulk store.  You might give seeds or plants or divisions to a neighbor, or solicit donations for your food pantry…Maybe you’ll invite people over to your garden, or your neighbors in for a homegrown meal, or sing the praises of your local CSA…Independence days come when our neighbors and the people we love are food secure too.

Each week I’ll post my updates on the blog.  I hope that this challenge will inspire me to live even more locally, seasonally, and sustainably.  It will also be a nice way for me to keep track of my progress over time, since I cannot, for the life of me, seem to keep track things in my pretty, but neglected, gardening journal.   This week’s update:

1. Plant something:

• Parsnips

2. Harvest something:

• Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Carrots, Parsley, Strawberries, Raspberries (from our garden)
• 80 lbs of Apples! (from a local organic u-pick)

3. Preserve something:

• Applesauce (7 pints)

4. Prep something:

• Started a list of “things to purchase/acquire” that might not always be readily available (e.g., canning supplies)

5. Cook something new:

• I’ve been working on it for awhile but have finally perfected the right cooking technique for cooking dried beans.

6. Manage your reserves:

• Added canned mandrin oranges to our food storage (a new favorite of Thomas’)

7. Work on local food systems:

• Invited everyone we know for the local apple picking. A few friends were able to join us.

In my palm pilot (Yes I use a palm pilot. I know it’s sooo turn of the century.) I keep a list of “things to get”. The list includes things such as floor puzzles for Thomas” and “half-pint canning jars”. Although we try to limit our consumerism, there are things that we need and want that aren’t absolute essentials. There are also some big ticket items (like a twin bed and dresser for Thomas’ room) that we would like to purchase. Over the past year I have become more aware of the impact that our purchases have on the environment. Every item that we buy new took water and energy to manufacture and took even more energy to transport to us. I know that clearly defining what are needs vs. wants and buying used when we do need something are the keys to lessening our consumer based environmental impact. I have been doing well on the wants vs. needs front and have put many an item back on the shelf at Target, however, I am still shopping for new items at Target.

So from now on I commit to checking out craigslist, thrift stores, resale shops, and/or garage sales before I buy new.  On top of the environmental costs, the rising cost of goods coupled with our reduced income as compared to a couple of years ago (now that I only work part-time) has made the financial benefits of shopping used very attractive.  We started off well this week when I found three used floor puzzles for Thomas in perfect condition at a children’s resale shop.  He certainly won’t care that they are “pre-owned.  I  hope that if make buying used a regular part of our lives he will grow up with this way of life as normal.

Some of my clearest memories of my grade school years are of lying in bed reading myself to sleep.  I loved the dark, still, quiet solitude of being the only one awake in the house.  I still do.  I was probably born a night owl and Thomas is almost assuredly one as well.

That said, I am one tired owl these days.  A couple of years ago I could stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading or cooking and compensate by sleeping in on the weekends.  Despite Thomas’ relatively late rising time compared to other toddlers there really is no sleeping in with him.  He also co-sleeps with me from about 5:00 am until he wakes up so my sleep from 5:00 am on is, shall we say, rather compromised.

Therefore, I am resolving to go to bed earlier.  For me this means in bed by 11:00 pm.  I am sure this sounds laughably late to some of you, but in a world with no one else around I would probably tend towards going to bed around 2:00 am.  I also realized that this has the added benefit of saving electricity and heating energy (in the winter) as well.  Not only will I be in bed, but it will be TVs and computers powered down, lights out, and heaters off by 11:00 pm.

This isn’t too say that I won’t occasionally stay up until 2:00 in the morning engrossed in a book or baking a cake, I just want to make it a treat rather than the rule.