Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Ok, I know I've posted a lot of the changes I'm already doing but here is even more! So in our book club, Sarah picked Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This is basically a storyof how she and her family moved back to her family farm and decided to only eat what they could grow and purchase from farmer's markets and other local growers/producers in a 120 mile radius from their home. Just think for a minute what you would have to cut out of your diet. It's an amazing and inspiring book with a lot of great ideas.

So, more changes I'm making after being inspired by reading this book:

Buy more things locally: I have been working on this already (i.e. milk) but adding beef, and attending the local farmer's markets.

Grow/Make my own: That's right I have decided to grow some of my own vegetables. In fact, since I realized that I wouldn't be able to grow as many as I would like I talked to Sarah and Holley and we are starting up our own personal co-op. We will each grow some different fruits and vegetables, and assuming there will be a good harvest, we will share. I am so excited about doing this. I haven't grown a garden since I was very young. VERY young. I am so into this you can see what I have done with my yard. Some of the things that I want to start making are yogurt, bread and mozzarella (yes, that's right. CHEESE!) I have all of the recipes I'm just waiting for the opportunity to try them out.

This is the right side of the deck (when facing the house) and what the left side of the deck USED to resemble.

Now this is what the left side of the deck looks like. A big pile of dirt. Nice, huh? What I have planned: Once I get this completely cleaned out from plants (you'll notice the shrubs still at the base of the deck?) I want to make a raised bed and then I want to do this to the right side of the deck. I kind of think it will look funny if I don't do it on each side of the deck. Anyway, you should have seen the size of the bamboo bushes/roots I had to remove. I think I could have fed a small army of pandas on what I pulled out from just 3 bamboo bushes. No more bamboo for me. It's evil.

On the positive side I have four bean plants that have just sprouted. I know it's hard to see in this picture but those white things are green bean plants. I wanted to start some seeds indoors so the kids could watch them grow, so last Wednesday we (Tate, Ayden, Grant, Holley and I) planted them in these starter pots. We planted green beans, onions and peppers. So far (in only 6 days!) the beans are the only things that have sprouted. We are anxiously awaiting the others.
Another thing I would like to do is do some canning. One suggestion that was made in the book we are reading is that even if you can't grow your own garden (or don't want to) you can always buy large amounts of tomatoes (for example) at a farmer's market and go home and make your own sauces and dried tomatoes, soup, etc., and can everything. Holley, Sarah and I are even thinking of having canning days where we get together and do this to make it more enjoyable. Janice, this is where your expertise is going to help us. I hope you don't mind a lot of questions coming your way! :)

So just a few of the changes that I would like to implement! If anyone has any great ideas or suggestions please let me know.

As soon as I have a little more time I'm going to post some more recipes too. Thanks for all the encouragement so far on the changes I've made, it really helps!