From your garden

[digitS']

I'm a little upset that I do not have December bok choy out of the greenhouse. Last year, the October transplants were there for me! This year, I ate the October plants ... in October. They were too far along to move to the greenhouse!

But, coffee beans can't have many calories and so, should not count. Oh and hey, @bills ! The 3 bean plants are still alive in there. They aren't coffee ... Maybe pole beans . I'm going to have to wait until February for greens from the greenhouse, I just bet.

There are too much pasta, rice and bread consumed in this house. Meat too and it's been years since I've raised my own. DW says she wants to try making pasta, there's homemade bread on holidays, but my wheat crop is just for fun .

Steve
who had potato soup for lunch and will have baked squash for dinner ... & the broccoli, from where? Watsonville?

 

[journey11]

This is something I ponder frequently and look for ways to increase that percentage. Something we've grown or raised is on the table pretty much every day, in each meal, sometimes the entire meal.

Percentage of my fruit/veggies might be somewhere between 40-50% on average (year-round.) I've had better years on fruit than I had this past summer. None of my fruit trees managed to bear and I'm losing my two big apple trees to fireblight. I didn't have a strawberry patch this year and had to go to the U-pick instead (I won't count anything I've canned from the U-picks since I didn't raise it.) It was a banner year for veggies, but still not enough to go year-round. I could never grow enough spinach to satisfy my cravings for it. I grow and can tons of peppers, but Ava loves fresh sweet bell peppers with dip, so I buy those frequently the rest of the year. If I grow enough onions, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, etc. then those are things I will in most years never have to buy and that helps my budget considerably. Still, I am stuck buying things like avocados, celery, bananas, frozen berries (could never grow enough of those to make my girls happy), etc. So yeah, I think that 40-50% is pretty accurate. If I can get fruit from my apples, peaches and pear trees soon and when the blueberries mature, that will help a lot.

We do raise/hunt/butcher more than 50% of our meat though, mostly eating chicken and venison (and eggs). I rarely buy beef unless I can go in on a local beef with some of my neighbors, rarely buy pork, but we do buy a lot of fish. (Can't eat much of what you catch out of the Ohio river...mercury. )

I don't know where that would put me on % of our total diet, but I'm pleased with what I've managed to do so far and am always looking for ways to do better. I spend an average of $350/month on groceries for our family of 4, so I think that's a pretty good dent in it. We may be able to get our dairy goats this spring. That will help a lot! I buy a lot of milk and dairy products. Savannah has to have lactose-free milk which costs twice what regular milk does. I will be happy when the whole family can drink the same milk and healthier milk at that. I'd LOVE to have a dairy cow...if only I had room for it. One of these days though! I just hope that by the time I can get more land that I will still have the energy to work it.

 

[digitS']

Wonderful!

The meat and eggs are important sources of dietary calories, fruit too ... the spinach, not so much .

I know I can eat more green food but I must really be pushing the limits at some times during the year. It may be why the dang Gatorade plays such an important role! I tell DW, "please don't buy the low cal !" Half the reasons I drink it are those calories ... usually while I'm behind the steering wheel.

I know, I know! Well, it falls off the shopping list at this time of year. You'd think that my commitment to a traditional American breakfast would boost my energy reserves but I go for 3 servings of fruit and I think they don't really show up on the gas gauge for hours ... hopefully, I haven't loaded up on a high-fat lunch by then .

But, that's summer ... now, it's cold ... gotta stop at that single slice of cheese on my broccoli ...

You know, I once had a garden which was nearly 50% alfalfa. The winter livestock feed was mostly coming from my annual hay crop, dry farmed. It was just that I could get the sprinklers on that alfalfa in the garden .

Steve

 

[baymule]

Not this year...... Because we are moving, I didn't plant a fall garden. We eat mostly fresh veggies out of the garden year around. I can, freeze or dehydrate the extra. So this fall, missing the greens, green onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots that make up our fall diet. I raise the eggs we eat and chicken too. At various times in my life, sometimes the only things that were store bought were salt, pepper, flour, vegetable oil, tea and coffee.