independence days - year 2 week 1

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

thanks to gina for prodding me back into this challenge! i believe sharon (the creator of this great challenge) is starting up again too at her blog.



1. plant something
~540 onions
~50# potatoes
~6 each zucchini, yellow crookneck
~1 sungold tomato
~6 luffa plants
~10 ft. each carrots, spinach
~sunflowers
~44 strawberries
~oregano
~6 hollyhocks
~asiatic daylilies

2. harvest something:
~milk
~eggs (chicken and turkey)
~dandelions
~violets
~various leaves for making my morning tea: sage, bergamot, thyme, oregano, echinacea, motherwort, dandelion, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint
~grass from the lawn to feed to the sheep and goats
~asparagus

3. preserve something:
~

4. Reduce waste:
~use canvas bags at grocery store
~re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs
~use plastic shopping bags for trash bags

5. Preparation and Storage:
~3 gallons olive oil

6. build community food systems:
~sold eggs to local people
~published may issue of herbal roots to teach children about using herbs medicinally and for food
~taught a friend how to make mozzarella from goat's milk
~met with the director of willoughby farm to discuss my master naturalist intern project, installing a woodland medicine garden using native plants and trees

7. eat the food:
~weeds from my garden, using lamb's quarters sprouts by the handfuls (we let a lot go to seed last year)