Independence Days Challenge, Weeks 2 and 3

We could call these weeks the “no woman is an island” week because I wasn’t doing much outside of my usual routine to promote our food independence. My body was desperately trying to fall into a migraine cycle, which, for me, are usually triggered by a combination of muscle tension in my shoulders (from stress and too much computer time) and being generally run down. Since migraines are nasty and the meds I take from them are just as incapacitating as the headaches, in their own special “I’m not in pain but I’m stoned out of my gourd!” way, I’ve been moving slowly these last 10 days or so, trying to take it easy and get a lot of sleep. Thankfully, the cycle seems to be ending.

So, here’s my “late breaking” report.

Plant something: Nothing, yet. Since it snowed this week and is supposed to get down into the teens at night for the next few days, I’m glad I resisted the urge to plant outside. I’m likely to start seeds inside this weekend, but that’s for next week’s report.

Harvest something: Nothing

Preserve something: Dried mangoes (not exactly local or terribly sustainable, but an inexpensive, healthy snack to keep in my desk).

Waste not: Composting and recycling per usual. Brought home some of the K-Cups from work to try recycling the cups and composting the contents. It’s a noble thing to do, I doubt I’ll bother doing it often; it’s a pest for the half cup of grounds and tea leaves I get. I hate K-Cups, but face it, I’d be even less likely to figure out a way to bring bunches of loose grounds home on the T from the office.  I can sneak the K-Cups one at a time into my empty lunch container, but coffee grounds are messy and heavy. Snagged some leftovers from an event last weekend and ate them over the course of the week. (Our SCA household is good about that; people were competing to take the chicken carcasses home to make stock.)

Want not: The usual savings and paying down of debts. Didn’t do much extra writing or marketing, due to the migraine cycle.

Eat the food: Home-baked bread. Homemade granola. Eating from the freezer. Last night’s dinner was an omelet with farm eggs, my own peppers, local onions, and Cabot cheese, which is commercial, but from Vermont and a fairly responsible company. OMG, so good! The omelet was bright yellow because the yokes were so bright.

Support community food systems: We got our first batch of eggs from our “egg lady,” a colleague of my husband’s who has chickens; we give her bread and produce in season. Went to the farmers’ market two weeks ago, but not last weekend, as we were at an event. (Went again today too!)

Learn a new skill: More reading on container gardening and soil amendment. Now I just have to make sure we do the soil amending. Since we garden our little raised beds quite intensively–March to October at least, and in some cases all winter as well–the beds need regular amendment. I didn’t do it last spring and the yields suffered as a result.

And nothing at all to do with this post, but in case you missed it the first time:

New cover! (Imagine me squealing with glee like a little girl.)  The book’s coming July 17 and you’ll be hearing way too much about it in the coming months. Watch this space for excerpts and giveaways.