So for the fourth year in a row, I am taking my own personal March Challenge or eat what you got!
Its both simple and its not..
Eat only what you have in your fridge, pantry and your own land etc.
I picked march for a very good reason, its pushing really late into your food storage from the gardens, fall harvests etc, but its the starving month in terms of foraging or outdoor harvesting, it changes from year to year, I had one spring that came so early that I was able to use pots and small plastic greenhouse's to force some greens outside, including horseradish and rhubarb by the very end of the month but the other years were very lean indeed.
I am currently under a lot of snow on the farm, so I don't have much hope in terms of forage, but I will have maple water and maple syrup coming this month..
Set your own other rules, in my case, my extra rule are.. 1) Farm critter feeds are not included in the challenge, some year I should try that one as well 2) I am still allowed to be really good sales for the pantry at the store if they come up, but I can't! use any of them during the month.
And as always, my hubby threw down the same challenge, I can do this but I had better make sure , he can't tell the diffence much in the way we are eating..
I have always found this both harder and easier then you would think it would be.. Ever single year, I find holes in my storage, Every single year, I have learned things about my food storage.
To make things more of a challenge, I try to make one meal per day ideally a 0 mile meal, this means just what it sounds like, one meal where everything we are eating comes from our own farm, somedays I do well at this, somedays it does not happen because I want to add salt, instead of homegrown basil on the dish etc.
So here is my challenge, join me for a weekend? A week? Two weeks? or get really brave, the whole month..
Remember you can't eat out, you can't buy anything from the store that can be used during that month, you need to eat from your pantry's, fridge's and freezers only..
Anyone game?
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
I don't live in the country/farm but us city folk can do a "Don't buy anything for a month" Challenge. Or just start with a "don't buy anything for a week" and then work your way up. It's doable but needs some planning (kid goes through a growth spurt, unexpected repairs, bla bla bla) and as a prepper you should have this covered. Never done this before so I'm in for a week to start!
Awesome, I look forward to hearing from you on your week and how it goes, what you learn and where the good point and challenges on it were 🙂
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Saw this on your blog just the other day and decided I would commit to joining you...what good idea!
Glad to have you on board, are you going to try for the whole month or ? I hope you will be willing to share a weekly update on how it goes for you and what you learned, what you liked, what you didn't etc..
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Glad to have you on board, are you going to try for the whole month or ? I hope you will be willing to share a weekly update on how it goes for you and what you learned, what you liked, what you didn't etc..
Sure we will do the first 2 weeks with you &I could do 2 more more if' you would allow eating from my mom's pantry when I stay with her for a couple of days
as you know, I'm in 🙂
First day: Brunch-Homemade bread (toast), homemade pork/hamburger sausage, homemade hashbrowns, eggs (not homemade- every 2 weeks Shoppers Drug Mart has eggs and butter on sale, we purchase limit of 4 butter (what I don't freeze I can) and 2 dozen eggs each (daily) and we coat the eggs with mineral oil so they can be stored for 9 months)
Supper- Left over Ratatoulli and meatballs with homemade buns
good job, nicely done, here was my first day write up for the blog:)
Breakfast was Steak/onions with scrambled eggs and tea, I wanted a very hearty breakfast as I knew we would be missing lunch other then a snack later in the day..
It was snowing and the roads were crap but we packed up and headed into the “big City” for the annual seedy Saturday event..
I came out with 2 dollar’s underbudget, which is good for me. More on the Seedy Saturday post itself but I got some really cool organic heritage seeds for not bad prices overall and in some cases really good prices and combined shipping costs, splitting the cost of gas between them.
Wish I had been able to find more at the free seed swap table but I did find one thing I wanted, so I was pleased with that. Picked up my seedling starts, so will be able to share the process on them if you ever want to give it a try yourself 🙂
Then I had coffee and a visit with some folks and BAM, my first FAIL, I had a cuppa coffee, it was bad coffee to boot, and DH had a juice.. something that I was told.. I am sure it is a flavour but I don’t know which one.. kinda sad really, when you break the rules on the first day and for something that sucks.. but there it is..
On the other hand we had snacks in the van to hold us over on the way home, and for supper tonight, I made Dh’s birthday dinner with steak, and pasta with cream, mushrooms and green onions (just the tops as the bottoms are tucked into a pot for regrowing.
Dessert is made, its one of those rare things, its wafer cookies with chocolate pudding and cream, so its a mock tuffle but a firm one, with no extra juice or booze added..
I do plan a hot cuppa tea with honey before bed.. so that was my first day, good and bad.. to much steak (but I am not my man LOL)
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
lol...you are too funny! Oh well, today is a new day!
Brunch: Green juice from veggies that were wrinkly, limp and ready to turn and my hubby who would live on rice 3 times a day had some rice while I had an orange and an apple. I watched a video this week that changed how I eat apples...amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vdCGnuccRv0 now I slice it or eat it this way.
Supper: Homemade pizza, dough, sauce, spices from my garden last year.
Today was a good day, but the real yum was my homemade pantry version of doniars,
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
looks so good!
I came close to screwing up the challenge yesterday. I was in so much pain and so tired that if it hadn't been for how dirty I was, I would have bought fast food 😳
Day 3 Brunch: Homemade make ahead mix-Pancakes & eggs
Supper: Chili I pressure canned in August, Homemade buns, salad
I started 2 batches of Kombucha
Day three was a perfect day, not even a hint of a miss, first day of me at home eating and hubby at work for two meals, breakfast eggs and flat bread, lunch soup and supper, fried cabbage dish, tea, water or hot chocolate(hubby), dessert, homemade raspberry jello
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/