I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

I am now the proud owner of a brand new chest freezer. Tuesday Matt and I finally purchased one.  We have been talking about doing it for a few years, but when chickens literally started falling out of our regular freezer, it became obvious it was time.

We purchased a Kenmore 5.0 cu. ft chest freezer from Sears, and it is now happily freezing away in our garage. Our plan is to put the backlog of chickens we have from our CSA, along with any vegetables we can’t eat, in the chest freezer for longer term storage.  We are also hoping to split a side of beef from a local farmer with some friends.

We are very excited about the possiblity of being able to get local meat and vegetables and have access to it in the winter and not just the summer when things are “in season”.

As you will recall from previous posts,  Matt and I enjoy gardening.  The past two summers we have had amazingly successful gardens that have produced far more food than we could possibly eat ourselves.  However, this summer, with the purchase of a new house, we no longer have a suitable gardening spot.  Our backyard is simply too shady to allow for anything to grow.

So, we were faced with the challenge of finding a way to get fresh vegetables without growing them in our own backyard.  The only two options that seemed worth considering were growing vegetables ourselves in a community garden space or joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) program.

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Matt and I attend a 100 Mile Radius Potluck last night.  The premise is that everyone at the potluck brings a dish that is made from ingredients produced, grown, etc. within a 100 mile radius of the selected location.  It is quite a challenge and a lot of fun.  The potluck was sponsored by Progressive Wayne County.org, and the idea behind it was to get people thinking about where their food comes from and how Richmond can be more self sufficient.

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In honor of Earth Day, I want to share practical tips for living a more “green” life that will not only benefit the environment, but can also have a positive affect on your checkbook. I don’t consider myself to be an environmental activist, and honestly am not sure if I believe in global warming. But even I can see the need to take care of the planet we live on to ensure its longevity. Last I checked we weren’t ready to colonize the moon.

I hear lots of stories about ways people have made big changes in their lives in order to be more environmentally friendly, but for those of us not quite ready to give up our cars or eat only food grown/processed within 100 miles of our home, here are some practical and easy to implement tips for living a greener life:

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Since I forgot to post an item for Technology Today last week, I am going to post a second one this week. I am pleased to announce that Matt, my multi-talented husband, has now launched a blog of his very own. From Bits to Bites & Windshields to Worship will be about Matt’s four main interests — computers, cooking, cars, and Christianity.

He plans to post once or twice a week with interesting facts and insightful commentary on topics he is passionate about. There is already a few weeks worth of information ready for your perusing pleasure so — CHECK IT OUT!

This weekend Matt and I participated in Iron Chef Bethany. For those of you who don’t know a lot about Iron Chef, it is a Food Network TV show where two chefs (an Iron Chef and a competitor) compete to cook six dishes in an hour using a secret ingredient. Each dish is judged on plating, taste, and originality and an overall winner is determined by three celebrity judges.

Obviously, Iron Chef Bethany had to be slightly different, but we had a blast anyway. There were three teams, four judges, and one very orange secret ingredient — CARROTS. Matt, Karen and Travis Poling, Chris Hardie, and myself formed the Fairview Five and made 6 carroty dishes:

• Carrot jello jigglers
• Carrot, cabbage, broccoli, and bean sprout spring rolls
• Homemade carrot pasta with carrot marinara sauce
• Spicy peanut carrot soup
• Carrot ginger sorbet
• Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

All the dishes turned out great, and I even helped cook. I didn’t burn anything, break any dishes, set anything on fire, leave out any ingredients, or cause anything to fall on my head. All in all it was a very successful day in the kitchen.

Unfortunately our team only received the “most creative use of the secret ingredient” award, but there were lots of great carrot dishes, and everyone had a wonderful time.

If you want to see some more photos, checkout my Facebook photo album or, if you don’t use Facebook, my Picasa Web Album.