→ 2010-08-09 05:28:09 (37 Comments)
August 9, 2010
Across the nation, folks are down on their knees, hands dirty, seeds and trowel clench firming in hand determine to grow their own food. With hard work, effort and patience this hearty lot of homegrown soildiers will be blessed up to their eye balls in produce.
July 26, 2010
We started this challenge a couple years back, and it was very popular and successful in getting folks to eat closer to home. With more and more folks growing their own food, we figure it’s about time we revive and relaunch this challenge!
April 27, 2010
I admit, this is rather pathetic attempt at catching up to the last few weeks worth of eats. In truth, it should be 4 weeks, but with outreach, Amy and other stuff I lost one week’s meal entirely! We ate well from the garden, but I just didn’t get a chance to write it down. [...]
March 7, 2010
by Anais in 100 Foot Diet, Challenges, Community, Garden, Garden, Liberate Your Yard, Posts by Anais, Production: Harvest Tally
Sorry, a little tardy on posting our harvest totals for February.
Here they are
Produce (fruits, veggies, herbs) 138 lb 13 oz
Eggs Chicken 63 Duck 19
Psst, join our growing (free) social network for gardeners
March 7, 2010
Well, I definitely did a better job at taking photos of the last two weeks worth of meals. Now that I am finally caught up, I hope to go back to just ‘Weekly Meal Wrap Ups’ minus the x2!
There’s new things in season and that means new eats to enjoy – like peas, mushrooms, cabbage [...]
March 2, 2010
Our readership is growing by the day, so a warm welcome to all you new readers.
For those of you who are internet savvy you can follow happenings on the urban homestead on FACEBOOK and TWITTER!
Weeks are going by so fast, by the time I turn around I am already behind in posting our week’s worth [...]
February 23, 2010
Though winter is still lingering (there’s a huge storm set to pound the LA area this weekend!), it’s canning time again!
What’s in season is citrus and what’s on the stove top is marmalade! Thanks to a local, organic supply of citrus from Sergio’s farm we gals are back in the kitchen – jammin.
With the versatile [...]
December 14, 2009
Last weeks our meals were altered a bit due to the frosty veggies and downpour (we got over 4″ of rain here at the urban homestead!!!!) We dug into the pantry and used up some of the dried beans we had stocked up.
Despite the rain and cold we did, though, enjoy a winter treat of [...]
December 9, 2009
I certainly didn’t do a good job taking photos from last week’s meals here on the urban homestead. Guess I was too busy taking photos of other things!
With the garden in a semi hibernation, we are enjoying more simple “one pot” meals like soup. And with an arsenal of trombonico squash stored in the garage [...]
December 8, 2009
“The Freedom Garden Harvest challenge was started to get more people growing food and also adding up what they grow and harvest, instead of going to the store. Many are surprised by the amount of food that they can actually grow in a small space.”
From our 1/10 acre plot, our November harvest weighs in at
Produce [...]
November 29, 2009
Since I am like a week behind in posting meals that we’ve enjoyed on the urban homestead, am going to combine the week before and last week’s meals. aka “two weeks’ worth”
Enjoy!
Summer vegetable medley
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade pancakes
Dinner – homemade flour tortillas, homemade rice (homegrown peppers, tomatoes) with homegrown red peppers and cheese
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade [...]
November 22, 2009
The cooler temps (just had our coldest temps last night – 30 degrees) shorter days have got the guys digging in fall crop and me digging through my stack of favorite recipes to deal with the (coming) onslaught of fall veggies and trickle of summer veggies that are still holding on.
Living Like Little House on [...]
November 18, 2009
by Anais in Challenges, Community, Harvest Keeper, Homestead, Kitchen, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts
The Jr High School “Harvest Homesteaders” canathon finished up today.
This time around we made up a batch of peach jam and spiced apple sauce.
Peeling and cutting the apples. I told the girls they should get extra credit for peeling and chopping the apples with an eco-plastic knives!
One piece for the pot, one piece for me, [...]
November 17, 2009
by Anais in Challenges, Community, Harvest Keeper, Homestead, Kitchen, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts
Jordanne & I gave a hands on canning workshop at a local girls high school today. Seven enthusiast girls made a batch of delicious strawberry jam which will be donated to a local food bank for the holidays.
The girls chop up the strawberries they got from the local Farmer’s Market
Using the handcranked food processor
MASH! MASH, [...]
November 13, 2009
Arsenal of Tromboncino squash from FreedomSeeds.org
Rosa Bianca eggplant from FreedomSeeds.org
Red Marconi peppers from FreedomSeeds.org
Fall garden
Rouge D’Hiver Lettuce greens galore from FreedomSeeds.org
Dwarf Grey Sugar peas from FreedomSeeds.org
Cabbage and onions
The year is slowly coming to a close and with the cooler weather we enter a new growing season here on the urban homestead.
October was a busy [...]
October 27, 2009
SATURDAY
OUT
SUNDAY
OUT
MONDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown winter squash topped with homegrown pomegranates with homegrown green beans
Dinner – homegrown winter squash topped with homegrown pomegranates with homegrown salad greens topped with homegrown pomegranates
TUESDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown vegetable soup – green beans, squash, tomatoes, greens
Dinner – homegrown vegetable soup – green beans, squash, [...]
October 8, 2009
It’s fall – a time for pumpkins, spices and harvest celebrations.
Freedom Gardeners are celebrating the harvest season & weighing in
Here’s our tally (on 1/10 acre 4,000 st ft) is
Produce: 392 lbs 6 oz
Eggs: 48 Duck / 75 Chicken
OUR Year to Date Total 3850 lbs of produce, 837 chicken eggs, 770 duck eggs and 17 [...]
October 6, 2009
by Anais in 100 Foot Diet, Brewing & Fermenting, Challenges, Community, Kitchen, Menu Planning, Posts by Anais
It’s starting to FINALLY feel like FALL! To celebrate the change in season we cut open one of of our first winter squashes (Burgess Buttercup) yum!
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade/homegrown pancakes topped with homegrown strawberries
Dinner – homemade flour tortillas, homemade spanish rice (homegrown onions, peppers, tomatoes) with homegrown sauteed pepper and local avocado and onions with raw [...]
October 1, 2009
Like I said with Amy’s injury the WMWU went on hiatus. I did jot down what we ate the week prior to the incident and hope to have the WMWU back this week sharing with you what we ate here on the urban homestead.
So here’s a list of meals we enjoyed before we all got [...]
September 10, 2009
by Anais in Challenges, Community, Harvest Keeper, Homestead, Kitchen, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts
It’s a messy, sweaty, steamy and sometimes sticky work; but the fruits of our labors are certianly worth the hours of labor.
With summer winding down, canning efforts have increased so that our cupboards will be stocked for fall and winter. Here on the urban homestead we try not to purchase any canned food products – [...]
September 9, 2009
by Anais in 100 Foot Diet, Brewing & Fermenting, Challenges, Community, Kitchen, Menu Planning, Posts by Anais
The ash, smoke and heat are finally gone – for now. What a difference a week makes! These last few mornings and evenings have been cool – cool enough for a light sweater in fact. So much more comfortable weather wise and not to mention one is now able to breathe better.
Lots of goings on [...]
September 3, 2009
The Freedom Gardeners are weighing in this month and boy what a harvest!
Kudos to you all for such an outstanding weigh in!
Initial August Harvest Challenge numbers show us over 2,900 lbs for August alone, for an annual total of over 15,000
The first part August we had cooler than normal temps so the summer veggies were [...]
August 31, 2009
The summer garden is still puttering along and providing us with a bounty of good food.
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade/homegrown blueberry pancakes
Dinner – homemade flour tortillas, homemade spanish rice (homegrown onions, peppers, tomatoes) with homegrown sauteed pepper and local avocado and onions (from Farmer S) with raw cheese
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – leftovers from Saturday dinner
Dinner [...]
August 26, 2009
by Anais in Challenges, Community, Harvest Keeper, Homestead, Kitchen, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts
Following in an age old tradition here at the urban homestead we’ve been busy in our preservation efforts – canning, drying and brewing.
Canning
Made a batch of jalapeno jelly (first time trying this recipe and was quite pleased with the results)
After straining the liquid for the jelly, saved up the leftover chopped peppers and added it [...]
August 25, 2009
Digging for our dinners and still eatin’ good in our neighbor with fresh homegrown veggies and fruits from the garden.
We enjoyed some delectable dishes last week – fried squash blossoms and fig tacos! No not fish tacos but FIG tacos and they are sooooo yummy. They’ve become one of our favorite summer dishes.
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade/homegrown [...]
August 16, 2009
The meals last week were certainly very colorful and tasty. We are still working on using up the huge bag of carrots we harvested a few weeks back so we enjoyed an easy and very delicious carrot salad with almost each one of our meals.
The tromboncino squashes are young and very tender and sweet – [...]
August 8, 2009
The weather is still cool for this time of year. I have to pinch myself – can’t believe it’s August!
I’ve noticed too that there’s not been many June bugs either. Spotted only two this week, last year we had a whole army of ‘em – it was like an invasion!
Well, we are just going to [...]
August 5, 2009
The July month’s total has been tallied and our family’s 1/10 plot harvest has weighed in
Produce: 648 lbs
Eggs (Ducks) 100 (Chicken) 87
Year to Date Total 2660 lbs of produce, 648 chicken eggs, 634 duck eggs and 17 lbs of honey
How’s your growing efforts been this season? Care to join our collective growing challenge?
Let’s [...]
August 4, 2009
What’s with the weather? Today and yesterday morning it feels like fall? I know the coolness will burn off once the sun comes out but it really doesn’t feel like the August we are so used to.
Jordanne and I were commenting on the sound – it changed. Yeah, sounds funny but it’s not. We can [...]
August 3, 2009
How can we survive perhaps the greatest danger we now face – climate change? Global Warming may be a contentious issue for many but there’s no argument – some areas of our planet that were once ‘food bowls’, abundant, fertile and productive land, are now dust bowls where people scratch a living from the dry [...]
July 27, 2009
If I had but a handful of foods to eat before, well you know, one would be a sun ripen tomato. Heirloom tomatoes especially – their flavors are so incredibly intense. Having waited months for fresh tomato, it’s such a treat to have tomatoes back on the menu and we are loving every juicy [...]
July 19, 2009
by Anais in 100 Foot Diet, Brewing & Fermenting, Challenges, Community, Kitchen, Menu Planning, Posts by Anais
Really eatin’ good in the neighborhood last week from our garden’s bounty. What a blessing to have food that’s grown right in our backyard…. or close by!
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade/homegrown blueberry pancakes with homegrown strawberries
Dinner – homemade flour tortillas, homemade spanish rice (homegrown onions, peppers, tomatoes) with homegrown sauteed pepper and local avocado (from Farmer S)
SUNDAY
Breakfast [...]
July 7, 2009
As I suspected our harvest total for June is slightly down from previous years thanks to a cooler than normal June which delayed the ripening of quite a bit of our crops here on the urban homestead.
July is, well, looking like normal July so we should easily get back on track with our average harvest [...]
June 22, 2009
Thanks to FreedomGardens.org we been able to barter with a local farmer in the area. The most recent trade was for a couple pounds of cabbages for a few ollas and a couple jars of finished sauerkraut.
Have you hooked up with a FGer in your area and swapped yer crops. If not what are you [...]
June 19, 2009
I really enjoyed meeting you all and writing the story. I must say your food and cooking was among the best I’ve sampled in my 7 years as a food writer. –LY
We got this in an email (above) over the weekend and was slightly flabbergasted at the praise and though proud of the food we [...]
June 12, 2009
You know once you get behind in something just a wee bit then the next thing you know whoosh weeks pass and it’s not just one weekly meal wrap up but three! Jeepers.
So without further interruptions the urban homestead’s weekly meal wrap up from the last three weeks.
MAY 18
SATURDAY
OUT
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola, organic yogurt [...]
June 2, 2009
Weighing in for the month of May
748 lbs of produce (vegetables, fruits and herbs)
90 Duck eggs
80 Chicken eggs
17 lbs of Honey
Grow Your Own Groceries
Here how you can join us in our collective growing effort
Tally Guidelines
Any “poundage” grown by you on your property, patio, window sill or community plot including fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts that [...]
May 19, 2009
Over the years we’ve made, remade and tweaked our basic “grocery list” of things we can’t grow here on the urban homestead and for the most part we pretty much stick to the list week after week, month after month. When I say “stick to the list” we don’t buy outside the list which helps [...]
May 11, 2009
Last week we enjoyed the garden’s blessings of bountiful produce along with other locally grown treats that were gotten in a swap with a local Freedom Farmer
Also there’s one day that we enjoyed breakfast for dinner. It was one of those busy days – garden, hive and other work and one needing something filling and [...]
May 7, 2009
With all the activity here on the urban homestead, I am finally getting around to posting what we all ate last week.
I can’t wait to share with you what we ate this week, but that’s a post for another time. Stay tuned.
SATURDAY
out
SUNDAY
out
MONDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown potatoes, locally bartered avocados on toast
Dinner – [...]
May 4, 2009
April Weigh In
As the growing season gets longer, the poundage is going up. Pretty soon, God willing, we’ll be inundated with summer/bulk crops. Can’t wait to taste our first cucumbers, tomatoes or peppers of the season. Also looking forward to peaches.
In the meantime we are enjoying strawberries, loquats, broccoli, radishes, potatoes, all sorts of greens [...]
April 30, 2009
Though our schedule was slightly interrupted with a slew of different community events, here’s what we enjoyed eating last week.
SATURDAY
out
SUNDAY
Breakfast – out
Dinner – homemade pizza topped with homegrown, marinated peppers, homegrown-made tomato sauce, organic cheese and homegrown salad
MONDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown-made kimchi (made with homegrown daikon, carrots and locally bartered cabbage) raw [...]
April 23, 2009
I am combining two weeks worth of meals in one entry.
Enjoy!
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade pancakes with homeraised eggs
Dinner -homemade flour tortillas, homemade spanish rice (homegrown green onions, preserved peppers) topped with organic cheese, black beans and cilantro
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Dinner – leftovers from Saturday
MONDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown snow peas, homegrown sorrel and [...]
April 6, 2009
The Oregon Giant peas are prolific not to mention HUGE! And we’ve been enjoying them for lunch and dinner here on the urban homestead. Yep, meal after meal of just pasta and peas is simply divine. Not tiring of the dish anytime soon. I guess it’s one of those things you enjoy to the fullest [...]
April 1, 2009
Spent the morning tallying up the harvest figures for March and considering we’d been gone for 6 days we didn’t do too bad.
March Tally
Produce: 265 lbs produce
Eggs (duck & chicken): 213
Care to join in our collective growing effort to grow and harvest 1 million pounds.
Folks are posting their March harvest tallies here {note you [...]
