The 90% ers

I am going to put up some artificial shade as well. I did not water till June last year. I have lots of compost in my soil.

Isn't cream of anything just white gravy with flavoring?

Flour tortillas are easy to make and you can make a lot and freeze some for later. I take one day a month to stock up my "convenience" foods...muffins for breakfast, tortillas, homemade hamburger buns and a few pop in the oven casseroles. I try to keep these things on hand for those days that I am really running behind and things are just not going to plan. You can make chicken soup and mushroom soup but you cannot can it with the flour and milk, it is unsafe to do so because it changes the density. You might be able to freeze them though. Yes, I have picky eaters. I squeeze veggies that they say they don't like into places where they don't even know they are there. I figure I am the cook and I cook what I want, they can eat or go hungry. Usually there is always something at a meal that they will eat and some things they will choke down a bite or two and other things that they will not touch. I make sure that if I am cooking something that I know they won't touch at all then I don't cook much of it so that there aren't a ton of leftovers. Also, there might be some things that they won't eat one way but will eat another way. Cabbage, for instance. My husband and children cannot stand cooked cabbage by itself. However, they love coleslaw and spring rolls. So I rarely cook cabbage but I make a lot of spring rolls and we eat a lot of coleslaw. Cabbage is used and they get what they like. You can also make a big batch of egg rolls and they freeze quite well for snacks or meals later on. Blessings, Kat

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Kat,

We've got the egg rolls covered. Boyfriend is from Thailand, and he makes the BEST traditional egg rolls. He uses his mother's recipe who used her mother's etc etc etc.

I love how you say, "I'm the cook, I cook what I want." I will have to look into storing cream soups.

Am1too, I have no idea how they make the soups. I haven't put too much time into researching it yet. I just know I use a lot of those two in my cooking for quick meals. I think certain members of my family would eat better if I started cooking more. I usually only make two "meals per week." One on sunday and one monday. Other than that I eat at work, or we just fend for ourselves. I will say though, I am a huge leftovers person. I made Lasagna Monday night and I am still eating the left overs.

Who do we talk to about making this it's own forum? It would REALLY be nice. I think there is definitely enough interest.

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

I found a great book titled, " The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian cooking". Paid a couple of dollars for it at a thrift shop. I have grown a ton of vegetables and had very limited recipes for using them. This book helps me get a little more creative with produce from the garden. We are not vegetarians by any standards, but it really helps us get the most from our garden. This book even covers some of the stranger vegetable specimens.

No, I do not have picky eaters. Other than the occasional dislike of some veggie.

Our favorite meals: Corn chowder (with ham), chicken fried steak strips, homemade pizza (they go nuts over it), beef stew, grilled tenderloin (pork or venison), chicken and dumplins, hamburger steaks smothered in mushrooms, tacos. There are all items homemade.

I need to learn how to make tortillas. Kat, can you teach us?

I used to make eggrolls all the time, but I have kind of fallen away from it. Would love to have his recipe, if he is willing to share it.

We definitely need our own subforum. Now we need a thread for our recipes.

I have my complete 61 day menu list on another computer. Let me transfer it over and then I'll post it. I can also e-mail you my excel spreadsheet, if you want to pm me your e-mail address. It will have all my computations in it from the menus to the cuts from the steer and hog with weight variations.

Belle

I'm still aiming for about 75% (family of 4- 2 adults, 2 older teens)...I'll check in probably Sunday with my veggie list. I'm zone 5 but in a bit of a microclimate so have longer frost free days. My big focus this year is my -new coming this spring -hoop house, so although I'll be doing row and storage crops as usual I'll be planning for winter growing/holding as well. My learning curve is going to be the longer season that will give me on the autumn side and the ability to keep some fresh cold tolerant crops through the winter. I do have laying hens and do also meat chickens and turkeys every year so nothing changes there, and also have a herd of dairy goats so milk and cheese is done as well. I freeze my chevre but would like to try aging some cheese this year. This was the first year I've been able to stagger the breedings well enough to have no dry spell for milk. I debating on a weaner pig this year, especially since I have the milk. The bees produced 30 pounds of honey for me last year doing a split so I'm hoping to double that this year. I have the ability/tools to dehydrate, cold storage, freeze and pressure can. My fruit trees are a range of 1-4 years so some fruit is expected but questionable how much. Hoping for lots of cherries this year, there will be some apples and grapes but probably no pears or plums as they are too young.

A couple other book resources... most here are probably familiar with Jeavons book on "how to grow more vegetables...etc". I don't use a lot of the details straight from biointensive practices, but I think it has helped me shape the way that I think about growing edible plants.
http://www.amazon.com/Grow-More-Vege...ref=pd_sim_b_1

There is a sort of spin-off book, called the One Circle Diet, which runs some numbers and calculates several examples of the minimum amount of space required to grow a complete diet for one person. It is an interesting and pretty quick read, but it is WAY overpriced right now. Good one to keep an eye out for at book shops and to request from the library.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Circle-Gro...ne+circle+diet

Funny about that drought map. We are right smack in the middle of it, yet we had more rain this last summer than we have had in the 16 years we have been here. I wouldnt put too much stock in it.

This would be a good thread for the Gardening Forum. I checked and don't have an updated list, but all that info is on my thread (pic heavy, lots of pages). In addition to the many perennials, I'll be adding the yearly annuals, and they change from year to year (based on weather projections):

Christie Acre's Organic Raised Bed Garden 2010- Pics :)

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http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
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I'm in! I was thinking about this alot before this thread came along.

Steff: I live in zone 5 in MA and your list almost matches mine but added a few more i wasnt aware of....thanks!

As part of my 90% i will also be doing bartering and some extreme couponing for the stuff i cant grow. I'm keeping a spreadsheet of what i'm buying in the grocery store as a way to focus on my food independancy and other stuff needed with coupons, sales, bulk, bartering and freebies.

Perhaps at the end of the year we can turn this into a seed swap or seed train so we dont have to buy seeds.

Oh wow, what an amazing place! I am so envious and you are so blessed. Awesome!!!

that sounds like a good idea.

Chuck, it would be really awesome if we could have a subforum for us 90% ers. Pleeeease.

Belle

Ah yes, I remember those pictures. I drooled then and I am drooling now!

You're all on an amazing journey for me as a city boy. I would love it if you posted pictures of your gardens, now (make that spring time), in progress and at harvest time.

wish you love, luck and wisdom,

Henk

This will be an interesting thread. Thanks Steff for startng it.

I learned the hard way that we did not eat as many vegetables as we could grow in one season. (I still have corn, snaps, tomatoes & squash from 2 yrs ago.) Thus, this year will be better planned.

I have ONE raised bed in the making. It is 6' x 30' and will be 2-1/2' high with horizontals around that I can sit on to harvest. It will strictly be for root crops as those are what I've yet to grow and we usually buy at food stores. At this time it is full of water due to the weather we've had; however, prior to the rains showing up I got all (2-1/2 ft) the top soil off entire area, the 4x4s placed around one side and one end and old wood from the fallen shack I've been tearing apart laid flat out in bottom. On top of those boards, I will be placing all the tree (limbs & trunks) that fell and have been laying around the acreage for awhile. After that I'm throwing on some barn bedding; then will replace all the top soil initially taken off. Since the root crops will be carrots, beets, onions and Irish potatoes, I will scratch some ag lime into the mix, plant, then mulch with more barn bedding after planting. (This is very new to me; so I have no idea how it will turn out!)

Perrinial plants:
Asparagus patch (30' long trenched)
Cinnamine Vine
Washington Giant Nettle
Rugosa Rose bushes

Seeds/plants to put in:
Various vegetable seeds left over from 2 yrs ago

Aids for what is grown:
1. Comfrey (Bocking 14) strategically placed around our acre-sized garden/fruit area to bring up nutrients for garden/fruits.
2. Mint (peppermint and chocolate) strategically placed around
3. Wild Yarrow

In the herbal spot:
Oregano
Calendula
Self-heal
Basil

Wild plants harvested each year (greens and medicinal):
purslane
amaranth
wild mustard
plantain
dandelion
Burdock

David has a list of what he is going to put in the ground, some in the freezer/fridge getting ready. These are medicinal for his herbal business. He also has the Passion Flower area ready for a new crop.

All the fruit trees/bushes have been in the ground for a few years; so if weather permits, they will all fruit this year, except maybe the currants & muscadines. So the fruits we will wind up with are:

black currants
elderberries
goji berries
muscadines
seedless grapes
sweet cherries
plums (one wild)
persimmons (one American)
mulberry (2: both for the birds to enjoy)
asian pear
peach (have no idea what type as it just came up in middle of fallen shack)

I also have 50 strawberry plants coming and have no real idea as to how to plant these for convenience in maintaining/harvesting...am thinking on ground in "hilled" rows.

Have 6 boysenberry plants coming that I'm going to plant near our thornless blackberry vines.

Meat/milk/eggs:
Goat
Chickens
Guineas

Pasture land with assorted bushes goats enjoy browsing on. (Am considering throwing out some parsley in various areas of pasture lands for them too.)

Am still hoping to get the pond excavated to stock with fish.....

Only thing missing that I can think of at the moment is what I need to produce flour for making bread, corn for corn meal (corn bread) & something ?? for creating cooking oil.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

Its usually anything cooked with milk instead of water

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" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

This is last year's, but maybe it will tide you over til this year's is up and going

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" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

very good, Bobby! Got my mouth to watering!

Ok we just added a 3 acre pond (awesomely stocked), a half acre pond and a 72 acre hay meadow to our homestead. Its right across the street from our house. This will help a lot with our meat supply of fish, beef and venison. The property also has at least 1 stuart pecan tree on it.

Tomorrow I am going to get my seed starting area set up. I may have to set it up in my bedroom because I just don't have any other place to put it! I bet DH would appreciate that!

Belle