Things to Ponder . . .

While Sneelock and I were having lunch at Uncle Tim and Aunt Linda's the other day, we had a dicussion about eating at someone else's house during the challenge days. They asked, if they invited us over, would we have to bring our own food and not join them with what they had prepared. It occurred to us that if the settlers were invited to a neighbors house for a meal during the harsh winter months, they certainly would not insult their hosts by refusing to share the meal they had prepared. They would probably have brought some of their harvest to share, but certainly would eat what was put on the table by their host and/or hostess. I would like all of us to ponder the possibility of allowing for invitational meal "freebees." What do you think?

Also, I wonder if there is any possibility of increasing the "allowance" from $10 to $20 per person. I think the extra $10 would make the challenge much more Do-able and allow more of us to stay in the challenge for a longer time. What do you think about this idea?

General Update

A miscellany of things to post, nothing so important as to warrant its own post.

The garden in Akron is fading. I still have corn growing, carrots, one big arugula plant, and one summer squash that fell from someone's pocket. There is also a watermelon the size of a water baloon, I don't have much hope that it will make it to an edible size. Something is happening to my tomato plants there. There are no ripe tomatoes, there are no rotten tomatoes on the ground. Parts of it look either broken off or eaten off. At any rate it is producing 0 tomatoes. I picked a few corns today.

I have tomatoes a plenty growing at Therese's house (thanks, Mom, for the great birthday present!) And a handful of bean plants growing in my own yard (along with radishes that will probably light my mouth on fire.)

Speaking of tomatoes, I canned a bunch last week (plain.) Now I am cooking the under-ripe ones (which have in the meantime ripened) into tomato sauce. Tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt. I plan to freeze some of the sweet corn i picked today as well.

This past weekend I met a darling couple, Pete and Joann Hopkins. They are the parents of my friend Erin. They have a few nice acres with a pond and some woods. We hiked around their property. Erin found some wild onions down by the creek. I found some field mint growing near the pond and a black walnut tree. They have a chestnut tree as well. There is supposedly a cherry tree somewhere around too but we couldn't get to it because of a deadfall in our way (not that there would be any cherries now.) I sat around and fished for a good long while, catching nothing but some rays.

I hope to get enough work done tomorrow that I can head out for a forage this Friday. Anyone who wants to play hookey, meet me at spencer lake!

Vegan Diet - The Finale

By the 5th day I was done with eating left overs. I decided that this day would be eating vegan from a modern perspective. I dug out a banana pancake recipe from the Skinny Bitch book by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Ingredients are pictured - whole wheat flour, maple syrup, baking powder, coconut butter, almond milk, vanilla and a banana. Results also pictured - the pancakes were delicious and very filling! I made a total of 4 pancakes so I warmed the last 2 for breakfast on Friday.

In the morning of day 5 I walked up to Good N Raw Cafe right down the street from my house to get lunch. They are well stocked with ready made raw vegan selections. I got kale chips and vegan "chicken" salad made with nuts and lots of other animal friendly ingredients. I made a sandwich for lunch on sprouted grain bread and topped with tomato and snacked on kale chips. Dinner ended up being a glass of fruit juice because I had dental work done.

While writing this post, I'm celebrating the end of my vegan week at Root Cafe, a little vegetarian cafe in Lakewood. I opted for a vegan organic whoopie pie and cup of pumpkin coffee with sugar and cinnamon, no cream.

Being Vegan and Beyond

As a continuation of my previous post, the 5 day vegan diet went fairly well. I ate leftovers days 2 -4. I doctored up the barely edible corn soup to a delicious spicy black bean soup, scouped out a majority of the boiled onions added a can of black beans, chili spices and a banana pepper that my coworker gave me from her garden - yum! yum!

I had an extremely busy work week so I think being on the vegan diet was beneficial. We had a stash of licorice, pretzles, brownies, cider donuts which I was able to avoid. I did go out for Starbucks soy chai a of couple days to get away from the office (After consuming it, I'm wondering if contained honey??). I also had a soy dark chocolate mocha from Caribou (looking back does their dark chocolate have any dairy in it?) Its very surprising looking at labels and finding eggs, dairy, honey in many unsuspecting foods. Skimming the label it may say no dairy but the product will contain eggs. And then there are always mystery items that you have no idea what that was made from. Being vegan takes a lot of research, knowledge, awareness, and the list goes on and on.

Ifffy Fall Plantings - I'm still learning . . .

Some of the seeds I planted the last week in August are not doing as well as others. The first picture is the turnip patch. Kind of shrimpy? The second is the summer squash in the yard waste pile in the corner of the garden. The plants look very healthy. I'm just not certain they have enough time to produce. Although the seed packet claimed 45 days - I think it will be a bit longer. The third photo was taken in the carrot patch - yes, I said carrot. The kale seeds must have gotten loose in the organic fertilizer and they have taken over. If you look REALLY close - you might see a couple carrot tops!

Lots of Beets and Bumper Crop of Beans!!!

The fall plantings are progressing nicely! The beets in the first picture were planted August 15 and are growing great! The second photo shows the last planting of beans (planted around August 30). I think the garden fairy is cheering them on!!! The beans in the last photo were also planted around August 15th. LOTS of bean blossoms!

Pass the Peas Please!

I think the garden fairy was working overtime last night. Lots of pea blossom to photograph today!!! It looks like we're going to have lots of peas this winter