Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The "how long can I go without grocery shopping" challenge

So I was reading on the Urban Homestead blog that they had a 100 foot diet challenge. The challenge is to eat one meal per week of food grown 100 feet from your door. In other words, to eat food you grow yourself. It's kind of like the 100 mile challenge where you try to eat locally grown food. The idea of challenging you to eat your own home-grown food for one day a week is to show you that food security and freedom from being dependent on corporate food is within your reach.

At first I thought I could not participate in such a challenge because I don't grow much food. But I do grow some food, and I also help grow food at the garden at the Mission.

So then I got to thinking maybe I could see how long I could go without buying any food. We have fruit and chard in our yard. There are still veggies to harvest at La Huerta, and maybe in a couple weeks some bananas, too. And then there are all the various events I attend. People are always bringing extra backyard fruit to share, and they bring in baked goods, too. I could see how long I could go without grocery shopping. That would be funny.

And so today I took home a trombone squash. I cut it up and put it in my crock pot with the rest of the chicken stock I made a few weeks ago. When I got home tonight, it was all cooked so I blended it up smooth with my hand-held blender to make a thick and creamy squash soup. Trombone squash is just like butternut squash. The soup is real good plain but it also makes a good starter that you can add other things to. I saved the seeds. Hopefully one of them will grow in the back yard.

I also brought home some black kale, red peppers and fresh basil and rosemary. I picked some lima beans, too, and shelled them when I got home. They are white with bright red splotches. I have never seen lima beans that looked like that. I plan to plant some and eat the rest. According to Jane, the lima bean bush didn't die last year and was two years old now. That's how it goes living where I do. Annuals sometimes become perennials or nearly so.

With all the veggies I took home today, I could make lunches and dinners, but not breakfasts. So, I think my challenge will be to see how many lunches I can go on food I grow myself. Not dinners because The Man thinks living the good life means unwrapping a package and popping it into the microwave.

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