Moving On

Thanks to my dear sister-in-law, I got a quick Canning 101 lesson a couple of weeks ago and am so glad! Canning isn't the big bad wolf in my mind anymore. Granted, I'm not tackling the hard advanced type of veggies, but rather things I know we'll adore in the winter. Two things we can't get fresh in the winter that we love are peaches and tomatoes. Memories of my mother canning peaches until her fingers were orange are very vivid nearly 20 years later. Those jars were pieces of gold in our pantry. Nothing better in the middle of February, while under winter's curse, than popping open a sweet little reminder of summer.

My virgin experience of canning peaches went great. Thank God for wide-mouth jars! A $20 box of peaches filled a dozen large jars, so each jar costs about $1.70. I'm not counting the cost of the jars, because they're reuseable (except the lids). As a bonus, we have two peach trees in our backyard that will produce about a box worth as well. One tip I learned quickly is how much easier "canning" peaches are to process than other varieties bred for fresh eating. I had a handful of fresh to can and they weren't near as easy to peel and slice. They taste good too. I used a light syrup, so it won't be too sweet.

A couple days later I made an attempt at salsa. Got enough for a large jar and a pint jar. The large jar didn't seal, so I re-did it using two pints. All went well.

There are plenty of books and websites that share expert tips on canning, so I'll spare the details. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with my first attempt. Financially, it's definitely worth canning those items you really cherish. When it comes to beans, peas or other veggies, I'll skip it primarily because it does take some effort and wholesale cans at Costco are pretty cheap. But, for those recipes and fruits you love, it's a definite must! Also, if you're trying to lessen your environmental impact, canning allows you to re-use your materials, rather than throw them away. It's a time-treasued tool that still makes sense!

Transitions...

4 months later, and I'm making my next blog. A lifetime can change in four minutes, let alone four months. In the past four months we blossomed, got transplanted and are blooming once again in native soil. This summer I was offered an amazing job working for the farmers that raised me, literally. In June, we packed up our home for the fourth time in 20 months and moved west, back to the farmland of my childhood. About ten of our original multi-hundred plants made the cut to travel with us. What can I say, we are truly a new American family. In today's economic fury, we have been forced to travel not just for credentials, but for our family's best opportunity to achieve our goals. Right now the door has opened in Eastern Washington. Sooo, with the largest UHaul available, a caravan of family and our plants in tow, we have settled in a subdivision in Medical Lake, WA. While we're on a large corner lot, it will take us time to get used to neighbors again.

We were blessed to have stayed with my parents on our farm in July. There, Dad set aside room in his garden for Kali's plants. In all we came away with 2 petunias, 2 cauliflower, 1 basil, 2 cilantro, 1 pumpkin, 2 cosmos and one yellow cherry tomato in a pot.

While the plan to eat off of our garden has gone bust, our passion to live healthy lives continues. Now that we're finally settled in our beautiful 3 bedroom rental, we are beginning to again get back to basics. We're in kind of a trade-off transition. My job requires more hours than before, but we are able to keep Ryan home with Kali with some financial stability. This summer we were also able to find a renter for our home in Kalispell, which makes our goals possible. With Ryan now available to work on his antler business and make runs back and forth from Kalispell taking care of our tenant, staying busy is not a problem! We hope to keep Kali on track with her pre-K education, but from us rather than pre-school. There is so much a child can learn from daily life at home, if we as parents take advantage of the opportunities. Whether baking bread, looking at worms, learning manners or studying their letters from a handwritten sheet, a hefty portion of early education can be done by dedicated paprents at home. Even when both parents work, every opportunity can be used as an enlightening moment for a child. Finding the balance between work, chores, health and fun is the key. It's not the same for everyone. Each family is different. What works for us may not work for everyone, but the basics are the same for all.

Whatever we accomplish as the season of harvest and fall approaches, we hope to continue with the groundwork we've laid. As with every transition, large or small, only the memories, relationships and integrity earned along the way matter. Cheers to the journey...

Nooooo!!!! The price of ignorance...

We are officially victims of damping off...otherwise known as fungus caused by overwatering, no airflow, or crowding. In a matter of 48 hours, some of our plants went from beauties to beasts. Kali's daisies were the first to go. Those may have reacted badly to the transplanting, but I think the fungus played a role too. Now virtually all of our pepper plants have stalled and are dying. In just a matter of hours our pumpkins have started showing major signs of this dreadful disease. In worry of the plants not getting enough water in the new heat, I overwatered. Plain, simple and utterly painful to watch. I quickly rushed them outside at noon today to try getting them some fresh air and direct sunlight, but for some it was too late. This fungus grows from the soil up. We also have been watering from above, instead of soaking the flats from below...again, not the best for young seedlings. Try to keep your foliage dry. A beginner mistake that should be engrained in my head after three years of growing plants for a living. Why did I think seedlings would be any different that older plugs/plants. We know this happens to our perennials and roses. Too much water can be as devastating as drought. Learn this lesson from me...DON'T OVER WATER!!! Thankfully most of our tomatoes still look okay. So does the cilantro, cauliflower, sunflowers, onions, and some of the petunias. I'm going to let things dry out a bit, and see what happens. It's a low of 41 degrees outside tonight. Contemplating whether I should leave them outside tonight for as much fresh air as possible.

Weeks 14 & 15

After almost 4 months of tracking our food expenses, I think we're finally getting consistent. Also, listing for you the most expensive items we buy wasn't exactly fair in my previous post. Larger items cost more, but they also feed more. Therefore I went through and tallied things up on a per serving basis (using Rowe servings!). In some cases, the more processed the item, the more expensive it was per serving (ie: Marie Callendar's pot pies from Sam's Club, organic soup). Also, the finer the cuts of meat were more expensive. Topping the list were:


pork loin (6 chops)
pizza (fancy kind)
salmon - frozen (5 .5 lb filets)
soup - bean, organic
pot pies (8)
pear - d'anjou
apples - honeycrisp
chicken - cornish hen tyson (22 oz)
yogurt
juice (52 oz.)- green
wine
soup - tomato organic box
coors light - 12
chicken - frozen kroger (8 .5lb breasts)
lunch meat - foster farm (9 oz.)
fruit cups (mixed del monte-cups)

Now again, this is based on how our family eats. Also, we don't buy many of these items regularly...meaning, we don't eat pork loin every week. Also, buying the whole meats and cooking them at home are WAY CHEAPER than eating out. I was very disturbed to watch on Food Inc. that a family of four thought it was cheaper to eat at McDonald's than eating a meal made at home. If you're on the $5 a day plan, that just doesn't pencil out. Spaghetti can go a long way to feeding your family and tightening the financial belt. Just for kicks, here's what was least expensive per serving:

carrots
cheese - kraft singles
olive oil
oatmeal - quaker
crackers
broccoli
minced garlic (4.5 oz)
chips - buttersc. (11 oz.)
chips - milk choc (11.5 oz.)
flour - whole wheat
flax - milled Bobs (16 oz)
chips - peanut butter (10 oz.)
potatoes (5 lbs.)
cilantro - fresh
onions - green bunch
onions - white
ketsup
pasta - lg shell (16 oz.)

Hamburger would probably also be on this list, but thankfully Ryan shot a deer this year (haven't figured out what the butchering cost is per steak, hambuger, etc.) I can say with some success we have changed a few habits. We now make lists before every grocery trip. Such a simple task, but in a busy lifestyle it is easy to pop into the store and buy things we already have 3 of in our pantry. Because we are more diligent now, we are only buying perishables regularly. We're still working through our wholesale supply of soups, pasta, etc. Also, while I don't clip coupons, I do notice the on sale items. If it isn't perishable, and is something I know we'll eat, I'll grab 2 or 3. I think if I was better, we could find some of those expensive cuts of meat cheaper...better yet, contact a rancher and buy a half a cow for the best meat and cost! I need to mention here, that we don't avoid processed foods entirely. One obvious reason is the time factor. Instead of peeling potatoes, adding fresh cheese, and working in the kitchen for an hour each night, we use Hamburger Helper for a quick dinner. It's not the most wholesome, but it's feasible, and with a salad and veggies makes a nice meal. We can't always do scratch cooking, though we try to balance our week out between quick dinners and scratch dinners. After doing this for 4 months, I'm figuring out what's possible and realistic.

We have been wasting less as well. We try very hard to eat all leftovers. While I don't believe in everything the GOODMagazine Transparency folks stand for, they have a great ditty on YouTube regarding waste: Waste Not Want Not. (If that doesn't take you there, Google "GOOD Magazine, Waste Not Want Not"). They also have a good one one the cost of food.

With the idea of wasting less, we only buy fruits and vegetables I know we'll eat, and only as many as I know we can eat in a few days. I'm sure this seems very elementary to those of you who have this process down pat, but for us it's not been a practice we have stuck to consistently. We were able to lower our food bill substantially last month by better planning and fixing nearly all meals at home. So far April is on track for another good month. We do still dine out occasionally, but not regularly.

As for our plants, they are doing great! We potted up the tomatoes and flowers, and everything is looking happy. We planted the rest of what we need to pre-start today (squash, melons). Can I just say, using old biodegradable egg cartons is brilliant! It snowed this week, and I was a little nervous as to how things were going to do (remember, no extra heat!), but it was about 70 yesterday and today. Things look happy, as are this mommy and baby girl! I noticed some daffodils blooming in our garden and the fritilaria (I know that's not spelled right) are just about to bloom. Now we're getting a million dollar rain outside to help the ground and farms. Another couple of weeks and we'll be planting! Love it! Cheers everyone!

Week 13

As I write today's monologue I'm watching one of my favorite movies with Kali. As a kid growing up in the 90's this movie was a staple. In fact, I think it was one of the first movies we taped on our VHS recorder. Karate Kid. I now see Kali watching with the same enthusiasm and fascination. Ranks right up there with classics like Footloose and 16 Candles. I never thought my association with Japan would go much deeper than this movie. God has a funny way of forshadowing!




As for our seed project, things are coming along quite nicely! Our tomatoes finally popped, and the peppers took about a week longer than everything else but they are finally sprouting.







Kali's pumpkins look the most impressive.




As soon as the true leaves develop a little further we will begin potting these seedlings up into larger pots and 6-packs. I'll have more bleaching and disinfecting to do. This weekend Kali and I visited the local nursery and bought a bale of peat moss and potting soil for the next round of potting. We also bought some marigold and cosmos seeds. We planted some cauliflower seeds in a biodegradable egg carton, so we'll see how that goes. I'm excited at the thought of not having to spend an arm and a leg in the future when my current supplies breakdown. I found some great new publications too. Zone 4 is a Bozeman based magazine that covers most of the northern Rockies. I am excited to read more about other avid northern gardners and learn from them. I also picked up a seed saving publication that has a lot of good tips, though I think it's only printed annually.

The past few days have been a bit windy and chilly. My fear now is mildew on the seedlings, or what they call damping off. Hopefully we get back into some warm sunny days to keep things flourishing. We're not using additional heat in our sunroom. We do keep the door open between the dining room and sunroom so heat can move through.

I am also happy to report that in March we spent just under $400 on food and groceries (trackable). We spent about $200 eating out and $200 on groceries. And we're making a dent in our stockpile of food in the pantry. This brings our 3 month average to about $770. Now, we're back to where we started! At least we're heading in the right direction. Hopefully April continues to show improvement, and by June we should start seeing some of our green growing in our garden and savings!

End of Week 12

Week 12 ends with things greening up both outside and in. Last weekend Kali and I planted over 700 tiny seeds in left over nursery flats. Before we did this I need to share that we spent a good portion of the day putting together some shelving and disinfecting the sun room. This is where I tell you how vital working with clean supplies is when starting seeds. It is fine to re-use old plant flats and containers, but you must bleach and disinfect them before putting new plants in them, especially seeds. Also, using straight dirt from your garden isn't the best for seed starting. Most garden soils compact and can suffocate your seeds. If you're going to the trouble of starting seeds, give yourself the best chance possible at success. We bought a specially mixed seed starting blend from Home Depot and mixed in some peat moss. Peat moss is great, as long as you make sure your mix doesn't dry out. Peat is the first thing to soak up the moisture.

I don't have to tell you how fun it was to share this experience with Kali. Of course, she wanted to do everything herself, and wanted her name on every label (she just learned how to spell K-A-L-I). We both stretched our patience levels with each other to the max, but it was worth every moment! I let her use the spray bottle to moisten the soil, and she helped plant the bigger seeds. Because I only brought from Kalispell a handful of planting containers, I intermingled different species in the same flat. I am now doubting the intelligence behind this space-saving idea. Different plants germinate at different rates, duh! If I had ample supplies I could have avoided this mistake, but we'll survive. Here's the problem: once seeds germinate, you should take the cover plastic off so you don't end up with 3-inch 2-leaved seedlings. The seedlings have to stretch for sunlight under the cover. The purpose of the cover is two-fold: to retain moisture and to keep it warm. On a nice sunny day, it can be a few degrees warmer under the cover than in the room itself. Like I said, our situation isn't perfect, but we'll survive.

Here's what we planted from seeds on March 20:

Gill's All-Purpose Tomato (early, organic)
Amish Paste Tomato (heirloom)
Blondkopfchen Tomato (heirloom, yellow cherry)
California Wonder 300 Sweet Pepper (red)
Gourmet Sweet Pepper (orange)
Red Bull Hybrid Onion (red, storage)
Montana Jack Pumpkin
Cilantro
Basil
Evening Sun Sunflower
Mixed Petunia
Mixed African Daisy (osteospurmum)

We will start these seeds in April:

Snow Crown Hybrid Cauliflower
Mesa Queen Hybrid Acorn Squash
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash (heirloom)
Charantais Melon (heirloom)

We will plant straight into the garden in May:

Cascadia Snap Pea
Canoe Shelling Pea
Wild Garden Lettuce Mix (organic)
Regatta Hybrid Spinach
Baltimore Hybrid Carrot
Nantes Carrot
Luscious Hybrid Corn (se, organic)
Envy Soybean (heirloom)
Misono Green Soybean

Again, I tried curbing my enthusiasm for buying seeds this winter. I bought what I know we enjoy and will eat. I splurged at Home Depot for the flowers and herbs. At $1.25 a packet, we can make things look pretty too! The pumpkins and sunflowers will be fun, and there's nothing better than fresh basil and cilantro. I am excited to try the winter squashes and melon. I tried them a couple years ago, and they didn't work out...our season wasn't long enough. I read this winter that you can start them as seeds about 3 weeks before planting, so I'm hoping that will help. My dad can get acorn squash to grow like crazy among his corn. I may try that this year too. I also plan to build some cold frames for the early fall frosts we sometimes get. Ryan invented a very easy design/way to cover crops, which we used for when we potted our perennial plugs and bareroot roses in early March with snow still on the ground. We had a very high success rate with these cold frames, and I'm sure they will work for extending the growing season a couple of weeks. Will share the design when we get to that point!

To my surprise, Kali's daisies were the first to pop! This shocked me, as I had terrible luck with Osteospurmum plugs years ago. Granted this was before I knew the importance of pinching and proper annual etiquette. Hopefully we can keep these babies growing! I also read that you can start sunflowers with mixed success. We planted only a few, and saved the rest for direct sowing into the garden. They popped yesterday. We'll see what works best. One week after planting, the daisies, sunflowers, and herbs have started popping through. We move the tomatoes inside at night, as I fear the 50 degree weather the sunroom drops to at night will be detrimental. We may have to do this for the peppers too. Problem is, the peppers share the daisy flat. Daisies are up, peppers are not. If need be, the daisies were cheaper than the peppers! Plus, we eat peppers.

We also started digging and cleaning up our future garden area. We're lucky that a portion of our property has an 8-foot chainlink fence surrounding it (one a dog run). Perfect guard from all the deer! Now if we can fix the ground squirrel issue by May, we'll be okay. We ran some basic soil tests and we will have some ammending to do. High alkaline and virtually no potash. So, our season of slumber is over and it's time to get our hands dirty again. My back already aches from the first week outside, but it will loosen up. It's just good to see green again!

Week 12 - Problem solved?

We may have figured out the base of our $900 problem...and no it wasn't splurging. Well, maybe a little splurging, but that's definitely not the root. I don't even think wasting is the root.

In January and February we bought a lot of groceries. If I walk into our pantry at this very moment, I probably still see half of those groceries on the shelves. We stockpiled. We went to Sam's Club once, spent 25% of my paycheck, and part of Sam is in my pantry. My freezer is well stocked. The cupboards aren't wanting.

Point is, we aren't eating the food we have. We get in our routine of eating the standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When we're out of the standard supplies, we go buy more. We don't delve into the grocery items we once thought were brilliant. We forget we have them.

This week we have made a conscious effort to eat up what we have already bought. Yes, we'll still need to buy perishables like milk, eggs, fruit, and veggies. But we're trying to make a dent in the stockpile we have on our shelves. We'll see what happens!

Unfinished Business

After my last blogs' revelation, I haven't stopped thinking about the food we eat, and what it takes to produce that food. Today in the news I read that Subway restaraunts are now making the transition into using only cage-free eggs for their breakfast menu, thus forcing a market-driven change in the world of incredible edible egg production. This transition has been dubbed a victory by the Humane Society. I am not a proponent of animal cruelty, and I do believe cage-free is probably better overall. This story is one of many where public perception is forcing change in the marketplace and food production system. I also read today that the US Dairy Association is hosting webinars for producers to learn how to use social media to help educate people on the truths behind the dairy industry. While in Arizona recently, a colleague overheard people complaining loudly and obnoxiously about the smell coming from the nearby dairy farm. They were in an ice cream shop.

Last week I read about a hog farm that lost a court battle with local homeowners over whether or not the stench from their yard caused the neighbors to lose quality of life. Forget the thought that the hog farm, like many others that face this PR nightmare, probably existed decades before the urban sprawl creeped in.

Now here's the biggie: Walmart now has a sustainability division.

"At Walmart, we know that being an efficient and profitable business and being a good steward of the environment are goals that can work together. Our broad environmental goals at Walmart are simple and straightforward:

To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy;
To create zero waste;
To sell products that sustain people and the environment."

As I said in the last journal entry, I am all for sustainability. I also believe we can combine productivity and sustainability. Here's my nightmare:
the general public is losing sight of who and what feeds us. In attempts to be green, we are creating a false sense of reality. Those smelly cows produce the ice cream we love. The sad thing is, as my colleague so eloquently put it, "When people smell the dairy, they don't think milk, they think poop."

We are fed by production agriculture.

When did the perception of the US farmer switch from keeper of America's heartland to destroyer of all things good? Many urban people are terribly troubled by the loss of the small family farm. They have heard that there are nothing but large corporations now plowing up the fields and growing our food by the shipload with no care in how it is produced. They will trust a small tomato grower selling his wares at the local farmers market enough to pay him thrice for a single juicy fruit, but the production farms are devilish, greedy wolves who inject us with poisons through their mass produced bacon, hamburger, and corn chips. Oh, and they want our tax money for subsidies too! Damn them all!

Guess what...I'm one of those corporate farmers. My brothers are corporate farmers. So are my cousins, dear friends, and the men and women I proudly work for everyday. They are the greatest stewards of America's natural resources and land. Why? Because the land is what sustains our families. My father once told me "If we take care of our land it will take care of us." No trueblooded farmer wants to see soil health decline. No farmer wants to over-work his land so it can blow 500 miles away. No farmer want the climate to change. And I whole heartedly believe no farmer knowingly plants anything that could harm the public's health or well-being. I also think that if the farmer had his choice, animals wouldn't smell...including humans.

As for the small farms, there is a niche for them. The farmer's markets and local niche marketing can prove profitable for many. Yes, sadly many small farms have not been able to survive the world's demand for large supplies of cheap food. Do you like the $5 Footlong, or the $1 Menu? How about the fact that you can buy a loaf of hearty bread for $2, does that work for your wallet? In today's economy, are you glad that you can buy cheap food? You can thank Dr. Norman Borlaug and the true "Green Movement" of the mid 1900's. By the way, the farmer only gets about 10 cents of that $2 loaf of bread. Of environmental lobbyists Borlaug may have said it best:

"some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels...If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things".

The current three/four generations now living in America don't know what it's like to be hungry. Remember, 96% of the world's population lives outside the US. Let's look at water, for example. Today was officially "World Water Day". According to the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, it is still a reality that an estimated 1.1 billion people rely on unsafe drinking-water sources. Living in the US have you ever truly been without drinkable water? Imagine walking miles everyday for a jar of fresh water to take back to your family...people do this in many 3rd world countries. That's reality. Another reality is that food is just as precious. Even the donation food the US sends to poor nations is under attack from hostile warloards, unfeasible storage capabilities, and Mother Nature herself. Imagine what it's like to be hungry and thirsty for days...not minutes.

So we are lucky to have food, let alone cheap food in America. I took my $900+ food bill a step further. How much can we truly live on? I mean realistically and frugally. If we made every meal at home, bought cheap ingredients/groceries, and were diligent, I bet we could eat for around $5 a day per person. That means my family of 2 and a half, could eat for about $12.50 each day. Multiplied by 30 days/month, that's $375/month. Wow. That's cheap, simple, and a lot of spaghetti. Now, realize that $375 is too expensive for many many families in America. Ryan and I are lucky in that we both have decent paying jobs. Let's look at a similar family making minimum wage. Mom and Dad, both working for $7.50 an hour, 40 hours a week = $300/week. 4 weeks = $1200/month. Subtract 15% for taxes leaves us with $1020/month. Multiplied by 2 = $2040. $375 is roughly 18% of their income. What really puts this into perspective is that on average, Americans spend less than 10% of their income on food. Not sure how they calculated that...maybe before taxes.

So, next time you smell a hog farm or see a tractor stirring up dust, I beg you to remember there is a farmer sitting in the driver's seat and feeding the pigs. Thank them for your 99 cent Junior Bacon Cheeseburger. See how that same burger tastes at $5.50 with 100% cage-free pig, cow, and wheat. Now I'm off to plan my garden and thank my family for feeding the world.

Week 11 - Oh my!

Okay. February flew by like no one's business. It's now St. Patrick's Day and I'm watching the ground squirrels reak havoc in my soon to be garden. Enjoy it now boys! Your fun loving days of running and digging will soon be over! In fact, Ryan went to work early tonight in order to re-stock our pellet supply. I am a nature lover, don't get me wrong. I love deer, birds, bunnies, and even find the little furry devils running around kind of cute. Cute, as long as they stay out of my garden and plants! I'm not blood thirsty, just territorial. It's a natural dominance in all animals...humans included.

Yes, I'm avoiding sharing how February went. I'll put it out there quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. Our average monthly grocery and food bill for January and February was $970. That's only including what we paid by check or debit card. That doesn't include cash purchases. Our monthly bill in 2009 averaged out to about $750, again not including cash purchases. So, what are we doing differently? In 2009 we spent about $290/month eating out, either fast food or fine dining. In Jan/Feb, we spent about $300/month. No jaw-dropper there. For groceries, in 2009 we spent about $450/month; the past two months we have spent $640. WOW! Makes sense...we've spent more on groceries because we're trying to eat at home more...right?

At this point, I need to make a very important point. Last year, my husband was home most of the year. As I mentioned before, he did a superb job of cooking and making sure we didn't waste food. Now with both of us working, we are having to make a more conscious effort to cook. I don't think we are cooking less and eating out more...the above numbers prove that to some degree (again, we aren't tracking cash purchases). Soooo, why are we spending more on groceries? Two things stick out in my mind. Either we are wasting more, OR, we are buying more expensive groceries. For the most part, I think we are bargain shoppers, or at least we try. We try to buy non-perishable goods at Sam's Club for the discounts on bulk shopping. But, we do splurge on a few things. Let's look at tonights grocery receipt for example from our local grocery store:
*Most expensive food items:
Wine (big bottle) - $10.99
Bolthouse Farms Juice - $6.99
Kashi cereal - $4.99
Nabisco Graham Crackers - $4.29
Tomatoes (3 big ones) - $4.17
Breyers ice cream - $3.99 (on sale)
Florida Orange Juice - $3.79
Strawberries (probably about 10) - $3.49

Okay, we also buy Fancy Feast cat food for our cat who is 13+ years old (she gets one jar once a day to supplement her dry food)...not a "food" item, but probably a luxury item none the less.

Let's look at the other side.
*Least expensive food items:
Broccoli (one crown) - $0.67
Reese's PB cups King Size - $1.00 (on sale)
Bananas (6) - $1.12
Roma Tomatoes (3) - $1.19
Carrots (little bag) - $1.49
Applesauce (6 cups) - $1.67
Yogurt (6 Dora containers) - $2.00
Milk (1 gal) - $2.50
Yogurt (large container) - $2.50
Foster Farm sandwich meat - $2.50 (on sale)
Red Baron pizza - $2.97
Salad mix - $2.99
Sourdough bread - $2.99
Apples (6 red del.) - $3.37

An interesting note...I'm noticing that everything I will be growing in my garden this year will probably fall into the "least expensive" column. Tomatoes and strawberries are about the only expensive items we currently buy that we can grow ourselves. This brings up a big issue: why do we always assume that if we make it ourselves it will be cheaper? I mentioned it earlier, but the whole juice story needs to be talked about. We tried diligently making our own juice last year for about 2 months. We found the only juice that was semi-dollar-saving to make yourself is orange juice on the condition that you find cheap oranges (which don't usually produce the most juice, let alone tastey juice). We surmised that it is more cost-effective to buy our juice...especially if you buy it as frozen concentrate.

This leads to another point. When we have the financial ability, we try to buy USA grown food, ie: Florida's Natural orange juice. Yes, it is more expensive, but we feel we are supporting our own farmers. We also try to buy as natural, GMO-free food as possible when finances aren't tight, ie: Foster Farm sandwich meat and chicken. Let me state right now, I am a strong proponent of production agriculture. My personal grain land is part of a large family-owned farming operation. We have farmed since 1887 and my family grows traditionally produced grains. The world would starve if it weren't for production agriculture. 96% of the world's population lives outside the USA. We cannot be fed by small organic farms alone. I also think there is a place for GMO. I think we can have productivity and sustainability together in agriculture. I don't believe we have to choose. Our American farmers are great stewards of the land and livestock. There are people much smarter than me working on creating a world that can be fed safely and substantially. I recently returned from a business trip to Japan. 12 million people live in Tokyo. I saw apartment buildings that rose higher than our giant Montana wind-energy mills. One third of Montana's wheat goes to feed Japan alone. The world is big. It's population is rising. Feeding that population cannot be accomplished by organics.

Now, back to the problem at hand. Maybe we are spending money on more expensive items. Maybe we aren't eating our leftovers as well as we should. I will admit that I have thrown too many things out that should have been consumed in a timely fashion. All we can do is continue trying to watch what we buy and cut back our waste. I'm still fairly confident we can cut our spending by growing and making our own food. On a side note, I'm also determined to cut our garbage in half too!

On a brighter note, I'm ready to start preparing my little sun room for seed starting! Over the next few weeks I'll have fun photos to share and we will finally get to talk about plants!!! The snow is gone and March is proving to be warmer than normal...but we're still due for a late season arctic blast. If the warm weather holds out, I'm sure we'll be regretting it come August, but for now I'm going to soak up the sunshine and enjoy the warmth. Now, I'm going to throw this damn receipt away and move on to greener pastures!

Day 28 - The end of Month 1

10 days. 10 long days. The world can completely change in 10 days. I know God created the world in 7, but 10 days is my max for creating a mess and trying to pick it back up without completely falling apart.

In the past 10 days we made 2 loaves of bread, cookies, and scones. Tried a new mac and cheese recipe. Told Ryan it was "a Julia-like masterpiece".

Ate the bread, cookies, and scones. Still looking at the last serving of mac and cheese in the refrigerator.

Went to the grocery store twice. Began to understand that some things on my wish list of recipe experimentation will require ordering online.

Watched as a devastating earthquake completely tore apart Haiti and it's people. Watched the world, especially America, respond valiantly to this horrible event.

Contemplated how the simple subject of food sets the world's people apart socially and physically...it's the basis of everything...the one thing that separates us from the third world we only see from afar.

Contemplated why farmers are the backbone of the world. Brainstormed with a colleague how to tell America that farmers are its' backbone, and why Americans should support the Farm Bill with the same enthusiasm they use to send checks to Haiti.

Cleaned the house. Got the house dirty. Realized dirty dishes lead to the dirty house.

Listed our Kalispell property on Craig's List. Received one inquiry wanting to know if we'd trade our home for a home on Flathead Lake. Hesitantly typed the words "thank you, but not at this point in our life..."

Endured another snow storm and bone-chilling cold front. Finally saw the sunshine and realized Great Falls isn't so bad.

Listened to Kali begin coughing. Endured cold number 3 for the season. Slept in her bed 5 nights in a row. Cried after dropping her off at daycare when I wanted to keep her home and nurse her back to health myself.

Worked a promotional booth at an industry tradeshow for 3 days. Gave a presentation to fellow peers. Gave a TV and radio interview for the local ag network. Got tired of talking to people.

Thought of the numerous ways I can make some spare money via our website and farmer's market.

Got tired after thinking about the extra hours we would spend making some spare money.

Daydreamed about not having to go to work.

Bought Kali her first set of snow skis. Watched daddy and daughter enjoy another "lifetime experience" as she skied happily down our hillside.



Paid bills and updated bookwork. Realized in our first month we actually spent more on food and groceries than we averaged per month in 2009. Pulled my hair out.

Vowed to be more diligent in February.

Found more grey hairs on my head than I've ever seen. Gladly remembered I have a hair appointment next week.

Bought two books on Japanese language and culture in preparation for my business trip to Tokyo next month. Started to fear that 8 days across the ocean is a bit long now that I'm a mother and wife. Accepted the fact that people travel much more than I with no problems.

Bought a new business suit, skirt, shirt, and fashionista high calf boots (I'm sure to stand out even more in Tokyo as they push me well over the 6 foot mark).

Enjoyed the best over-priced margarita at dinner out with the best company possible...the man of my life and miss Kali Kay.

Enjoyed the best over-priced ice cream from Coldstone Creamery (sometimes it is just better when someone else makes it!).

Watched Julie & Julia. Felt guilty for not blogging. Realized daily blogs are impossible, but weekly blogs keep me grounded.

Ordered a couple more seed packets and seed potatoes from Seed Saver Exchange.

Ordered a book on saving seeds.

Contemplated the design of our garden.

And finally...the official onset of spring fever settled in on all of us.

Day 18

Well, the past week flew by. Thursday Kali had her 3-year check up, which we celebrated with a dinner out. That night she had a reaction to the shots and we were both up all night. Needless to say, we weren't up for work or much else on Friday. Saturday morning we packed up and headed west of the mountains to visit family in Kalispell. We were also able to check in on the status of our home remodel project. Thankfully a good friend is helping us finish things up. During our stay, we came face to face with why eating good food is so vital. Salmonella. My hubby and his folks ate some bad chicken, and all three ended up violently ill. Ryan rarely gets sick, and this bout threw him for a loop. So crazy how an improperly cooked, old, or tainted piece of food can literally chew up your insides. We ruled out the flu, because Kali and I didn't get it. We also didn't eat the bad chicken. Ryan read that the majority of food poisoning is salmonella.

Now more than ever I am feeling like diligent scratch cooking and eating is a must, as is eating up leftovers quickly. My new motto is "3 strikes (days) it's out"! Regarding leftovers, here are some good guidelines from whatscookingamerica.net:

Storing Leftovers

All cooked foods should be reheated to 165° F, refrigerated, or frozen within 2 hours after cooking. In hot weather, that time limit is only 1 hour. Remember that the "safe" period starts after the food is cooked. It includes the time that the food sits before being served and the time it sits on the table while the meal is being eaten. This period lasts until the food is actually in the refrigerator or freezer.

Remember to wash your hands with soap and water before handling any cooked food, especially food you store to eat later. Use clean utensils to handle the food, and store it in clean containers. Do not put food back into the same container it was in before it was cooked, unless you have carefully cleaned the container with soap and water. Do not place food on a counter or cutting board before refrigerating or freezing, unless you have carefully cleaned the surface beforehand.

You should place foods to be refrigerated or frozen in small, shallow containers, 3 inches tall or less, and cover them completely. Don't stack these containers right next to other containers, but leave some air space around them. By using shallow containers and by leaving air space around the containers you can promote rapid, even cooling of the food. When you refrigerate or freeze cooked food in a large, deep container, the food in the center of the container remains warm for a longer time. Dangerous bacteria may grow in this warm spot without making the food look or smell bad. If you eat this food later, you may get food poisoning.

Never taste leftovers that are of questionable age or safety.

As a general rule, never keep leftovers for more than 4 days.

Remember to remove the stuffing from cooked poultry and refrigerate or freeze it separately. You should do this because the stuffing in the center of the bird can stay warm long enough for food poisoning bacteria to grow. By removing the stuffing and placing it in its own container, you allow it to cool more rapidly.

If you date leftovers before refrigerating them, this can help you ensure they don't remain in your refrigerator too long.

Warming Leftover Foods When leftover foods are reheated, make sure you heat them completely. Leftovers that are merely "warmed" and not heated throughout are much more likely to cause food poisoning. Cover any leftover sauces, soups, gravies, and other "wet" foods, and heat them to a rolling boil before they are served. Heat all other foods to 165° F throughout. Be sure to stir foods while you reheat them, to ensure that all the food reaches the appropriate temperature.

So, until today we have lived on soup and crackers.

One good thing that grew out of this episode was finding a great American-made Cheddar Broccoli soup...Bear Creek Country Kitchens. At first, I thought $4 was a lot to spend on a bag of soup mix, but it makes a huge batch and tastes great! Add your own veggies or meat and it would make a great stew-like soup. I am eager to try other mixes of this brand.

While I didn't do much scratch cooking the past seven days, we did learn a very valuable lesson.

Day 11

Okay, it's Wednesday. What did I tell you about Wednesdays? Nothing has changed. Ryan works late again, so we girls devoured a $9.28 meal from Burger King. I cooked an entire homemade pizza with fresh ingredients for less than the two preservative filled cheeseburgers, fries and sodas now rumbling in our tummies.

I made bread from scratch this weekend. I ran out of all-purpose flour, so I had to make it out of mostly whole wheat flour. If you've ever made bread from scratch, you'll know what this means. Instead of a light and fluffy loaf, you end up with a fiber-filled small lump. I mixed some maple syrup in with it for a little bit of taste. Thankfully, Ryan and Kali both enjoy the taste and texture better than traditional loafs. I lucked out again! See sidebar for this Rowe-favorite recipe.

REALLY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Time spent cooking: 1/2 day project, but really only about 1 hour of "work"
Time spent cleaning up: 0.5 hour

Flour: $0.25-0.50
Yeast: $0.20
Brown sugar: $0.20
Butter: $0.25
TOTAL SCRATCH COST: $0.90-$1.15

Not bad, considering our favorite breads are usually $3-5 per loaf. As with the pizza crust, I will continue experimenting with different recipes to expand our variety. Again, this is a fun task that Kali likes to participate in. Overall, we decided that it is worthwhile to make bread from scratch for both the taste and cost. This isn't a tough item to make, and the majority of time is spent waiting for the bread to rise. Bread is quite simple to make and is usually always edible no matter how badly the recipe is screwed up or not followed. In fact, the only time I've had to throw any scratch attempts out was when I over-cooked it in the oven and it was burned. I must also add that we aren't legitimate sandwich eaters. We mostly use traditional bread for toast and buttered. We usually eat our lunch meat with crackers and cheese for a quick lunch. When we do make sandwiches, it's for road trips. I point this out because we may not be the best judge of how many loaves a traditional family may consume in a week. Normally, two loaves of homemade bread will last us 1-2 weeks.

I mentioned BK earlier. Last night my in-laws were over for dinner, and we ordered two large pizzas (canadian bacon & pineapple and deluxe-supreme) in from the local pizza shop (Howard's is superb by the way!)...but the two pizzas cost us $31, not including tip. WOW. Let's go one step further again. This is what an average breakdown of a daily menu for me and the cost:

Breakfast
Latte: $0.90
Kashi Cereal & Milk: $0.25
Lunch
Assortment of raw veggies (cauliflower, carrots, celery, green pepper, cucumber): $0.50-0.75
Bread & Butter: $0.10
Lunch meat: $0.30
Dinner
2 Pieces of Pizza (homemade): $2.60
2 Beers (Coors Light of course!): $2
Piece of Good Bread: $0.50
TOTAL AVERAGE DAILY COST FOR KARA TO EAT FROM SCRATCH: $7.15-$7.40

Now that $6.09 I spent on a Whopper and fries just seems silly!

Days 7-10

It's amazing how this challenge has seeped into every aspect of my life. It's what I needed both physically and mentally. Making the move to a new town, and more importantly into a new lifestyle shook me up to the core. I loved our life in Kalispell. I got to stay home. Prior to Kali's birth we had run a media company, grew too fast, and eventually pulled the plug on our talents and risks. It took us awhile to lick our wounds and recuperate. For a couple of years we worked odd jobs throughout the valley from construction to retail. When I went to work for a wholesale plant nursery, we got pregnant. We wanted more than anything to be able to stay home with our children...that was the "plan". We both had a knack for plants and creative design. Growing up on a farm, getting my hands dirty seems to be in my blood. Getting into landscaping was a perfect fit...and we loved it! Our first full season we had a crew of six, and Ryan ran the operation. I stayed home with Kali and ran our small cold-hardy plant farm.
I was homemaker and bookeeper. I loved it! And, we were good at it. We didn't have much money for advertising, so we relied on drive-by traffic. See our RoGrown website. Luckily we lived on a popular side road between Kalispell and Whitefish. I was teaching myself different skills in both business and home living. Landscaping was our bread and butter. The plants were my hobby and it fupply for our landscaping unit. Through our construction connections and word of mouth, we kept a consistent calendar booked our first year. We did superior work, and everything seemed to be rolling our way. Our client base was growing and we had acquired great recommendations.

Our second season we decided not to hassle with employees, and only took on jobs that Ryan and I could do on our own. Looking back, this was the start of our demise. That same year I ordered too much plant stock. I purchased stock based on what we needed to sell to make it through the year, instead of how much we could actually sell. A very beginner mistake of simple economics. We started the year in debt, and couldn't get out. The economic downturn had started in our valley. We tried advertising more, and it worked, but not enough. Bad timing and bad decisions hit our pocket book. It was time to find a steady paycheck once again. Because I have a college degree, I had better luck finding a good paying job. The negative was that the good paying job required us to move 200 miles east. I had to say goodbye to our Eden west of the Divide.

Soooo, the past 16 months has been adjusting to not only a new town, but new lifestyle. We have officially put our place in the valley up for sale. A friend has purchased our portable "greenhouse", and is coming to get it this weekend. To say I've been a little depressed is an understatement. Thankfully, this project has brought me hope. Hope that someday I'll have my Eden again. Hope that someday I can again be full time homemaker and bookeeper; instead of homemaker, bookeeper, and full time marekting director for someone else. This challenge has stirred my energy to focus on what can be again, but with more lessons learned and smarter economic decisions. This challenge has given me a fresh look at our future. It won't be the same as before, but like they say, sometimes you have to give up the good to find the better.

Days 5 & 6

After my pity-party on Wednesday, we rose back up to the challenge to finish the week off respectfully. Thursday night Kali and I came home and made our famous "Fridge Fantastico". Not necessarily fantastic, but very edible. We take anything in the fridge, including veggies, meat, and sauces that are close to being thrown out and throw them in a pot instead. Now, they obviously have to make sense together. No pizza sauce and chicken soup. We made a nice chicken and noodle stew with carrots, celery and red peppers. Not a bad collection. If Kali will eat it, it must be alright! I highly recommend this recycling philosophy to remedy tossing veggies and leftovers that are beyond original appeal. One requirement: the ingredients must still look fairly good. No mold, no mushiness, no funky smells. I did take out some frozen chicken breasts for this concoction, and they went well. In fact, chicken bouillon is a staple in my cupboard!

PIZZA

By cleaning out the fridge a little, I got back in the mood of cooking. I decided to try cooking fresh what we might otherwise buy pre-packaged or frozen. I mentioned earlier that we ate our last frozen pizza, so I decided Friday we would give scratch pizza a shot. Crust and all. Between the web and my cookbooks I found a crust recipe that looked good and easy. I made our list of groceries for the week, and Kali and I trotted off to the store after work on Friday. Yay! We made it to the weekend! Thankfully, I have a daughter who loves to be in the kitchen with us. This is where we can blend playtime and cooking together. When she was smaller we couldn't do this. Now she not only understands what's going on and what not to touch, she can also help in her own way. Our first pizza crust experience went okay. It was fairly easy and tastes good. Our only problem was ultimately my fault. I forgot that you want to pre-heat the pizza stone...our crust stuck to it. I used a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flour, and we all liked the taste. We prefer thin crust, and this recipe was not thin at all. It tasted more like bread. We will continue to try different recipes and find one that we like best. Overall, though, it was a good experience and worthwhile both time-wise and taste-wise. Clean up was average for scratch cooking.

Time spent cooking: 1 hour
Time spent cleaning up: .5 hour

This is also the first time I was able to calculate whether we saved money. Before today, we were working with food I hadn't kept track of. Now my spreadsheet is paying off! While my numbers aren't exact, I think they're a pretty close estimate:

Tomato sauce (mix of paste, sauce, spices): $.75-$1.00
Crust (flour, yeast, oil, water, salt): $.50-$.60
Meat (canadian bacon, pepperoni): $2.50-$3.00
Cheese (mozzarella, cheddar): $1.75-$2.00
Toppings (pineapple, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes): $1.50-$1.75
TOTAL SCRATCH COST: $7.00-$8.35

You're probably wondering why I include a range. Costs on things change...sales and discounts happen. Some things we have expensive taste in (Tilamook cheddar) and other things we don't (cheap pepperoni). As intricate as my spreadsheet is, I'm not going to figure out exactly how much a teaspoon of salt costs. I'm confident that we can make wise decisions based on these estimates. Based on this first pizza experiment, we found that our scratch pizza costs as much as a fancy frozen pizza, and is way cheaper than a pizza parlor/delivery pizza. Taste is like that of a good delivery pizza, and better than a frozen pizza. Clean up and prep is obviously more than both delivery and frozen. Overall, we decided that it is worthwhile to make pizza from scratch for both the taste and cost. Because we are able to blend cooking and playtime on this, the time consumption is worthwhile as well. While toppings (veggies) are not the most expensive items, they do add up. Once we get a garden in, and begin harvesting our own vegatables, that will also factor into the cost.

LATTES

Another experiment we've been working with all week is Ryan's latte addiction. We both enjoy a good latte, but my husband absolutely adores them! Luckily we started making our own lattes a couple of years ago, but got off the scratch habit when we both started working. This week he started making them at home again. The savings on this project are much more obvious:

Time spent cooking & cleaning up: 0.25 hour

Milk (16 oz): $.36
Espresso: $.25
Caramel: $.18
Whip: $.11
TOTAL SCRATCH COST: $.86

Again this is an estimate...in fact, I think it's even lower as I had to estimate how many scoops of beans are in the bag (how long a bag will last). Regardless, WOW! We pay $3-$4 per 16 ounce latte at different coffee shops. Let's take this one a step futher...if you had a latte each day of the year, your scratch cost is $314. If you spend $3/day on a latte at a coffee shop for a year, the cost is $1095. That's a yearly savings of at least $780! You could buy a top-of the line espresso maker and still have money left over! Overall, we decided that it is very worthwhile to make lattes from scratch for both the taste and cost. Ryan also pointed out we save money on the fuel!

Whew! One week almost complete. Today we will spend our Saturday cleaning, baking, and, most importantly, playing! I think this week was a very practical start to our challenge. We had moments of weakness, and moments of success. Onward ho!

Days 2-4

We did great. Sunday Ryan cooked frozen perch he'd caught this summer. Monday, Kali and I had leftovers and Ryan worked late. Tuesday we ate the last frozen pizza in our posession. Can you see a pattern forming???

It's Wednesday night, and like every Wednesday night I'm pooped. We broke down and ate at one of our favorite restaurants tonight, because both Ryan and I were too tired to cook. This happens around this time every week. It seems that on Monday you're still energetic from the weekend. On Tuesday the weekend, while becoming a distant memory, still has your ambitions jazzed. By Wednesday you're breaking down. Thursday and Friday you just hang on until the freshness of Saturday morning wakes you up renewed and full of plans for doting on home and family.

Life is just easier on the weekends. You have to be extremely aware of balance during the week. Balancing work, chores, and play. I don't know how single parents survive. I'm a fairly even-keeled person, and I get pretty weathered by Friday. My hat is off to you! My hat also goes off to those who hate their job. I'm lucky to have a job doing what I enjoy...in fact, the only think I hate about working is that it takes me away from my home and family. I enjoy being a housewife. I also enjoy having a career. Some day I hope to find a way to blend the two without having to scratch by every year financially. Until then, we both work. We were self-employed for a few years, did well, and survived. Now we have a little one and retirement to think about. Remember the college plan? We also have a plan to retire by the time we're 55. Soooo, instead of keeping my house completely tidy and fresh made meals in the oven, my weekday routine barely allows for chores and play. With this food project, we will have to learn to continue the balance in cooking, gardening, and preparing the fruits of our labor. Some days, just remembering to take the meat out of the refrigerator in the morning is a huge task! Well, it's late and I haven't a clue what we're having for dinner tomorrow...

Day 1

Day 1, as boring as it sounds, was absolutely wonderful! Sundays are always hard to beat though. It started with Ryan and I reaching way back in our kitchen cupboards and finding what will be an essential piece of this project's puzzle. For a wedding gift over 6 years ago we received the sweetest gift to a couple starting out on a self-sufficiency trek. I was given a beautiful Kitchenaid mixer from the wonderful ladies of my hometown as a wedding shower gift. In the few years we've been together, The Dutchess (named after a saintly great white mule we once owned), and I have created approximately 100 batches of cookies, 100 loaves of zucchini bread, and 50 loaves of bread. Today we found her crown jewels, after I asked "what do you think these pieces go to?" Our aunt and uncle gave us not only the food processing accessories, but one kitchen tool we have been wanting...a meat grinder. Naively, I had unpacked it, washed it, and stuck it away never to see it again for 6 years. After being boxed up and moved a couple of times, it easily slipped into the abyss of forgotten small appliances. It was like Christmas morning once over. Even Ryan got into putting the little parts and pieces together. A whiz in the kitchen, his eyes started jumping at the world that instantly opened up to us...without having to spend any money! Now all I need is the grain mill and we'll be set. From a beginners heart, Kitchenaid, God bless you, seriously.

The rest of the day I spent watching the Vikings put the hurt on Eli and the Giants, while I trudged through a mammoth of my own. My office/catch-all. It's more of a nook in our basement between the laundry room and my husband's workshop. It doesn't even have an overhead light. The previous owners were big on lamps. Various outlets in our home don't work unless a light switch is turned on, my office included. Today we bought a big floor lamp to help light the way through our bookwork, files, and my handful of hobbies. If I am to do this project justice, I need to stay organized. After 31 years, the one thing I know about myself is that nothing turns my haystack of a life upside down more than unorganization. If things aren't going right for me mentally, odds are my office is a mess. I'm not talking about the "piles everywhere" type of chaos. God knows I am the queen of stacking. Every evening we share our dinner table with mail, bills, paperwork, Kali's latest artwork, and a crayon or two. When company comes over, I stack it all into a nearby closet. I'm talking about knowing where everything is, and that it all has a proper home. I do bookwork every other day in order to sleep well. Even our weekly chores have a spreadsheet. After moving in this fall, I still had boxes of piles I hadn't gone through. Admittedly, 25% of it ended up in the circular file. Now that my nook is somewhat in place, I can prepare for this food project properly. I plan to track food spending item by item, to know if we are truly saving money. If so, how much? Is the time invested worth the savings? I remember my mother telling me after my grandma's canning disaster my grandpa told her "That's it Agnes, no more. We're buying canned peas from now on." After this project, I may find the same to be true. I hope not.

I also placed our first seed order over the weekend. After my hog-wild backyard garden experience, Ryan made me promise I wouldn't go overboard. I will keep things within reason. I only ordered veggies I know we'll eat, and two experiments...a melon, and a squash that may take too long if we get an early freeze. I do have a plan for extending our season, which we'll get to later in the journal. I plan to start certain varieties indoors in March, but I may try a couple peppers, tomatoes, and herbs soon. Our home has a sun portch off of our dining/kitchen area that I have been anxious to baptise as a greenhouse. We need to add heat and a fan, but otherwise it is perfect. Thanks to Territoral Seed and Nourse Farms we've got over 15 vegetables, 50 strawberries, and 10 raspberries on their way to start our new hobby farm. If our place in the Flathead doesn't sell by spring, I also plan to transplant 70 more berry plants, some rhubarb, and asparagus from our old place to the new.


Probably the best part of the day was brainstorming with Ryan about a plan. He had a fantastic point. In addition to the simple things, we need to focus on the most expensive items, and those that are worth our time. We bought a juicer last year. After a few months of buying fresh fruit and processing it, we decided it was just as cheap to buy the frozen concentrate. It may not be as tastey, but have you ever tried juicing your own cranberries??? There's not much there. This is where keeping an itemized list will be helpful. Store prices versus the cost of making it at home. I was excited to find a recipe for nearly everything we may want to try in my set of cookbooks. Homemade mayonaise, yogurt, and salad dressings galore. We do have expensive taste when it comes to these things...you just can't beat Litehouse Thousand Island! I am excited to try them. For now, however, I've got a game of hide-and-seek to get to before bed! Cheers!

The Challenge

After laying out a bit about us, we now come to the point of this journal. With the end of every year comes a review of finances. The taxman will soon be knocking. This is the point in time when we scrutinize, pinch, bite and end up with a headache over where our money went. A lot of things jump out. Auto maintence and fuel. Rent. Utilities. Insurance. Finance charges and interest. Same ol' same ol'. This year, something bothered me more than usual. Our food bill. In 2009 we spent over $8900 in food and groceries. This included dining out, fast food, and supermarket bills. It didn't include what we paid cash for, so I can easily assume we spent $10-11,000 on food and household items. Maybe this isn't a shocker to most of you, but for a three-person family this made my eyes squint and my jaws clench! I looked back at 2008. Similar story. $7300 in trackable food/household expenses. I'm guessing it was slightly less because both of us were home through September to share cooking duties. When we took the job in GFalls, my hubby was still home to take over. Admittedly, I think he does them better than I!

I will also admit that we are not penny pinchers. I enjoy eating out occassionally. I also enjoy shopping at Eddie Bauer. My husband likes to buy good tools, not cheapos. We are sending our daughter to one of the spendier daycares. We pay our taxes in full, and we tithe every year. We pay off credit card debt as soon as possible. We like having a nice home, but it's not new and has no granite countertops. We also don't have a lot of "toys". No boat. No 4-wheeler. No golf /ski passes. No flatscreen television. Our Ford truck has over 200k miles on it, and our family van is approaching 130k. I push mow about half an acre of lawn each week (spending an hour after work it takes me about 4 days). I finally broke down and bought a $60 Christmas tree, because our old one had a broken base and a few of the limbs were missing. Our daughter is getting older now, and a lopsided tree doesn't work with horseplay and balls being kicked around. Thankfully, she is still young enough, however, not to understand the difference between our $60 tree and the $160 tree further down the line.

My point is, we're not the most frugal, but we also try to curb spending. I'd consider us an average 30-somtheing family. My challenge this year is to try and whack away at that $10,000 grocery bill by growing fruits and vegetables myself, canning/freezing them, and making as many meals as possible at home. I also hope to get chickens someday, as we eat a lot of eggs and poultry. Between the chickens and the deer we got this year, we'll hopefully be able to cut our meat bill down. All this while holding down my 9-5, M-F job, and keeping my sanity, wife and mother relationships all in-tact. I hope to prove that this is possible, and that growing at least a portion of your own food can make a difference on your wallet.

I also understand my boundaries. There are certain things that won't be replaced in our grocery bills, like dish soap, shampoo, and bleach. Also we won't replace certain food items like milk and butter. I grew up with cattle and I don't want any of my own. The point of this project isn't to change our lifestyle entirely. In fact, just the opposite. It's not even about growing things organically or locally. It's simply a challenge to find out whether I can bring down our food bill by being a little more dilligent, efficient, and self-sufficient. There will be challenges I've never faced. While I've gardened nearly all my life, I've never canned. Frankly, it scares the be-Jesus out of me. I've heard stories of my grandmother losing an entire batch of canned peas to the walls after an explosion. I've also heard horror stories of the lids not popping properly and a whole crop going bad. Until this point, I have frozen all surplus fruits and veggies. Safe, but not exactly flavor-saving.

I hope someday, if all goes well, my daughter can use this journal to understand how and why we did what we did. She may also learn where her college fund came from!

Introduction

Wow. 2009 is now a year filed away. Another year's worth of lessons under our hats, and another year's worth ahead of us. It's funny how we contemplate years. Rather quickly we begin to forget which one's which in our memories. We candidly remember events, important dates, and even the thoughts we had at the time...but when you try placing them in any kind of historically accurate fashion, the "greyness" creeps in.

In my head, 2009 will be remembered as our first official year living in our new town, Great Falls. We endured each new season from new perspectives and windows. It was the year we became a new-century "traditional" family...two parents working and our child going to daycare. After two-and-a-half years of keeping one of us home with our daughter, while scratching out an income (forget any kind of savings!), we decided my husband should also obtain a steady paycheck. We have 15 years to save up for our little girls' college option, and that is no small savings. After chatting with other moms, even in-state tuitions are reaching $80,000 for a four year degree. Yikes!

College isn't the only reason for our change in lifestyle. We decided living in town is not where we wanted our little one to grow up. Both my husband and I are rural people, and living in a 2 bedroom 1 bath duplex on a one-way street did not suit us. Financially it worked out, but our hearts couldn't take it any longer. So, 6 months ago we signed a lease with option to buy a 2.5 acre homestead just out of town. We have neighbors, but we also have space.

We were spoiled in our previous home...we lived in the Flathead Valley of northwest Montana. It is an outdoor enthusiasts dream. Golfing, snowboarding, fishing, hunting, and hiking were all within a few minutes' drive. AND, best of all for me personally, our ten acre home/farm sat on a gardener's dream. Sandy loam. I honestly think this is near the top of God's most precious gifts to man...of course behind saving us from our sins, and water, and food, and creation itself. But it is definitely in the top 20! I could literally drop a seed on the ground and I think it would grow. Clay levels were down at least 12 inches, so my vegetable garden flourished. One year, we dug up our entire back yard and I grew a garden. It was fantastic! It was one of my first attempts at gardening on my own, so it was a bit of an eye sore, but I was in heaven! Now that we are putting it on the real estate market, we replaced my onion patch with a flower bed (which is also phenomenal by the way), and my corn patch is grass once again. My hope is that we can one day return to that part of the valley. For now, however, it is not in the plan for us.

Instead, we are in Great Falls. Sunny, windy, beautiful Great Falls. I'm afraid to say our spot on the east side of the Divide is a bit different. We moved into this home in September. There was just enough time for me to introduce myself to the pre-existing cottage garden. I planted a few bulbs I bought from a friend in the Flathead, and got a fist full of, well, clay. Not a total discouragement, but definitely a far cry from my loam. Luckily my hubby and I used to make a living gardening and landscaping for others, so amending clay soil is nothing new to us. Just another task. Back breaking as it may be!