Challanges 2013

Challanges for 2013

The year of the milk, butter, cottage cheese, soft cheese’s, yogurt, sheep feta and all kinds of other cheesing goodness..

Double Dare You-Deb Plant Challange 2013

March Challange 2013

Other challanges to annouced as they happen..

2012 challanges..

Feb No Spend Challange Same as last year combined with my Feb Challange for 10 dollars per week for food.

Dark Day Challange for 2012,  This challange is being hosted as a joint venture between urbanhennery and Not Dabbling in Normal, this is a challange that requires you to make one full meal once a week from within your 150 mile range over the hardest darkest months of the winter and then blog about the recipe and your wins and challanges at sourcing your items, I am making it extra hard by adding in that at least 50% or more of my dark day’s meal needs to have been grown, produced, raised or butchered on my own farm.

Dark Day Meal Links

#1-Stewed Lamb Chops with Rhubarb Relish, Stirfried Veggies, with baby potato’s

Independence Day Challange for 2012

So for each week, tell us what you have done in the following categories:

Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.

Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.

Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.

Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.

Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.

Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!

Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?

And a new one: Skill up: What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes. Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.

Marty Challange 2012-2013

This is a interesting challange, a couple viewers and family members challanged me to find out if raising my own beef calf would in fact save me money, break even or cost me in the end, I thought it such a interesting thing to learn that I gave it, its own page, I might also consider doing a pig raising and or chick or ducklings or rabbit raising costs on the same page see what the breakdowns are.

I have a number of interesting challanges planned for coming up for 2012, so check in often and do consider joining in, Some will be small and short, some will be a month long and at least one or two will be year long, slow and steady will win the race..

Challanges for 2010-2011- See below..

So I was reading a great challange-eat one month out of your house here are two other folks that are working this challange right now, brokeprofessionals and pennilessparenting could they be more different and yet their goals are the same.. live out of your home with what you have, anyone else out there giving this challange a try.. Canadian Doomer  and Backyard Farm is on board for the March Challange

Basic Rules are as follows

• Pets and Critters are exempt
• Pick a month and go from the 1st to the 31st

Our extra rules

• Can still shop stores for loss leaders or sales for our food pantry but it can not be used during the month of the challange.
• If DH is traveling out of town for work, those days are exempt from the challange for him.

Dh agreed to the challange but threw out one of his own.. he says he is happy to give a hand and follow along but that I need to make it seems like there is no challange going on when it comes to meal time..and that in and of itself is going make this just a touch more tricky..

So the month we picked was March for a couple reason

• Just coming off No-Buy Feb, means that we are already lean in the house in regards to fresh stuff.
• Its a long month with a full 31 days in it.
• Everything outside is still frozen solid-putting me at a disadvantage
• we are well into winter and there are a number of things that are getting low in storage as we have already been eating out of our home grown pantry for five months now.
• No Shopping extras, still can only have my regular max of 60 dollars on the coming shopping for the last two weeks of Feb, plus my regular 40 for stocking if sales are there

These factors should give the challange a bit more Oomph!

Want an Idea of what I have in the house, Gardening count 2010, an Canning Count 2010, and for a good understanding of what has been happening so far in 2011.

Just to add a little more work and to keep myself on the level -I will do a daily meal planner and to make it interesting to the readers, I will do my best to post lots of recipes and photos to go along with.

Its worth noting that DH works off the farm full time, and that I am home full-time working on the farm, there are times where we both take time off the farm related to our work jobs (but never at the same time).

So I was talking to my momma about this upcoming challange and she was all on board, turns out her farm womens group had this same challange in March of 83, and she did it herself, she said the only thing she ran out of was brown sugar and libbies baked beans, an that us kids eat her out of all her canned fruit.

One of the ladies of the group was named Agnes and she gave up in the middle of the challange, and went to the store for coffee an a few other things and Voilet (who was in her 80′s at the time) said to her,  “Honestly Agnes, some years we did not go to the stores at all if we were expecting.. we only sent our husbands once a year for coffee, tea, baking powder, Baking soda and salt in 50 or 100 pds bags”

Gotta love it! Following in the footsteps of my mom - again!

Update:

I am in awe of the fact that Doomer wrote out everything in her pantry

I’m just not going to do it, but what I will do is write a list of what is in the house in regards to fresh food.

March 1st

• 4 oranges-All Gone
• 3 Banana’s -All Gone
• 3 pds of fresh carrots- 2.0 pds left 1 pds left
• 10 pds of fresh Onion- 9 pds left 5pds Left
• 2 and half bunches of Fresh Celery- 2 bunches left One bunches Left
• 40 pds of mix sqaush’s- 38 pds left 33 pds Left
• approx 100 pds of pototos-85 pds left 50 pds left
• Half a baby watermelon- all gone..
• One bunch of green grapes- Starting to go-so made into grape compot March 5th 1 Quart-Down to 1/2 jar.- All Gone
• Missed my two cabbages- Down to one left.

Adding in daily-Fresh Eggs-Fresh Sheep Milk

Everything else in the recipes or menu you are seeing in the challange comes from my pantry, or freezers or cold storage or made fresh out of my own raw milk etc. Boy do I wish that we could have done a bit of extra shopping for this event..

Week One Overview

Week Two Overview,

Week Three Overview

Week Four Overview

Week Five Overview 

The sum it up Month Long Overview of the challange.

• March 1st-Barley overview
• March 2nd-Potatot overview
• March 3rd-Squash overview
• March 4th-Goat Overview
• March 5th -Eggs Overview
• March 6th-Salt Overview
• March 7th-Baking Powder Overview
• March 8th-Cast Iron Overview
• March 9th-Stinging nettle overview
• March 10th- Cooking Terms Part One
• March 11th-Cooking Terms Part Two
• March 12th-Fast Food Pantry Style
• March 13th-Rice Overview
• March 14th- Pastry and Pasties Overview
• March 15th-Salt Brine and’s its kissing cousin pickling
• March 16th-Gravies and Sauces Overview
• March 17th-Organ and Variety Meats
• March 18th-Onions and Garlic
• March 19th-Water Overview
• March 20th-Sweet Things
• March 21st-Rhubarb Overview
• March 22st-Soft Fruits Overview
• March 23st-Hard Fruits
• March 24st-Vinegar
• March 25st-Storing your Garden Produce
• March 26th-Tea/Herbs
• March 27th-Milk and Milk Products
• March 28th-Oats
• March 29th-Tomato
• March 30th-Bones and Making Stock
• March 31st-Flowers/Seeds