Root Cellar
This may just be the keystone to the home-grown food arch I'm living right now. I've grown a lot of produce in other years, but storage has always been less than optimal. Keeping crate upon crate of roots in the basement of the old farmhouse worked for a few months, but the conditions were not...
What I’m Eating 1/11/15
The picture above is bibimbap, or the closest I could come with the limited ingredients available to me. Real bibimbap would have rice as a base instead of rutabagas, and it would be served in a searing hot stone bowl. But these major differences actually bothered me less than the absence of sesame seeds and oil, soy...
What do Turkeys do in Winter?
When I was in college I had a room to myself in a suite of sorts. Feeling kind of lonely I decided to get a pet, so stupidly I went to a pet store. After a bit of deliberation I decided a bird would strike the right balance between being low-maintenance and holding my interest....
An Appeal to Nature
Our pigs live in a hoop made of bent chain link fence pipe and billboard tarps, sleeping beneath advertisements for bourbon and health care providers on a bed of wood chips and hay. My brother Ed takes care of the morning feeding, but the afternoon chores are mine, so around three most days I put...
The Wheels of Just-ish
Ed outlined the rules by which we will determine allowable foods, but there’s one caveat large enough to warrant its own post. Last summer, while we were ironing out the specifics, we had a significant disagreement. I wanted to allow a monthly exception of some sort, while Ed was more of a purist. I won’t re-litigate...
The Rules
During 2015 we are going to eat “exclusively” from our farm. We talked a number of times about how strict to be, and have settled on the following exemptions. Salt and pepper are allowed. Vitamins and seaweed are allowed. Barter is allowed, particularly if the item we’re trading for is produced by the other barterer....
Food for a Year (pt. 2)
Why would I decide to eat only food grown on my farm for an entire year? That's a good question! I do like rutabagas more than most people I've met. Also, I have a farm, which makes the whole thing a lot easier. Also, I like eating game, meaning I won't be put out if...
Food for a Year
Welcome to our year-long project. Over the coming year my brother and I are going to take the local food movement to its logical and absurd endpoint, and we’re going to blog about it. We’re going to grow all our own food for an entire year*. We’re kicking it off today with the onset of 2015. Several...