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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 9:20am | IP Logged
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What does a day look like for someone who eats locally and in season; growing, canning, freezing their own foods, gardening, etc. I ask because we used to have a very large garden and I canned or froze much of the produce from it. BUT, that was when we had 1 child and I didn't homeschool. Now I have 5 children and we homeschool and I don't feel like I have enough time to even keep my house clean let alone garden/can all day.  Can you give me a glimpse into what your days look like when you are doing all these things? It seems you would never be out of the kitchen or garden. I'm reading Animal Vegetable Miracle and I really feel compelled to eat in a healthier way but I feel overwhelmed about how to make that all work.
I am a schedule person so if you have a routine or schedule and it all fits I'd love to know how.
(I think this posting sounds like I'm being sarcastic or negative. I'm really not. I'm truly wondering how to do this in my home.) 
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Becky
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Bookswithtea
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Ooooooooooooooo, I can't wait to hear the responses from those that manage a big garden and canning while homeschooling. This is something I've wondered about, too!
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JodieLyn
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Short growing season here.. so mostly it doesn't overlap the official school year, I include the kids in the work. We have great discussions out there in the garden.. what do worms do and why are they good? etc.
And again I include the kids in the preserving process.. but I don't have that continuous production that I remember growing up. It just gets cold.. we can't plant much before mid-May and we've had frost by the beginning of Oct. And my garden does not belong in any magazine unless someone was going to use it as a "before" picture. But still.. I may not have the time to give it to keep it looking picture perfect but I get veggies from it.
And my friend in a more abundant area simply plans her school year to include a week off for harvesting and preserving.
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Angel
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I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in January of 2009. It's one of those books that is both inspiring and overwhelming all at the same time.
I think it works much better if you take it all in baby steps instead of trying to do everything all at once. The first thing I would actually do is to look for local sources of meat.
We're sort of in the same situation as Jodie here: short growing season, so most of the garden can't go in until Memorial Day and we have frost the 2nd week in Sept. I don't can and freeze nearly as much as I'd like to get through the winter. In 4 seasons, the only thing that has ever lasted us all year has been green beans... and one year we managed on potatoes. The problem I have is that gardening/canning season is also asthma/allergy season for me.  So sometimes things just go by the wayside because I physically can't do them. This is very annoying to me, because I *like* gardening, etc.!
Anyway, what usually happens is this:
In February, I put in the seed order.
In March, I start a bunch of tomatoes and peppers inside that die, or grow really spindly because I don't have enough light.
In April, we plant a spring garden as soon as the soil can be worked and the rabbits eat most of it. By this point, everybody *needs* to be outside, so it's everybody working. I wish the peas would work out because I would love to freeze an enormous amount of peas every year, but they never do. Instead we usually get gobs of spinach, but not until the beginning of June. The potatoes and onions will need to go in now. My dh usually does those, on weekends or after work. He's also in charge of the orchard.
It is *impossible* to keep the house clean in April. This is mud season, and I could mop the floors 8 times a day and there would still be dirt.
In May, I start my okra and melons indoors. The okra does ok, but the melons always get decimated by something, or frost comes too early and they never get ripe. By this point, I am paying kids a penny a weed to pull weeds, and 25 cents per clump for crab grass. If I don't pay them, they complain. If I do pay them, they'll go out in the garden without me and pull weeds. I pull weeds when we have our outside time every day, while the little boys dig holes and play with construction trucks.
Memorial Day weekend comes and we scramble to buy live plants and plant all the warm weather vegetables. This usually takes about a week, with the kids in charge of planting some of it during the day. I count this and weeding as school -- practical arts.
In June we have a brief lull. Depending on much spinach was planted, we may eat a lot of spinach. Last year I got it together enough to buy a couple of flats of strawberries and spent a day making jam and freezing strawberries, but it wasn't enough. We've already eaten through it all. My dh and dd helped wash, hull, and slice strawberries. It was on a weekend, but if I wanted to do it during the week, I would count that as school for my dd -- learning to make jam is a big deal for a 10 yo.
In July, depending on the weather, the first squash and beans start to come in, usually coinciding with summer soccer when we're gone 3 nights a week. So a lot of the time we are coming home at 9 PM and staying up to snap beans. The garden is not weeded as it should be, because my dh does a lot of this at night after work. Also in July we have gone blueberry and raspberry picking, but since there's usually no time to make jam, we just freeze everything. The kids help pick and prepare for the freezer.
In August, the warm-weather stuff starts to come in, and green bean and summer squash production intensify. (Unless it was as cold and wet as last year, when nothing produced.) Because it is too hard to can when there are little people around and no one else to watch them, *if* we can anything, my dh and I do it as a tag team at night after they're in bed. This makes for some late nights. But because it so hard for us to get time to can, we freeze more than we can. The little boys like to help snap beans and shuck corn, and I often freeze the extra around dinner time so we eat some for dinner and put up the rest. Last year was pathetic and all I got in quantity was peppers, so I used farm stand tomatoes and my peppers to make freezer salsa, which ended up runny but pretty good. (Makes an excellent queso dip.)
I have, in the past, bought from the farm stand in bulk to make up for anything I didn't grow or that failed in the garden, but to be honest, that's a lot of work.
Toward the end of August and into September, we're also digging potatoes, pulling onions and curing them in the sun (which involves remembering to set them out on tarps in the driveway every morning and take them in every night), and picking all the green tomatoes. We also take in all the winter squash and pumpkins. The thing I like about a lot of the fall vegetables, though -- winter squash, onions, potatoes, brussel sprouts, leeks, etc. -- is that you don't have to do anything *to* them to store them. So we try to have a good sampling of those. (Beets and carrots make the list, too, but I have a really hard time growing them in our rocky soil.)
And then we're done.
To be honest, there are 2 BIG areas that I haven't really taken care of in the past: tomatoes (I would love to have homecanned tomato sauce all year, but I can never get my tomatoes to work well in this short, wet season) and pickles (which no one in the family except me really likes.) I think, though, that it would be a lot easier for me to work these two things in a little at a time instead of trying to do one huge canning marathon in September (or whatever.)
The key to everything, though, is team work. There is no way that I could take care of a garden and can and freeze and take care of a household (which does suffer because we can only do so much) all by myself. The kids have to help. And if my dh wasn't involved, I don't think I could manage more than a smallish garden. And there's definitely a learning curve; I'm still at the beginning of it, too.
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melanie
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"In March, I start a bunch of tomatoes and peppers inside that die, or grow really spindly because I don't have enough light."
I do this every year. We have a decent growing season, but I love tomatoes and always am impatient to get those going so we can have them as soon as possible. Last year I had one lone tomato plant actually survive being planted indoors early and make it to the garden.
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JodieLyn
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Well I have no way to have them inside.. I'm thinking about trying in cold frames outside.. covering them with blankets at dark.
But one way or the other I have to have plants started sooner than I can plant in the ground or I can't get much. So the question is.. do I buy seedlings again or do I try from seed.. 
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Kristie 4
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I do the tomato thing every year too!! This year was a good year though. EIther way, the kids love looking at them growing at the end of our loooooong Manitoba winter!
I would second the local meat. We also try to eat more in season veggies- lots of cabbage salads in the winter and only the occasional lettuce. But it is hard in an age of such diversity and abundance in the menu! By summer my kids are ready for some variety in the fruit- apples and pears account for 95 percent of our fruit from September till mid July when the local fruit begins...
For the garden- it is my sanity. I love to be outside but my add tendencies make gardening just the ticket (or hanging clothes, which is handy in a large family!). My kids each have their own little plots that they design- I have to remind with the weeding but it works out well. When we had a huge acerage we grew lots of our own food, but now that we live urbanly with a little back yard we tend concentrate on the foods that we appreciate the most fresh and in season (not much room for the root veggies in the back yard- beets are the only ones that squeak through as I love to grow beets!)- things like a variety of lettuce, tomatoes, basil, beans, peas, peppers, herbs, cilantro etc.
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JodieLyn
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oh yes, a backyard gardener does need to decide what's their best choice. I figure if I can get 10lb of potatoes for $1 and 1 lb of tomatoes costs $1.. then giving growing space to tomatoes saves me tons of money while the potatoes not so much for the work involved.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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SimplyMom
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Fresh from the ground potatoes are sooooo good.
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AndieF
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Last year was my first year to do a big garden, and we had some successes and some failures.
Here is what we did -
Jan/February - make our garden plan, get seeds, etc.
Early April - Got garden plot ready. Planted peas and maybe the broccoli and cauliflower. I can't quite remember.
May - Planted green beans, roma tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs.
June - The weather was very hot, and then VERY rainy. Our peas never grew. We harvested broccoli and cauliflower, but we didn't plant enough to freeze any, so we just ate it fresh.
July - Lots of weeding. Harvested zucchini. Used some fresh, used some to make veggie relish, and froze some. Harvested and dried herbs. I got some local berries and made jam.
August - Harvested tomatoes and beans. Canned green beans and made the tomatoes into tomato sauce. Canned about 24 quarts of beans and 15 quarts of tomato sauce. Basically, enough to get us through the winter.
We spent at least one afternoon a week in May and June, and most mornings at the garden in July and August. We take summers off of homeschooling, so it didn't impact much on our homeschooling.
My plan this year is to spinach and lettuce during the early season, and do more tomatoes and green beans. I also found a local homeschooling family to get apples from, so I'll dehydrate some apples and make some applesauce too.
Andie, homeschooling mom to 3!
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Angel
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We got a dehydrator for Christmas last year, but only used it once last summer. I was going to use it mainly for fruit, but then the weather was so awful and my asthma was rotten and we never did go out berry picking, etc. I'm hoping to use it more next year.
As far as potatoes go... I guess you do have to weigh your space limitations, but since potatoes are some of the only plants that perform consistently well for us, we like to grow them. Plus, it's nice having some of the weirder kinds of fingerlings that are very good, and if you save seed potatoes for the next year, your next year's potatoes are free (and the next and the next). I guess it depends on how far toward the "local" spectrum you want to go. For instance, we can buy local Yukon Gold potatoes (some of my favorites) in 25 lb bags. They're probably more expensive than Wal-Mart potatoes, but they're much better tasting, and I support local farms. *But* if I grow them myself I'm taking a step toward self-sufficiency, kwim? On the other hand, if for some reason my crop failed or I didn't have time to get them in or whatever, I would feel perfectly fine about buying them from our local farm store. (I really have been spoiled on the subject of potatoes, and have discovered that I just don't like the white potatoes and big russets anymore. So, yeah -- spoiled. )
I was thinking last night, though, about the whole problem of space in general. One of the tough things we've run up against in doing the big garden/local food thing is the question of how much do we grow? We consistently don't grow enough, because it turns out you need A LOT of plants for a large family. But it's really hard to find a guide to how you need for a family of, say, 8 or 9. So it's a lot of trial and error. I think the more space you can give your garden, though, the better.
And, of course, there's always the issue of berry bushes and fruit trees, which we have not had much luck with, except for blackberries. But good grief, that blackberry bush has paid for itself many times over! 1/2 pints of blackberries were selling here last year for $4.95.
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MichelleW
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Becky,
We do this, but I don't do a ton of work.
January--I buy local, seasonal fresh food at our local market. If I make sure to buy in season, then the prices are pretty good. Right now I am buying and cooking with sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, potatoes, apples, brussel sprouts, cabbage, etc.
February--towards the end of February I start greens and radishes outside in a cold frame.
March--we begin to eat salads again, I start peas in the garden. I plant lots of these, but they all get eaten. I don't can any of them. We eat fresh peas from April to July. I pick large quantities of spinach whenever I need it for a meal, and saute it is batches with onion then put it into freezer bags. I usually make 4 batches at a time. Doing this throughout the spinach season keeps us in spinach until the fall.
April--We are still eating home grown greens and radishes, the peas come on. I start buying local asparagus which is about $1/pound during April and about $1.50/pound in May. This is salmon season. Fresh salmon can be smoked, canned or frozen with good results. I don't do this anymore. Sometimes we will trade a couple of salmon for smoking (we drop off 4 salmon, our friends smoke them all and we go home with 2), sometimes I will buy smoked salmon at the farmer's market. Sometimes a friend will gift me canned salmon, otherwise we just eat it fresh or freeze it.
May--I plant tomatoes and the rest of the typical summer veggies. I don't start anything indoors. I either plant seed directly outdoors or buy starts from friends or local nurseries (I never buy from chain nurseries).
June--the berries are on. We eat lots of strawberries, sometimes I will make a batch or two of strawberry jam. My kids can easily make freezer jam with help. That's all I do with strawberries. Blueberries, I pick 50 pounds at a U-Pick place. I freeze those in 2 cup portions. It takes me about an hour to distribute them all into freezer bags and send them to the freezer. I can 12 pints of raspberries every other year. The rest we eat fresh. Blackberries are eaten fresh.
July--the green beans come on. I do can these. Cherry tomatoes are ready, but we just eat these. We either butcher our own cow, or buy a side of beef from a local farmer. The corn begins. I buy this from local farmers because when it is in season I can get them 12 for $1. Whenever I roast corn for dinner, I make extra and freeze it. I pick and store garlic.
August--I can 12 quarts of peaches picked at a U-pick. I freeze the rest. We eat lots of fresh veggies, but I don't can anything. I make applesauce and applebutter in my crockpot. We pick plums from the trees in our yard. We eat the red plums and I partially dry and then freeze the Italian prunes. They make great snacks.
September and October--Tomatoes. I process over 100 pounds of tomatoes. I roast 2 pans every morning and puree (for soup, etc) and freeze and make 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce everyday until I am out of tomatoes. I also freeze several batches of chopped tomotoes, and several bags of bell peppers. I process 2-3 pumpkins from the little vegetable stand at the bottom of the hill and that makes enough pumpkin for the fall and winter. We eat fresh squash. I store onions, apples, pears. Many mushrooms are in season in October. I never pick these myself, I always buy these from a certified picker who picks within 5 miles of my home.
November and December--If I took care of my celery and carrots, they are still doing fine in the garden. I send a kid out to pick what I need. Same with the kale and brussel sprouts. Otherwise, I can buy these locally.
So, eating in season does not necessarily mean lots of work. It means being willing to go without when the item you want is not in season. We love eggplant, asparagus and blackberries, but we love them even more because we wait many months to eat them. We have them only when they are in season.
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Michelle
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cornomama4
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I have lots to post about this topic, but will have to do it later. I will say I LOVED that book and was immediately inspired and overwhelmed too 
I did have some early/short season tomatoes I had seen when I put in my ridiculous seed order a week ago.
(1059) OREGON SPRING TOMATO 55-80 days
This very early variety is a great choice for short growing seasons or container growing. The flavorful, red, 3 oz. fruits are nearly seedless, and are uniform in size. Good choice for an early tomato crop. Determinate vines.
PKT. - 20 seeds
Price: $1.50
(1071) SIBERIA TOMATO 40-70 days
Excellent choice for cold weather areas. The dwarf, sprawling plants are able to set fruit at cooler temperatures. This Russian variety produces plenty of red, 1½ oz. fruits with good, strong flavor. Does well in containers. Determinate vines.
PKT. - 20 seeds
Price: $1.50
(1066) SUB-ARCTIC PLENTY TOMATO 40-60 days
For those with short growing seasons, this extremely early variety has upright stems packed with 1½ inch fruits. Has excellent cold-setting abilities. Great for early summer harvests or when used in Fall container gardening. Determinate vines.
PKT. - 20 seeds
Price: $1.50
HTH
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Becky Parker
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Thanks for all the helpful replies. I enjoyed reading about your experiences. The month by month break downs were especially helpful. We've had a garden for years, although I haven't planted it for the last 4! It seems that I have been very pregnant or chasing a 1 year old and my husband's work has been keeping him way too busy too. This year, I'm hopeful to plant it again though.
I think my concern is that I'm going to be overwhelmed with all the work and my house is going to be a mess and I'm not going to be a very pleasant person to be around!.
Michelle, you make a really good point :"So, eating in season does not necessarily mean lots of work. It means being willing to go without when the item is not in season." This is the part I will need to get used to as well. We just had grapes and oranges on a fruit tray with our dinner. I know that neither of these came from MI in January! I think that will be the hardest part.
On the positive side, as my husband says, our kids are so picky about what they eat because they CAN be. If we commit to this, the pickings will be limited so maybe they will appreciate things as they come in season more. It's worth a try anyway.
I'm interested in what else you all have to say. For me, the whole thing is about getting back to the way things used to be done. For my grandmother, canning was a fact of life. My mom canned a little (I remember her doing tomatoes one year) but she didn't pass any of that along to me. So now I feel like I sort of have to start the ball rolling all over again, and make sure my kids know what it's all about.
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Becky Parker
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Cornomama, from where do you order your seeds? Does anybody use SeedSavers Exchange? I know this was mentioned in the book.
My other question is about how you store everything. We have an extra fridge in the basement and a chest freezer. I plan to use those, but I don't have a good place to store things like potatoes, winter squash, apples, etc. We have a finished basement, and I've always been quite happy about that, but now I'm jealous of my friends old farmhouse with a root cellar!
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MichelleW
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We have a chest freezer and an upright freezer in the barn (not a frig/freezer combo). We have a root cellar/pantry. It does make a difference...I have a couple of "longkeeper" tomato plants hanging down there. They were an experiment this year, and we are still getting tomatoes from them.
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Michelle
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cornomama4
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http://www.heirloomseeds.com/main/index.html
This is my first time ordering with them, so the jury will be out until I get them and see how they do.
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