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Backcountry Bookshelf:  Read & Ramble: Book Discussions  |
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Ellen
outstepping
124 Posts
124 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 09:21:25 AM
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Dear Jen,
I just finished Animal, Vegetable, and Miracle. So I will go along with ya on this one...Reminded me of Omnivore's Dilmmena. I got a bunch of questions
How much do you spend on groceries a week? Do you plan meals around, garden to stay within a projected budget?
Do you participate in a farmers market as a vendor or consumer?
How does your food lusts change your menu selections?
Are you a vegetarian or an organic eater?
MY suggestion is A Dark Place in the Jungle by Linda Spalding.
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 2:43:46 PM
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It sounds like I need to read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"!
Elizaray |
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Ellen
outstepping
124 Posts
124 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 3:12:11 PM
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Well, don't think we can go wrong with Kingsolver...don't we first need a couple more books for the group to select from?
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 12:30:09 PM
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A big list of books would be great. I am always a fan of the Jean Auel "Earth's Children" series.
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 04 2007 : 1:17:34 PM
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Great questions, Ellen! Here are my answers:
How much do you spend on groceries a week?
$400 give or take, for a family of 5 - ouch!
Do you plan meals around, garden to stay within a projected budget?
I'm a basically bad planner unless I put my mind to it (and remember my grocery list). We have a few staples every week: almonds, rice or quinoa, frozen organic blueberries, naturally raised bison burger (when we run out of deer), organic cheese & milk, and TONS of organic apples when they're available. Our goal, now that we have our own land, is to meet most of our food needs right here at home. We plunged into a big garden & small orchard that we refuse to spray with nasties, and now we're educating ourselves as we fumble along. Mastering canning is my next big project.
Do you participate in a farmers market as a vendor or consumer?
Both - this year is our town's 1st ever farmer's market!
How does your food lusts change your menu selections?
Um...cocoa...and then there's coffee. Drug addictions, I know. Only organic, though, and shade-grown, and fair trade, etc.
Are you a vegetarian or an organic eater?
Organic & omnivorous.
Caught a PBS news program the other night about the absolute horrors of imported foods. There are essentially no regulations (there are fewer US inspectors than there are ports!!!). If you ask me, China and the rest could pretty easily take us down with ghastly hidden ingredients, and neither the government nor the mass population will take rash action to reverse the situation. I haven't gotten very far into Kingsolvers A,V,M yet, but reading about her family's pretty drastic change in eating habits (seasonal, local, homegrown), I'm committed to further changes for the better.
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 05 2007 : 8:59:34 PM
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How much do you spend on groceries a week?
We spend $150 a month on groceries for two adults and a breastfeeding infant. Sometimes we spend an extra $50. We like to stock up on the staples at Costco. I love getting fresh food from the farmer's market (May-October)
Do you plan meals around, garden to stay within a projected budget?
We plan our meals around what is in the house. We try to only buy what we know we will eat. When my garden comes in, I will be planning my meals around garden foods a lot more. We will probably be having fresh garden salad every night! :)
Do you participate in a farmers market as a vendor or consumer?
Some years I participate as a vendor of homemade cleaning supplies and soaps, but I always participate as a buyer!
How does your food lusts change your menu selections?
I am fickle. But I try not to let junk food in. We have a bag of potato chips in our cupboard that was opened a year and a half ago- yeah... I need to throw them away! But the good news is that I didn't eat them!
Are you a vegetarian or an organic eater?
Organic as much as is fiscally possible. We just don't have the cash flow to eat organic very often.
Elizaray |
Edited by - Elizaray on Jun 06 2007 08:59:45 AM |
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Ellen
outstepping
124 Posts
124 Posts |
Posted - Jun 06 2007 : 02:48:23 AM
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We eat most of our meals around what I haul in here... I do alot of soups for the broth for my guy so we eat pretty frugally at home.
I belong to a natural food coop and work/trade for a lot of our staples, use the honor stands of my neighbors... our farmers market is only on sat = cuts into my fishing time. I have an honor stand and sell nature's pantry subscriptions for nov-apr.
I prolly spend way more on my work lunches then out at the grocery. I tend to want to leave the building and cave in to my sushi addiction. My guy is on a very limited diet, so my eating his forbidden items away from home doesn't make me feel so guilty or wanting.
The meals are planned around what I raking in off a shell bed, pull in from the crab pot or catch with the pole. Then I add these to the stock pot,along with the veggies. I eat a lot of greens and fruit=blessed with a year round growing season. I can the abundance, lately I'm planning meals around finishing off last seasons papaya relish.
I am an omnivore too. You can read an excerpt on what Kingsolver says about the myth of eating organic as too expensive here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Livestock-and-Farming/2007-06-01/Growing-Trust.aspx
After reading last years Omnivore's Dilemmena and Harvest for Hope by Goodall, I have been reading more labels now seeing where the food is coming from. I don't do all local, I ruined by taste buds on Spanish,Chilean, and French wines and Ethiopian coffee.
Jen, I, too, do the fair trade coffees
http://www.puravidacoffeeshop.com/fair-trade-coffees.html
Pura Vida is 100% charitably owned and all of their resources go to help at-risk children and families
The junk food I have to have isn't organic either:I love choc ezpresso and jellybeans, red licorice,sour skittles, candy corn lol.
Couple more questions before I head out the door to work.
How did your family backgrounds influence your eating choices, spending, farming/gardening, food prep?
Did you always eat together as a family?
Does your family make time to include everyone's input in the planning, gardening, food choices?
How many days, weeks, months of food do you keep in your pantry?
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 06 2007 : 1:14:58 PM
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More juicy questions, Ellen - this topic is getting better by the post!
How did your family backgrounds influence your eating choices, spending, farming/gardening, food prep?
I always feel like I'm building on my background (childhood thru young adulthood), which consisted of a basically healthy diet flawed with a lot of choices based on convenience and simple carbohydrates!
Did you always eat together as a family?
Almost always - and we ate at the table. My husband seems to think that TV is requisite for digestion, but I am adamant about eating together & at the table as much as possible (T-ball nights don't count!). Also, we say a blessing, which my family did not. I'm not religious, but I believe that giving thanks for our sustenance is just plain good. Often, the kids say the prayer.
Does your family make time to include everyone's input in the planning, gardening, food choices?
Yes, including the kids. Although they get fussed at a lot about stepping on sprouting veggies in the garden. They LOVE eating their own harvest.
How many days, weeks, months of food do you keep in your pantry?
Heh - about 5 to 7 days' worth, not including some staples like rice & dried beans & canned food nobody really wants to eat.
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 06 2007 : 1:34:01 PM
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Wow, Elizaray - $150? That's really good, 'cause I know you're not eating Hamburger Helper every night! Good job, girl. The organics really do take a toll on the paycheck, but we find a lot of organic options at Walmart (as much as I hate patronizing it, it's the only store near here besides the spendy health food store where we spend a good chunk of grocery $). Maybe we don't average $400/week on just food - that does include stuff like pet food & laundry detergent, etc.
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I get bogged down with the local vs. organic conundrum. I don't want to buy food from faraway, but I don't want to feed my kids pesticides in order to buy locally either (and what regulation is there on the small-scale local farmer?). We fight bugs almost daily in our garden, but we do it with garlic and cayenne pepper and smooshing and all sorts of other time-intensive schemes that sometimes work & aren't really all that practical. Few other people around here resist the easy temptation of "Sevin" insecticide.
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Anyway, I'm off to post a couple of farmers' market photos on my blog. My girls were super sellers! Who could resist the & their handpainted dishes & egg-carton flowers? Come check 'em out if you get a chance.
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 06 2007 : 5:40:27 PM
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How did your family backgrounds influence your eating choices, spending, farming/gardening, food prep?
My parents loved to garden but time got away from them so we didn't garden for food a lot growing up. However, my parents almost always cooked our dinners from scratch. I didn't eat Hamburger Helper until college. And just for the record I hate it (ugh). I make homemade spagetti sauce, lots of beef stews, chicken stews/soups and similar meals. I like to make good simple food in bulk and then freeze the remainder for later.
Did you always eat together as a family?
It depends. Now that I am at home more with the little baby we eat together more. My guy things that TV is required to be on- even if he isn't in the room so we usually end up eating in front of the TV. We have a dinning room table- but no chairs. I am hoping to remedy that situation sometime so we can eat like civilized people (no TV!)
Does your family make time to include everyone's input in the planning, gardening, food choices?
We try to shop together to get the best deals and only buy what we will eat. It is up to whoever is cooking to plan the meal and he hates gardening so that is my deal too.
How many days, weeks, months of food do you keep in your pantry?
That depends. When we have just gotten back from Costco- about 3-6 months of canned goods. We keep about 1 month worth of meat in the freezer at any given time and we buy produce about once a month as well. Sometimes we go twice a month but the second trip is usually much less than the first.
I would love to eat organic all the time, but right now organic is more the exception than the rule. I am hoping that will change in the coming months, but I have to make sure that I am buying enough food to get us through the month and if that means buying non organic... 
We buy meat when it is on sale since we freeze it all anyway and only defrost right before we want to use it. Last time I went shopping we got hamburger for $1 a pound. I also put a lot of veggies in everything I cook. Veggies are cheap and they are so good for us. We do eat spagetti and other pastas pretty often so it can be easy to over do the carbs. I guess that might be why we are both a bit over weight. Speaking of food- I think I need to go defrost some chicken breasts for tonight. Baked/broiled chicken with rice (cooked with chicken stock for flavor) and green peas. Corn and either peaches or pears as well.
Elizaray |
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Ellen
outstepping
124 Posts
124 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2007 : 3:43:26 PM
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$150 is amazing isn't it. Elizaray you define frugal and disciplined for me.
Tho I think there were months when we bought the baby's food first and all that was left for us was eating mustard sandwiches at the end of the month.
I prolly spend $150 on my lunches.
Grands were dairy/blueberry farmers and my mom and grandmother were home ec teachers, so yeah, I learned how to take it from the land and husbandry all the way to the table when I was a wee one.
We ate as a family and I passed this on too. Except not my mother's meal in a dish. and I confess to not being a purists tho I took my boys for popcorn and a coke with the movie for a bunch of dinners when there dad was on business trips. Our dining room table is outside for most of the year and when inside the room has no view of a tv.Tho we only got cable tv after my youngest started being on it. We did have a set for vhs and games when my boys saved for their own nintendo.
I'm in the hurricane zone, we keep a month of water, foods, fuels. I can too so if ya don't mind pickles and mango melon salsa we can go a couple months  
Do you only do grace/blessings at home or outside the home too? Do you let your kids go from planning to fixing your meal? My mom did this with us and I passed this one on too. My sister and I would join together on our nights and set the whole kitchen up like we were a family diner This really helped out my working mom and us to learn how much ya had to coordinate to get every ready at the same time.
I fish so blessed to have a sea's bounty here. Tho the cost of gas these days is starting to inhibit those runs to the gulf stream.
May I ask a few more questions?
What % of farmers are in the economic base of your county?
What days are your first frosts and when can you expect the last in the spring?
What animals and veggies thrive in your region?
How would you feel about agriculture becoming a mandatory subject in all schools? |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2007 : 7:01:33 PM
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Good discussion - keep 'em coming, Ellen!
Do you only do grace/blessings at home or outside the home too?
Mostly only at home. Sometimes, if one of the girls brings it up at a restaurant, we'll laugh &
thank the chicken for giving us its meat, etc. Nothing too serious.
Do you let your kids go from planning to fixing your meal?
They definitely help, but I haven't yet turned it over to them (my oldest is 6). We should do it
soon, though - just have fun at it. I admit that when I'm tired (and with 3 kids, that happens alot), I tend to say things like, "I just want to get this done fast, so I'm going to do it myself this time." Bad me.
What % of farmers are in the economic base of your county?
We're in a real rural area, but it's rocky & adjoins natioanl forest close by. So, there are a fair
# of farmers (ranchers) - cattle, some blueberry farms, hay, hay, hay.
What days are your first frosts and when can you expect the last in the spring?
Normally, I think the dates are about late Oct & mid-March
What animals and veggies thrive in your region?
White-tailed deer, turkey, bobcats, black bear, ELK! (reintroduced - hurray!); short leaf pine & oak-dominated hills; MELONS are thriving im our garden, apples are victims of cedar rust
How would you feel about agriculture becoming a mandatory subject in all schools?
WHY ISN'T IT ALREADY??
Check out this link for "Farm to School" Programs - I heard about these programs while still in WA & want to look into them further: http://www.farmtoschool.org/index.htm
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2007 : 05:22:01 AM
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Elizaray, I had to giggle when you mentioned your lack of chairs - we had none for years till the landlord of one of the houses we rented gave us 3. So, we skimped by on those plus a folding chair from Goodwill till we got 3 bonus bar stools with this house when we bought it. Now we're suddenly flooded with seating options! But, neither the kids nor us have bed frames yet - mattresses on the floor. You might say it keeps us "grounded."
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Ellen
outstepping
124 Posts
124 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2007 : 03:41:33 AM
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I don't have time this morning, I'll come back later
We have the farm to school program here. My boys school produced some of their own cafeteria veggies in their *science lab*=childrens gardens...even shared abundance w/nursing home across the street.
Bed frames on the floor for little ones makes it less likely a boogie man or dust bunnies can get under the bed and lets them roll out with out a big boo boo = boom too. When we finally broke down and bought one for our oldest boy a couple weeks later he and his best buddy  jumped off the dresser onto it and broke out the slats. So take your time
Oct to March makes for a long time to put up supplies. Kingsolver calls them by the native american name of hungry months.
Do you use a cold frame in the fall or spring?
Do raccoons raid your melon patch like they do here?
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2007 : 05:26:53 AM
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Yeah , definitely long lean months, and we are only beginning to figure out the yearlong sustainability thing. This year was a crash course - like I said, dive in headfirst & work out kinks as we go. That is so darn cool that your boys participated in the garden-cafeteria program, Ellen. I'd like to get it started here. I cringe to tell you that CORN DOGS are on the school lunch menu at least once every 2 weeks, if not more. Needless to say, I send Rita's lunch to school with her. But, it would be so nice for her to be able to have a cooked meal during the day that we could feel good about. I am puzzled by all of the rural people we've encountered during our travels - they have very little sense of any old school "food culture" left. Seems that mega-cheap is the gold standard of grocery shopping - forget nurturing & nutrition.
No melons yet, so no racoon raids, but I see their little hand prints beside the creek most mornings. We're finishing a fence for the deer, but we'll have to be creative if we have coon troubles!
What's a cold frame?
PS. Elizaray, what do you think it is about men & TV? Mine is obsessed with watching the news each night, right about dinnertime! And he feels compelled to turn it on if things are getting too quiet around the house. He actually agrees with me that it's a generally negative, time-wasting activity (unless we've rented a good movie), but he's still drawn to it. After 12 years, I have weaned him considerably, thank goodness!
PPS. I'm gonna change the name of this topic - make it more encompassing to reflect our current/future discussions....
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 14 2007 : 9:20:34 PM
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Jen-
My dad made my fiance and I's first bed with twoxfours. Then when we moved...we couldn't get it out of the apartment! And we were destroying it trying to take it apart...he built it too well! So for a long time we were sleeping on just mattresses on the floor until we found a cheap metal frame at a second hand store.
Elizaray |
Edited by - Elizaray on Jun 14 2007 9:24:12 PM |
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Backcountry Bookshelf: Read & Ramble: Book Discussions |
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Read & Ramble: Book Discussions
