Food Compromises

With a growing family of nine and a small income, we have to make some tough choices when it comes to our food purchasing.    Last night we did have roasted potatoes and winter squash from last season's gardens, but for the most part we still purchase most of our food.

If money was not an issue, we would be 100% local and organic, but we wouldn't be able to pay our other bills if we did this.  So choices have to be made.

On our shopping trip yesterday this is what we bought -

At a local small grocery store (we don't shop at the big ones like Price Chopper or Shaws) -
5 pounds of conventional rice
8 pounds of pasta
2 jars of spaghetti sauce (we used to buy cans of Hunts but realized they use corn syrup so we don't any longer) - next year we hope to can more.  Our tomatoes did not produce this last year.
2 bottles of Hunts ketchup (they do not use corn syrup on their ketchup) and we have some children that seem to want ketchup on nearly everything
1 bottle of olive oil
2 cans of organic diced tomatoes
1 64 oz bottle of cranberry raspberry juice (a brand that doesn't use corn syrup)
5 - 14 oz boxes of Cheerios - usually we buy two large boxes per week but these were on sale  (Our children alternate between this and pancakes for breakfast - Mike and I  and Abraham eat organic rolled oats for breakfast several mornings each week - the oats are purchased in bulk from the local natural foods store.  I have organic raisins on my cereal.)
1 can or Parmesan cheese
1.5 pounds of honey (raw semi-local - but not the really good stuff from our neighbor as it is just soooo expensive and with all of our tea loving children we can't afford it)
1 bottle organic red wine (can you believe they have some for 5.99?)
10 pounds of King Arthur white flour (this goes with our 25 pound of local Butterworks whole wheat organic flour)
1 bag of store brand chocolate chips
1 box of store brand saltines
1 can of coffee (we buy fair trade whenever possible)
3 pounds of butter (conventional)
2 pounds monterey jack cheese (we eat grilled cheese often for lunch in the winter)
4 boxes of organic mac and cheese (once per week for lunch in the winter and this crew needs four boxes)
1 pound of mozzarella (weekly homemade pizza)
1 Stonyfield organic yogurt (we usually buy our local Butterworks Maple at their farm once per week as well)
4 rolls of Marcal no chlorine, recycled toilet paper
1 container of seventh generation dish detergent

At the local Natural Food Store:
1 16 oz bag of organic corn chips
Drews organic salsa
cinnamon
4 - large organic onions - (we are going to grow many more of these this year our self as they keep well in the basement)
1 bag organic Flax seed meal (I use this in bread, cookies and on top of my pancakes and yogurt)
organic tofu

This should get us through most of the week.

I have granola from last week - I use organic rolled oats, wheat germ, sugar and honey, cinnamon, sunflower seeds, flax, oil and butter.  This goes on yogurt for mid morning snack.

We purchased organic turtle beans from Butterworks farm which we are having 2 - 3 times each week either with tomatoes and spices or used in soup or made into baked beans for our protein.

In addition, I buy a container of tofu to go with tomato sauce and pasta once per week for dinner.
Then, we buy local organic beef when we can afford it  - usually once every other week.

Our chickens only give us about 4 eggs per day right now - but that is enough for pancake batter once or twice a week and all of the baking I do.

Yeast, I purchase about every other week in bulk from the natural food store for our daily bread which ends up being 3/4 organic (with the Butterworks organic wheat and King Arthur white).

We purchase organic raw milk once per week after church at the farm after church and then do drink conventional milk the rest of the time - can't wait until we can milk our goats.

So all in all, we spend about $175 - $200 -per week on everything - that includes dog food, cat food, chicken feed and so on.

Our food does involve many compromises and we hope to do more ourselves each year, but this is where we are at right now.

Any other ideas to share?

Answering Your Questions - Breakfast

We buy one to two boxes of Cheerios each week.  This is something we bought our oldest when he was very young and it is still one of the older children's favorites.   I wish we had brought them up on oatmeal, but fortunately, the younger ones do like it and join Mike and I for a bowl of organic oatmeal.  I have organic raisins and molasses in mine.  Mike has brown sugar in his.  So cold or hot cereal is served two or three mornings each week.

The other mornings, except Sundays, I make pancake batter, usually the night before.  Here is what I do ~

I don't measure anything.  I simply take one of our stainless steel pans and fill it with milk, probably about 3 cups.  Then add 5 of our chickens' eggs.  Next I pour in white and wheat flours along with a small amount of cornmeal.  I add about 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 T. of oil, and 3 T. of sweetener.
I then use a whisk and mix it all together.  Put the cover on the pan and then in the refrigerator it goes until the morning. 

We rarely have maple syrup as it is not in our budget.  When company comes or a birthday we do buy some.  Other than that we look forward to our own syrup.  However, the maples here on our homestead were very crowded by others trees and did not get adequate light to grow a solid base, and instead grew tall and skinny.  We have thinned out around them and hope that our sap production will increase each year.  Last year we got about 2 quarts.

When we don't have syrup, we use jelly, yogurt, flax, butter, cinnamon, or a sprinkling of sugar.

On Sundays Mike cooks scrambled eggs and bacon.

I look forward to learning about your breakfasts.

Warm wishes,
Tonya

Food Budgets

As I was making lunch yesterday, Nolan walked through the kitchen and asked what was for lunch.  I replied, "Soup and just made bread."

Nolan (age 14) responded with, "That's it?"

Sarah (age 6), listening in the other room,  chimes in, "Nolan, we are on a budget you know."

The truth is, we really don't have a food budget.  I do my best to balance our financial capabilities with buying healthy and as much organic food and also as local food as possible.  Of course during the growing season, we eat all our own veggies and I preserve some food.  With our garden expansions each year this should increase, possibly even enough to sell a bit again.    Our goal is to add two goats to milk.  I moved the chickens from the barn to the smaller coops yesterday to bring us one more step closer to this reality.

But the truth is, we generally eat simple, healthy foods and still spend much more than I would like.  I make soups and cook  from our store of potatoes at least twice per week now.  We also eat pasta with vegetables, rice with vegetables and very occasionally organic, local meat.  For lunches we often have grilled cheese on homemade bread with pickles (that I have canned from our gardens).  Breakfast is either pancakes (usually without syrup as it is just so expensive), organic oatmeal with raisins, or Cheerios(started this habit almost 17 years ago with #1) with bananas (the last nonlocal fruit I buy on a regular basis to help with the children's nutritional needs).  For a family of eight, we nearly go through one pound of butter each day, nearly one gallon of milk, 1/2 gallon of juice (we do each have one cup of juice with breakfast), and about 1/2 - 1 pound of cheese each day. I generally buy monterey jack, non organic as the organic is still so much more.  (The goats should help with this too.)

Including dog and cat food, the few non food items we do buy (toilet paper, toothpaste, dish detergent), and then the food items, I  have estimated that we spend about $200.00 per week (a family of eight).  As we work toward making more of these food and nonfood items ourselves, I hope this will slowly go down, not just for financial reasons, but also to meet our goal of being more self-sufficient and living lightly on the earth.  Each packaged item purchased at market or the natural food store contributes in some way to pollution or the depletion of natural resources, even if I recycle every bit as recycling uses energy too.

What is your food budget, how much do you have to buy outside of what you grow and how many in your family?

Birthday Celebration and Toy Shop Business

The Mister of Natural Earth Farm celebrated his 44th birthday on Sunday.

With eggs, bacon and monkey bread for breakfast, nachos for a light lunch and a supper of local organic sausage, couscous, and our own butternut squash, finished with chocolate cake to celebrate - the eating was good.

Silly Poses

He and I then went to the newly built Jay Peak resort so that he could watch his beloved Patriots - just the two of us for two hours.

He told me it was his best birthday ever - oh that was so sweet to hear.

This is an order for Hip Mountain Mama

Our family has been very busy working in our "toy shop" filling our wholesale orders in time for the holiday season.  Now we are gearing up for our regular shop orders too.  My goal  is to fit in time to create for our family as well, which I am reminded every year as our shop gets busy, that I must remember to begin in January!  

Warm wishes for a beautiful day,

Tonya

More on Food

"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls of those who live under tyranny."

~Thomas Jefferson

Sundays Treats

To celebrate Fathers Day with my husband, I made three yummy meals and for the evening dessert, chocolate cake.

Grandma's Chocolate Cake

Mix up 2 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup

Add 2 cups flour (I use white, whole wheat and millet flours), 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup boiling water.

Mix well.

Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes in a bundt pan. 25 minutes if using two circle pans.

(My own father lives about 4 hours away, so I was not able to see him.)

Abby made some delicious fresh mint ice tea by simply pouring hot water over the mint leaves in a mason jar. She let it cool a bit, and then put the jar in the refrigerator. The tea was very good. We would have normally put the jar in the sun for the day, but it was cloudy and stormy off and on all day.

We had hoped to go for a hike in quest of a letterbox but the storms kept us inside.

Here is Mike ending the day reading to the two young ones.

Finally, I want to share with you the difference between a store bought egg and a free range egg (our own). It is worth it to buy local, fresh, preferably free-range, eggs if you can. And please if it is truly not a hardship, don't fret over the dollar or two difference compared to factory produced eggs. So much better for you and the chickens.

Happy Summer and wishing you a beautiful day.

Warm wishes, Tonya

A Farmers' Market and Food Thoughts

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

~Emerson

My father and his girlfriend, Sheila, have been visiting this weekend from Massachusetts and it has been a joy to spend time with them and watch our children enjoying their visit and my father's new puppy, Lilly.

Yesterday, Sheila, my two oldest boys, Abby and I went down to Stowe (about a 50 minute drive) because Sheila had never been. Our first stop was the Farmers' Market. Our family had been once before the previous season and knew it to be a good sized one.

Here are some pictures ~

~annual flowers and herbs~

~live music

~

~our Abby~

~sheepskins~

I was struck, however, with a feeling of sadness to find there was only one vegetable grower represented among the approximate 30 vendors... just one. Has it become that hard for a small organic vegetable grower to make a living? Is it not even worth it for diversified farmers to grow vegetables along side other products? Or maybe a lot of farms have become CSAs and don't bother attending markets?

It made me just a bit more grateful for our organic vegetable and strawberry farm located right here in our little town and for the hard work of the owners. Yes, the food costs a bit more, but it is grown just four miles from our home, is grown by a family that cares for the land and makes their living from the farm.

I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry ~

This old sun-based agriculture was fundamentally alien to the industrial economy; industrial corporations could make relatively little profit from it.... [But] as farmers became more and more dependent on fossil fuel energy, a radical change occurred in their minds. Once focused on biology, the life and health of living things, their thinking now began to focus on technology and economics. Credit, for example, became as pressing an issue as the weather."

Warm wishes for a beautiful week,

Tonya

Before 9:00 am

As our house was its usual flurry of activity this morning, I thought it might be fun to document all that is going on before 9:00 am.

We have pancakes many mornings for breakfast. For our family of eight it is an affordable, healthy choice. We use our chicken eggs in the batter as well as some whole wheat flour, wheat germ and milk. For toppings we have honey, cinnamon, yogurt, and jelly. We have maple syrup only occasionally as it is expensive and not in keeping with our budget for food. I make the batter most evenings before I go to bed.

It is Abby's morning job to do the morning chicken chores. Usually at 7:00 am there is just one egg and that was the case this morning. By the end of the day we should have collected about 15.

Abby and Isaac were excited to check on the sap buckets this morning. They went out bright and early and gathered about 2 1/2 gallons this morning. We only have eight taps out this year as our new homestead doesn't have too many mature maples. However, we are clearing out around the maples to give them lots of sunshine for healthy growing in the years to come.

Abraham helped himself up to the counter to do some early morning sketching.

I do my computer work, last minute home learning planning, and some handwork first thing in the morning. My goal is to be up and out of bed by 5:15 each morning. This is my work area. It is in the kitchen but overlooks the open living and dining area. This is what it looked like this morning.

Thomas, at sixteen, has come down with the chicken pox. Five of our children spent the weekend in the Boston area with their Poppa two week's ago to see the Lion King and he must have picked it up while there. He is not feeling all that well, but thankfully he does seem to have a fairly mild case. He is eating his breakfast this morning. (We are keeping in mind that the next several weeks in our household will probably involve caring for children with the chicken pox as each child comes down with it - at least we are hoping they do.)

Starting the process of my almost daily bread baking.

Nolan beginning his math upstairs on his desk.

Mike's early morning work area (the workshop will be nice....)

Now, Abraham doing some beading.

And the on the woodstove top this morning - sap to boil off and butter melting to make cookies.

What are your early morning like?

Warm wishes, Tonya

Canning Tomatoes

Oh... this is so simple.

We have Roma tomatoes this year to can and they make a wonderful sauce.

In our new rustic cottage, we do have electricity and the previous owner left a blender. My dear homesteader and neighbor suggested to me that I just wash cut and throw the tomatoes into the blender, heat, and then can. How simple is that! Wow - no boiling the whole tomatoes, dipping in cold water, peeling the skin off, running through the food mill.

Eight quarts were canned yesterday afternoon and I have been enjoying making fresh sauce at will with the baskets of tomatoes. And there was just enough coolness in the air to use the woodstove to heat up the canning water and cook the tomatoes a bit before transferring to the stove top for the boiling time.

To make sauce:

Blend enough tomatoes (skins and all)

In a heavy large saucepan, I add olive oil and chopped onions and garlic to saute.

Next add the tomatoes. Add flour (thickener), seasoning such as basil, oregano, thyme, pepper, salt. Add some sugar to your taste. Let heat up to a soft boil and then turn down to simmer for 45 minutes. Simple and delicious!