this and that

 

so...I'm not sure what happened. I used ice and a plantain poultice on my bee sting yesterday. It was fine no pain, no redness. Then last night it swelled up and got hot and red. I think I might be allergic like Nikki. So today I've got it iced and elevated with plenty of plantain ointment, as it continues to swell like a stuck pig. Meaning, I couldn't go to the temple today, since I can only hobble...sniff...

On a brighter note....the garden looks great with lots of eggplant to harvest. I think I'll make ratatouille and baguettes for Sunday dinner.  "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul good in his labour. This also I saw, that it enjoy was from the hand of God." Ecclesiastes 2:24

 I've gotten the light, fertilizer, water situation totally worked out for my indoor garden. It took a couple months, but we are really enjoying our own greens in salads and smoothies. The only problem is that it all dies if we go out of town. So the next phase of our experiment will be to learn how to automate the watering.

For our little family (3 adults + 1 friend who eats every meal here and all Spencer's various drop in guests), I estimate we need  60 lbs. each unhulled buckwheat and sunflower seeds, 10 lbs. each chard, spinach, bok choy, and mescalin seed for a year's supply. I found a really nice resource for wholesale seed in the book Micro Greens. We grow the chard, spinach, and such to double baby green size, since this uses less seed. The buckwheat is inexpensive so is fine to eat at the cotyledon stage.

We eat tremendously less wheat than before. Although we have lots stored, most of it is not organic. We used about 40 lbs over the last 3 months of organic hard red wheat and 10 of organic soft wheat. We used 10 lbs. organic brown rice equally divided between short and long grain. Another 10 was used of various other grains such as rye and barley. We've eaten about 80 lbs. of a variety of organic beans and lentils, which are not easy to find.  Our consumption of olive and coconut oil has decreased 10 fold and butter is not used at all. So for a year we need 120 lbs. hard red wheat, 40 lbs. soft wheat, 20 lbs. short grain brown rice, 20 lbs. long grain brown rice, and 320 lbs. various beans and lentils--all organic. Plus, a variety of dried herbs an spices, yeast, salt, baking soda, vinegar, 1 gallon olive oil, 1 quart coconut oil, and honey.



The problem ,as I see it at this point, is fresh produce. We eat mainly fresh produce and live in an area, where we cannot grow all we eat all year. We are in no position to grow all our own fruit for sure unless we can figure out how to grow berries and citrus, tomatoes and zucchini hydroponically or in a green house. I'm still considering this question and have not come up with a good answer. We could move to CA, but that would open up a whole new set of problems. Of course we can grow cabbage and other keepers for winter consumption in this cold country but that is only if we put in a root cellar. Plus, we try to avoid eating more than a minimum of cooked starchy vegetables like potatoes and squash.  

Using a blog for a journal is so nice. Typing while thinking is a wonderful way to capture my thoughts. I seem to take more pictures, since I can upload them immediately and don't have to fool with paper and photo stores. Planning to get the blog turned into a book once a year for a permanent journal.