*becoming self sufficient (food wise)

We have chosen this life of being more self sufficient. Less dependent on the normal American food supply that a large majority of our country rely on for putting food on their tables.  We started stepping out of the box a number of years ago by reducing the amount of "table salt" and kind of salt that we use, the amounts of refined sugar we use and changing that to other natural sweeteners such as sucanat, honey and agave nectar along with the introduction of grinding our own wheat for flour needs.   Now, just like anything, we have gone through our "rid the house of ALL the white stuff" and then back to a happy medium for our family.  Growing your own meat, vegetables and fruit insures that you know what is going into it, how it is prepared, what it is NOT being preserved with before it hits your table.

We are now choosing to grow as much of our own produce in season as possible.  We planted a huge garden in the spring and this fall we have a good sized garden as well. This past week we dug, well Momma dug about a bushel of sweet potatoes.  Delicious sweet potatoes that I didn't think existed. Surprise!

Growing nicely in the perennial patch of our vegetable garden you will find asparagus, tons of beautiful strawberry plants, basil, thyme, and a few other herbs. 

Summer squash are not just for the summer! 

 These are our beautiful asparagus  plants flourishing nicely! (see the corn in the background?)

In our garden this fall you will find summer squash, pink eye peas, butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, corn, broccoli, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, kale, a few tomatoes, traditional cabbage, and this week I plant sweet onions, red onions and garlic!   

Sometime in the next month we will have to purchase potatoes for the first time since April, and we are a big potato eating family.  (fried potato slices, fried potato wedges, mashed potatoes, potatoes for numerous soups, baked potatoes.... yadda yadda)  And just this week we purchased onions for the first time since late spring as well.

Years of leaves have laid on the ground here at what is now known as Erilyn.  I was really thrilled to find this the case, once I got past the reality that they do not magically get raked up and that a ton of effort has to be put forth to get them up, I was thrilled.  My mother truly has been instrumental in getting the majority of leaves raked up. Once we got the broken down, decayed leaves up, we headed straight to the gardens!  The decayed leaves add such richness to the soil in the garden and do magic at keeping down the weed and grass growth.

I encourage you to consider a plot in your yard for some vegetables this coming spring!  What about the flower bed on your property? One potato plant can yield you enough potatoes to make mashed potatoes for a family of 6 to 8.  Get creative, use the space you have!