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I awoke to a cloudy day after sustained sunshine. Cloudy days set me into a funk. My stomach was growling and I was distinctly angry at myself for choosing such a stupid project that would involve me harvesting things from the garden before I could eat breakfast. WTF sort of idea did I come up with!?

Anyway, I climbed out of bed, and went out to the garden to grab some chives a few sun sugar tomatoes and also an onion that i’d left drying on the patio overnight. I cleaned up the onion and came inside. I grabbed a yukon gold potato from the counter that came from my (mostly)local organic produce delivery box. I felt like I was cheating already even though I’ve stated I’ll be using that produce. I grabbed the sunflower oil I bought yesterday, and eggs from my mom’s chickens.

I fried the onions and potatoes (until they were a little too brown, but still very tasty.. just not pretty), then threw in the beaten eggs and chives. I topped with the three little orange-cherry tomatoes and some additional salt.
As I was cooking it I really wished I’d had bacon. Bacon makes everything better. Where is the local bacon??

Breakfast scramble was born and it was fine. Tasty even. The potato, even though small sorta skyrocketed my blood sugar, and I wished immediately that I’d cut all my amounts in half. (so that it would have been 1/2 a small potato, a 1/4 of a small onion, 1 egg, chives)
It was a lot of food and I felt full. Sloggy even. I felt guilt about using so many resources so fast. Oh well. Breakfast complete.

After breakfast I wrote a good list of what I have in the garden. I thought it’d be interesting to post:
Tomatoes: many varieties. Only the smallest cherry style (or plum or pear) seem like they will ripen within the confines of this project.
Onions
peas
swiss chard
raspberries
chives
zucchini
patty pan summer squash
cucumbers
cherries
peaches
plums
grapes
asparagus
garlic
mint
oregano
purple sage
cauliflower
pumpkin
thai hot peppers
strawberries.
corn
beans

I may be missing some, but thats the general overview. Not all of these things are fruiting/will be fruiting during this project… but several are going to be featured prominently.

Last night I also planted some seeds, though only because I am being more mindful of fall gardening with this project in mind. It may not help me for this, but I like the idea of learning the ins and outs of succession planting. I planted carrots, additional peas, more swiss chard and arugula. I planted potatoes about a week ago, I sure wish they’d hurry.

After breakfast I threw a half gallon of raw milk and some all natural apple cider vinegar that I bought for the project into a pot and heated it. Out came a farmers cheese. I think I used slightly too much vinegar because the curd is much drier. After pressing and drying this stuff is SLICEABLE. It is mild, a bit bland, and wanting of salt. It’s not bad. really sorta not bad at all.

With the whey left over from cheese making I started bread.
Again I felt guilt about pulling out the exceptions so early in the game, but I’d rather still have meal components from my own garden on day 3 and 4 and 5 and 6, you know? I didnt use all my fancy additives that I usually add to bread. I usually fill it full of milled golden flax seeds, wheat germ, rice bran, wheat bran, vital wheat gluten flour, and other random things.. spelt or oat or nuts or seeds, .. its variable. This time I used bread flour, whole wheat pastry flour, whey, raw local honey, salt, and yeast. Oh, and I threw in a handful of raw wheat germ because I simply could not help myself. I figure if I’m using wheat flour as an exception why cant I use the healthful part of the wheat too??

Bread proofing, cheese pressing, I sit down again. Oh look.. now its time to make lunch.

I boil eggs, wash lettuce (again from the produce bin.. I pulled out all of my home grown lettuce after I found a slug in my salad bowl earlier this year), and go back to the garden for some shell peas, and a few more teensy tomatoes.

Salad is born. Lettuce dressed in oil and vinegar.

Again, tasty. I didnt feel like I was missing much.

Sometime before Dinner I went to the store. I found almost nothing local I could use to pad out my diet (I’m obviously super paranoid about starving to death.. I get cranky when I’m hungry). Instead I came home with plants from the garden section. Tarragon, Dill, and two varieties of Basil. Also some food for my family because this year they are not participating in the food project.
The plants are probably cheating, but whatever. They’ll be planting in the yard tomorrow and so they’ll be “locally grown” soon enough. I also came home with mustard seeds, which I’m hoping will germinate and grow! I was thinking last night about how fun it’d be to grow and make my own mustard.. especially if it’s made with my own home made vinegar! ooh la la.

Pesto was made, some bread was rolled out. and Pizza was assembled.
Pattypan, onion, pesto, and farmers cheese pizza.

My children were jealous. They had lots of bites where it was just pesto and bread. They asked for their own pesto bread but I told them no.. the rest of the bread dough was already in a loaf pan cooking up in the oven.

I also had a Widmer Brothers (from Portland, OR right across the river from us) beer because my husband informed me its International Beer day and .. it made me irrationally angry not to have one. SO I DID. (because I’m obviously a non committal jerkface) Google maps says the Widmer brewery is less than 13 miles from my house, so. SO THERE

So there. There’s day 1. Tomorrow is my 6 year wedding anniversary. I hope to not cheat on the project, but I WILL be attending the farmers market to look for anything interesting.. I’ve been told I might be able to score some local goat cheese!! that’s interesting. I may make my family a completely local “cake” and see how it goes… And maybe just maybe I’ll go blackberry picking.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.