So Far to Spring

Don't let these misguided little bulbs fool you--spring is NOT here yet!  I try not to get too excited in February--spring is still far from the Palouse.  It's hard not to though--the seed catalogs have started arriving in the mail, and I bought a fun little ap for my iPad to plan my garden.  


I finished reading "The Quarter Acre Farm" by Spring Warren.  I was a little disappointed.  So far, I haven't read a narrative of urban homesteading/backyard sustainable agriculture that I really liked.  I read them looking for tips and insights, and end up with a slightly humorous self-congratulatory narrative.  Of course it doesn't help that most of them are writing about gardening in a climate which is much warmer than my own.  It's hard to be self-sufficient here.  It's even hard to eat local food at some times in the year.  


A year ago, I wanted to see if we could get our household local food consumption to 25% of our diet.  I haven't tried to weigh food or measure amounts at all.  I focused more on different food groups:  how much dairy is local, how much meat, etc.  I decided that if you expand "local" to mean "the Pacific Northwest" then almost all of our dairy is locally produced.  (Disclaimer:  I have a soft spot, no pun intended, for imported cheese!)  The  exception (other than the fancy cheese) to buying locally produced dairy items is that in the winter, the girls, I mean hens, around here stop laying.  Most of my egg suppliers have day jobs, so they don't always get the heat lamps turned on in time to prevent a full-on laying strike, so my November-January eggs are usually store bought.


Fruits and vegetables are extremely easy to obtain locally at some points during the year, and extremely difficult at other times.  The growing season here is short.  It is HARD to get local greens before April.  By preserving food that I grow or that is purchased at the Farmer's Market, we can carry over into fall and winter, but spring is definitely the lean time.  I would also have to get a pressure cooker and do a lot more preserving before we could ramp up in this area much more.


Meats aren't too difficult to obtain locally, if by "local" for fish you mean "brought into the Seattle market," which usually means "caught near Alaska".  The hardest foods to obtain locally are (somewhat ironically) grains and supplies such as oil and spices.  The Palouse is a major wheat producing region, but most of the wheat is processed commercially to be sent oversees.  An effort is underway to get more locally produced grain at the Co-op, but I don't think I'll have either a wheat field or an olive grove in my yard any time soon, which will always work against the percent of locally produced food.


So that's my summary.  I am continuing this quest, but I'm working in small increments rather than a take-no-prisoners assault.   I do love looking around and talking with others to get ideas and to think of new ways to become more self-sufficient!