Challenges: Independence and Local Food

I'm signing up for two blog "challenges." Challenges seem to be these things where a bunch of bloggers all decide to do something and post about it for a period of time.

One Local Summer is one where you commit to preparing one meal a week that is made from ingredients all produced within 100 miles of your house. It starts June 1 and goes to August 31. Once a week the challenge watcher will visit your blog to gather your post about your local meal. Fortunately, the West Reading producer-only market starts Sunday, June 1st. Later in the season, we should be able to do a few from our own yard. There are some exceptions, like oil and spices. I better get to work on finding a local source for flour and cornmeal - maybe FM Brown's Sons.

Independence Days Challenge is an ongoing challenge to do at least one thing a day to advance toward independence from the industrial food system:

Plant something.
Harvest something.
Preserve something.
Prep something.
Cook something.
Manage your food reserves.
Work on local food systems.
Compost something.
Learn a new skill.

So far, I transplanted pepper plants, started a plate of parsnip seeds germinating in wet paper towels, and potted up the sprouted chickpeas. I also started tracking the tax sale lists, to watch for a city lot I could "farm", although that will depend on where DH gets a job. Later today, I will go back to Mom's house to do more work. I plan to work on preparing a bed for root vegetables, and talk to her about straw bale gardening. I will plan to post each weeks activity on Thursdays.