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Getting serious about food security
"In 1943, Americans planted 20.5 million Victory Gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly one-third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year."
We are a family of four in Reading, a mid-size Pennsylvania city - we post about gardening, food security, frugality, self-employment, urban homesteading, homeschooling, field trips, interesting books and films. Key to cryptic references: DD12 and DD15 are internet shorthand for my "Dear Daughters" and DH is "Dear Husband."
We've been doing the Independence Days Challenge, which is an effort to do things that will help our family to be prepared for bumpy times ahead in the US economy.
We are a family of four in Reading, a mid-size Pennsylvania city - we post about gardening, food security, frugality, self-employment, urban homesteading, homeschooling, field trips, interesting books and films. Key to cryptic references: DD12 and DD15 are internet shorthand for my "Dear Daughters" and DH is "Dear Husband."
We've been doing the Independence Days Challenge, which is an effort to do things that will help our family to be prepared for bumpy times ahead in the US economy.
Popular Posts
Stuff We Want To Do
Add rain barrels
Air-dry laundry
Air dry our hair
Build bug-out bags
Buy from growers where possible
Buy from locally-owned businesses
Buy in bulk to save money
Buy half a local pig
Compost indoors with worm bins
Compost yard waste
Develop a youth food workshop
Develop local food map
Drive only one family car
Eat local meat and poultry
Eat more beans and grains
Eat much less packaged food
Find a hunter to split venison
Find pastured milk and eggs
Flush less
Grow and save heirloom seeds
Grow herbs and some veggies
Insulate attic
Insulate the water heater
Insulate windows
Learn to can (pressure canner)
Learn to can (water bath)
Learn to make good biscuits
Establish bread-making habit
Learn to make hard cider
Make laundry soap
Make about half our bread
Make chicken and pork stock
Make yogurt & cream cheese
Organize a food buying club
Organize a food discussion group
Organize shopping carpool
Plug vampires into switched outlets
Reduce trash output
Stop buying bottled drinks
Stop using oil furnace
Store 3 months of food
Store 6 months of food
Store 3 weeks of water
Store meat in new chest freezer
Take shorter showers
Try "family cloth" use
Try hay-bale gardening
Try making toothpaste
Use cloth shopping bags
Use LED and CFL lightbulbs
Wash dishes more efficiently
Build bug-out bags
Buy half a local pig
Develop a youth food workshop
Develop local food map
Find a hunter to split venison
Find pastured milk and eggs
Flush less
Insulate attic
Insulate the water heater
Insulate windows
Learn to can (pressure canner)
Learn to make good biscuits
Establish bread-making habit
Make laundry soap
Organize a food buying club
Organize shopping carpool
Plug vampires into switched outlets
Store 6 months of food
Take shorter showers
Try "family cloth" use
Try hay-bale gardening
Try making toothpaste
Wash dishes more efficiently
Topics
- 30 Walks Challenge (2)
- activism (2)
- art (2)
- Berks (5)
- bloom day (4)
- books (5)
- cider (2)
- composting (4)
- cooking (30)
- dark days (2)
- dehydrator (2)
- field trips (13)
- films (3)
- fish box (10)
- food shopping (6)
- food stamps (1)
- food storage (9)
- fridge (3)
- garden planning (14)
- goals (4)
- hardscape (2)
- herbs (13)
- Independence Challenge (43)
- jugs (4)
- menu (3)
- Mom (17)
- neighborhood (7)
- OLS Challenge (3)
- organizing (1)
- perennials (10)
- propagation (2)
- rants (2)
- tai chi (1)
- thifting (1)
- to-do (4)
- traditions (2)
- urban food (5)
- veggie garden (30)
- water (2)
- wishlist (1)
- worms (5)
Wishlist
more 5-gal buckets
gamma lids
grain mill
flaker-roller
basic dehydrator
Excalibur dehydrator
water canner
pressure canner
vacuum sealer
larger yogurt bag
larger crockpot
better food processor
large ice chest
pasta machine
heavy-duty stand mixer
apple peeler gadget
better kitchen scale
bread machine
sheet pans with Silpats
cast iron dutch oven
ceramic/marble mortar and pestle
baking stone
outdoor propane burner
cider press
Berkey water filter
solar battery charger
solar oven
compost screen
wheel barrow
garden fork
shredder-chipper
replace power drill
compound miter saw
reciprocating saw
sleeping bags for all
first aid kit
decent-sized tent
gamma lids
grain mill
flaker-roller
Excalibur dehydrator
pressure canner
larger yogurt bag
larger crockpot
better food processor
large ice chest
heavy-duty stand mixer
apple peeler gadget
better kitchen scale
cast iron dutch oven
ceramic/marble mortar and pestle
baking stone
outdoor propane burner
cider press
Berkey water filter
solar battery charger
solar oven
compost screen
wheel barrow
garden fork
shredder-chipper
replace power drill
compound miter saw
reciprocating saw
sleeping bags for all
decent-sized tent
Some of the 237 Blogs in My Feedreader
- A Homesteading Neophyte
- A Way to Garden
- Casaubon’s Book
- Crunchy Chicken
- Fake Plastic Fish
- FarmGirl Fare
- Gardening Gone Wild
- GreenPa
- Hen and Harvest
- Herbalist Lisa Zahn
- Jellypress
- Justice Desserts
- Little Homestead in the City
- Pioneer Woman Cooks
- Serious Eats
- Skippy's Vegetable Garden
- The Ethicurean
- The Slow Cook
- Throwback at Trapper Creek
- Women Not Dabbling In Normal
My Web-based Tools
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(131)
-
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May
(23)
- Independence Challenge - Week 4
- 30 Walks: Week One
- Field Trip to Organic Market Garden
- Salt-Tolerant Perennials
- Independence Challenge - Week 3
- New Challenge: 30 Walks
- Planning Round-up
- My Garden Command Center
- Independence Challenge - Week 2
- May Bloom Day Photos
- Neighborly Pepper
- Busy
- To-Do for Next Week
- Top 5 Spring Things, So Far
- More veg in
- Independence Update - Week 1
- Milk Jug hothouse results
- Ornamental maintenance
- Eggplant Tragedy
- Mushroom Dirt !
- Plan for Mom's Yard
- Transplanted Tomatoes
- Challenges: Independence and Local Food
-
▼
May
(23)
Ideas for the Future
- Teen Clothing Remodeling Club
- Urban Summer Camp
- Food Community Center
- Inter-Church Bake-off Fundraiser
- Peer Art Club for Kids
- Annual Art Rave
- Co-op grocery delivery
- Lunch Box subcriptions for elderly
- Community food storage lockers
- Living Room Media Coop
- Family Cookbook
- Church Cookbook Project
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