Monday, November 16, 2009

Zombie broccoli- IDC update

The broccoli that wouldn't die!!
It's Monday and time for my usual Independence Days Challenge update. Just when I thought I was done harvesting, nature surprised me.
1. Plant something- nope but I did sort and organize my seeds. Looking at what I have left over from this year and those I saved, I don't think I'm going to have to buy any. Yippie!
2. Harvest something- YES!! When I was cleaning out the garden weeks ago. I left a few broccoli plants that were still green. They were ones that I had already cut the heads from a long time ago. But they had started shooting out little side shoots and I thought I'd see what happened. Imaging my surprise when I went out yesterday afternoon and found the zombie broccoli (as J15 named it). There were three big side shoots that had heads on them. Not huge but enough broccoli for a meal for the 5 of us. And there are a few more smaller ones out there that I left. If the weather holds, who knows, maybe we'll have broccoli for Thanksgiving.
3. Preserve something- Not this week. Although my pears that I put into the fridge are soon going to need processed, they're getting awfully ripe- but OH, so tasty! Hmmm, maybe a pear pie....
4. Waste not- UM, nothing much too interesting here. Did move lots of leaves from the old house for our compost. Other than that, recycled, repurposed and reused as usual.
5. Want not- picked up another 10 lbs of potatoes (at 88 cents per 5 lb bag!) and 4 bags of sugar for 99 cents each. Reorganized my pantry and put my whole wheat flour, oatmeal and rice into more secure storage containers. Oh, and stocked up on some canned beans (another good sale) and some more white and brown rice. It figures, just when we were going to try to eat mostly out of storage, I end up making lots of purchases to put into storage- but for some reason, they were having really great sales on some staples last week.
6. Community food systems- nope, other than talking to a co-worker about why we do what we do. She seemed genuinely interested but I don't see her making any changes in her life any time in the near future.
7. Eat the food- Hmm, tonight, crockpot chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli- all from stores or the garden. All week is planned with meals from stores. We'll probably have to get milk before the end of the week but that's not so bad.
I12 helps peel potatoes for dinner.
It feels good to be getting back into the habit of eating from stores. We had gotten side tracked recently. Doing inventory while I cleaned the pantry helped. I finally have a better idea of what I've got- who knew that I have 12 cans of tuna!!!

6 comments:

  1. Had to laugh at the Zombie Broccoli. Leave it to the kids to give things silly names. lol

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  2. I'm lovin' the 12 cans of tuna. Neither my husband nor I like tuna so I can't imagine that!

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  3. Wow, hooray for that broccoli hanging in there! That is a stubborn one. :-) I need to work on some pears in the fridge too... though they might have to take a back seat to all that applesauce I made a week or so ago before getting sick - its been kept in the fridge, and needs to be canned!
    12 cans of tuna - good reminder to me to get an inventory done, who knows what might be lurking in my pantry....

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  4. .88/5 lbs is not so off from those 1961 prices!! :)

    Your children are so beautiful, Judy!

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  5. Judy - what kind of storage containers are you using for your dried goods?

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  6. Debbie- Mine seem to come up with some really interesting names for all kinds of things.
    Marriedtothefarm- We all like tuna. I don't often think to make it but my daughter loves it. I think the 12 cans are a result of seeing a sale price and not remembering how much are in the cabinet. That, and the fact that my cabinets and pantry were so disorganized that some were hidden behind other things.
    Mangochild- I'm glad you're feeling better!
    Gina- Thanks for the compliment on the children- I'm rather fond of them! Yeah, I didn't really need any more potatoes but at that price- I couldn't resist.
    Angie- I've got a variety of containers I use. I've got several large Rubbermaid containers (21cup) that I use for flour. I also use/reuse 5 qt. ice cream buckets, I'm not picky except to make sure that things are airtight and are foodsafe. My whole grains and beans are in glass jars. I love old mason jars and I have some really old ones that I don't trust for canning that I use for that purpose. I have a plastic storage container in the freezer that I use for unopened packages of flour to keep them safe. Really, it's a mish-mash of containers. But I've been using more ice cream tubs lately since they are handy.
    Judy

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