I'm in love with this word. I'm in love with the country life. I've had this whole new (okay, partially new, okay, really not that new) view on food and lifestyle. I want to eat real food. Not processed, fast food, or sometimes even grocery store food. I want real food. What we used to eat and make with our own two hands. Not genetically modified food or processed food. I want to pick my own grain, grind it by stone, and make my own bread. Yes, exactly like Mother Hen does. That sounds so appealing to me. I become aware of what I am eating and am much more proud and impressed when I make something myself.
Take last nights meal. I made veggie pot biscuits (instead of pie crust, substitute Bisquick), they were light, fluffy, and delicious. Then I decided they needed some type of sauce, so I whipped up homemade gravy. Yes, homemade. Where you start with flour and water, add vegetable broth and seasoning, boil, then add cornstarch and cold water to thicken. How my mom makes gravy, how my grandmother made gravy. I don't want a processed, preservative filled jar of gravy. No thank you. My only difference from yesterdays recipe, I want real vegetable broth, and not canned. Broth from my vegetables from my garden. I mean, how fresh and real can you get, I want to find out. I want to conquer this.
Call me crazy. But I want chickens, alright hens to be exact, for fresh eggs. A goat, to cut the grass - even though I know it will be quite the patchy job. A huge compost bin, to basically reduce any trash I may have and produce the richest soil you could have. A huge garden (this is already growing for this year!) to have veggies and ideally fruit, although climate wise probably not going to happen, so I'll take my veggies. I've warmed up to the idea of a single cow. Yes, the modern Bessie I would have. And horses I feel have to come with any pasture, and I've warmed up to horses a bazillion times more than I ever thought I would. Oh, and you can't forget bees. I've never been stung by a bee in my life. Frankly, I feel that either I can a) outrun them (even though I'm sure I can't) or b) I stand as still as ever and wait for them to go away. And between a and b I've never been stung. But to have honey bees would be amazing. Quite the process, but so rewarding. I love honey. And raw, real, honey is so good for you. All part of the conquering I must do within my lifetime.
And for those of you curious, and for my own record keeping, my 2012 garden consists of:
- Tomatoes
- Green and Yellow Beans
- Carrots (that I will pick right away so they'll be babies!)
- Basil
- Cilantro
- Chives (these come up every year, I don't have to do a thing)
- Pie Pumpkins (next year only carving pumpkins, I've already decided)
- Cantaloupe
- Green Peppers
- Cucumbers (my mom does these)
- Peas (also my mom's vegetable of choice)
And that is all. And by that is all, I mean holy buckets this is going to keep me busy! Of course, none are planted in the ground yet. They are all around the house in front of windows. With a spray bottle to sprout their little seedlings even quicker. The planting comes this next week. May 1st is supposedly always the day that no frost will come after. And that's the date I shall keep in my mind.
Thinking about being real just makes me so happy. Next up, churning my own butter. I did it in grade school, so why not now. Because that margarine I eat, someone once told me it's like whatever percent away from being plastic. And I eat that. Well that's a turnoff if you ask me. So butter it is in the natural, real form. Let's see how this goes.
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