Food Goals 2010

My goals for the new year:

• Expand the intensive garden from 500 to 800 square feet.
• Get the soil tested and amended.
• Grow 100 square feet of oats.
• Get 3 or 4 hens.
• Get meat rabbits.
• Eat only home-cooked meals--no restaurants or convenience foods at all.
• Start ordering bulk grains and beans.
• Get a pressure canner, oat roller, and grain mill.
• Build a multi-purpose warming box for: food dehydrating, seed starting, yogurt incubating, and bread rising.
• Finally clean out the storm cellar to use as a root cellar.
• Get more experience fermenting foods.
• Make sure to pass along my new skills to Collin.
• Get better acquainted with the other gardeners in town.
• Sell excess produce at the farmer's market.
• Expand the herb garden.
• Finally build a cold frame and create some hoop tunnels.

What I accomplished in 2009:

• Expanded the garden from 100 to 500 square feet.
• Grew 241 pounds of tomatoes.
• Got a tomato strainer.
• Canned 3 kinds of pickles, 2 kinds of ketchup, 2 kinds of tomato sauce, tomato juice, tomato paste, beet preserves, salsa, and hot sauce.
• Fermented beet juice, salsa, chard stalks, and a tiny batch of sauerkraut.
• Froze green beans, zucchini, chard, butternut squash soup, and tons of pesto.
• Sun-dried a batch of tomatoes.
• Went into the winter with plenty of garlic, winter squash, and beets, plus a few potatoes and some (pathetically small) onions.
• Grew 34 different kinds of fruits, veggies and herbs.