Sustainability Sundays: the Monday edition

For a while now, Leigh has been blogging about "Independence Day Challenge", based on a concept discussed by Sharon Astyk. It's purpose is to motivate folks to start doing more for themselves and for personal independence from the commercial agribiz system to meet one's food needs. Yarninmypocket has been at it too, with her "Sustainability Sundays", and let's face it: removing myself from a reliance on multinationals for my food is what my life is all about. So I thought I ought to give it a go too. I'm far too busy enjoying living a sustainable life on Sundays to consider looking at a computer, so Monday lunchtime has to be the next best thing. There are seven areas to report in, and I think it's a great way to keep track of where I'm at. So, with no further ado, here's what I've been up to in the past week:

1. Plant Something -

• nowhere near as much as I should have but I did get a big chunk of the weeding done.
  
• spinach
• runner beans
• black and pinto beans
  
• transplanted walking stick kale
  

2. Harvest something -

• spinach
• white radish
  
• new potatoes
• broad beans
• peas
  
• artichoke
  
• clearing all the volunteer garlic out of the garden before it got too much rust
• the first of the early garlic: early purple wight
• shallots
• the first onions, albeit a little early
• onion flower stalks
• garlic scapes
  
• lettuce and salad greens
  
• lots and lots and lots of herbs
  
• the first of the Sungold cherry tomatoes (evidence above)
• Note the lask of asparagus on this list. I stopped harvesting that this week, to give the crown a chance to develop leaves and regenerate. And there are plenty of other things to eat now.
  

3. Preserve something -

• Made a brinjal sambal (from bought aubergines)
• Made lavender and rose petal liquer (post to come)
• Preserved lemons in salt
  

4. Waste Not (reducing wastage in all areas)

• Composting kitchen waste
• Feeding all green leaves from used veg plants to chickens
• FINALLY tied up the tomato plants, thus decreasing water needs for them and improving the harvest
• Mr. G. finished netting the veggie garden, which allowed us to move the cherry tree in there, removing losses to blackbirds.
• Rescued some lovely old terracotta pots that were to be thrown out
  
• Have been keeping the chickens at close quarters to prevent losing them to the fox
  

5. Want Not (preparing for shortage situations)

• The size of land available to me for the allotment was increased
• Laid in 3 kg of dried pinto beans which were on special
• Bought 10 kg of various flours for breadmaking
  
• Tied garlic thinnings into plaits to let them dry for winter
• Froze some chili for later use
• Bought some more veggie seeds to plant soon
  

6. Build Community Food Systems –

• Blogging about it
• Shared some of my produce with friends
• Gave advice on veggie gardening to allotment newbies
  

7. Eat the Food –

• Black bean and radish burgers (and fat-free, too!)
  
• Pinto bean and radish chili
• Fresh hummous with home-grown garlic and herbs and home-made rosemary flatbread
  
• Gently wilted spinach with Huevos Rancheros for brunch on the weekend
• artichoke and garlic scapes on pizza
• broad beans in salad
• Lots of green leaves in lots of salads and on rolls
  
• potatoes, onions and onion flower stems in Spanish potato tortilla
• The first peas and cherry tomatoes, straight into my mouth as I'm gardening!
• Did my tri-weekly baking day to make bread
  

The summary: at the moment, we have no need to buy onions, garlic, potatoes or any green veg. The only veg we're buying now are tomatoes, avocadoes, lemons, mushrooms and peppers, and I have plans to fix that too.