Keeping it Going!

Fall peas getting closer to harvest!

I've had a lot of people ask me if I'm relieved to be done with my one week challenge.  And the simple answer is, no. The truth is, I benefited on so many levels, that it really doesn't make sense to stop.

I have spent the last few days brainstorming ways to continue the challenge while making a few modifications to make it a viable, long-term lifestyle. There were definitely some missing holes in our food supply which would make it hard to do this without a few changes. I'll be working to address those issues along the way, but none of them are short-term fixes. I'm just not prepared to buy a cow!

I'm going to continue blogging about the experience because it helps me keep a clear vision of why we are doing this. I like the accountability, the encouragement, and the helpful suggestions from those who read it. Plus, it will be a fun record for me to review down the road.

So here are some of my thoughts regarding a new challenge going forward.  I'm going to outline the caveats and why I've chosen to make these exceptions. This time around, my husband (Matt) is totally on board too!

The Challenge (redefined!):
We will primarily eat only food that is grown or produced in our own backyard. Just as before, this will include our own organically raised and pasture-fed broiler chickens. We have a steady supply of eggs from our flock of layer hens. Our vegetable garden has been very prolific this year. We have plenty of preserved food as well as fresh produce still to harvest. We are choosing to include our preserved foods that have been processed with store-bought vinegar or sugar. Going forward, we will try to make our own vinegar and find other ways to preserve without sugar. These foods will make up the bulk of our diet.

Our preserved food supply.

Foraged Food
We've also chosen to include foods that we forage. Matt and I have been learning how to forage wild mushrooms. We are also learning more about foraging wild berries, nuts, and plants. It's a lot to learn but it's an exciting avenue to explore. Nature really does provide for our needs if we know where to look.

Winner, winner - Chicken of the Woods for dinner!

Locally Sourced Food
Going forward, we will include foods that are locally sourced. We've chosen to include this caveat for a few reasons.

The first reason being that we already have a freezer full of high quality, 100% grass fed/grass finished beef. It was purchased from a farmer in our own state of New Hampshire. It's an excellent source of meat and we definitely want to include it in our diet.

Galloway Cattle

Additionally, we want to include dairy items for our family. Although Matt and I will choose not to consume much dairy, it's nice to have a healthy option for occasional use. Plus, we think it's important for our daughters to consume high-quality dairy. We choose to purchase raw milk and we will be exploring our options to make our own butter and cheese from this milk. These items are costly to make from our current farm source, so we are looking at ways to make this more cost effective.

We love raw milk!

Miscellaneous
Realistically, we will still need to purchase some food items from a grocery store. However, we are going to limit these purchases to strictly necessary items for our girls. Part of the challenge for us will be to see how little money we can spend at a grocery store.

We are going to conduct this challenge for one month and then re-evaluate at that time to see if we need any further modifications. I won't be blogging about my daily meals. However, I will update with our progress, new things I've learned, or "clean" changes we are making to our household as we grow and progress through the challenge.