The Challenge

I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to only eat food we grow or produce on our own land for the duration of one week.  I think we have a good variety of foods to complete a full diet.  I will allow myself seasonings, such as salt and pepper.  However, I plan to be very strict in every other way.  My family has some reservations about fully committing to the challenge. For now, I'll try it on my own and convince the others to join me next time!

My protein sources will be eggs from our egg-laying flock of hens and chicken from the Cornish Cross broilers we raised this spring.  I have plenty of vegetables growing in my garden, as well as a great variety I have already canned or frozen from earlier in the season.  Two of our blueberry bushes are still ripening and we have 8 apples on one of our young apple trees.  I am most limited in my source of starch.  We have lots of sweet potatoes, but those aren't ready for harvest.  So I will have to rely on a handful of Yukon Gold and red potatoes to be my main source of starch.  

A typical harvest of vegetables from our family garden.

There will be some challenges to overcome this week.  I know that I will miss eating dairy.  I like cheese in my eggs and I enjoy butter on my potatoes.  I also think it will be hard to cook without a source of fat.  I usually use butter or olive oil for sauteing vegetables and cooking eggs.  I also plan to eat salads for lunch every day, but I will not have a normal salad dressing to eat with it.

I'll be honest, it will also be hard to go without any processed food.  While I am always working to reduce these in our home, they often sneak in and I often indulge.  I hope this experience will help us further reduce the processed food in our home and help us all to "grow clean" in our food choices.