During the second week of the pantry challenge, we ate a lot of good food from our stores. In fact, there was enough room in our freezer to add some inexpensive pork. Now, I agree that organic and local foods are best. Sometimes, though, the food dollar has to stretch, so when we find a very good deal on meat, we stock up. Besides meat, almost everything else in our freezer and pantry is organic and homegrown, including the chicken.
Here’s what we ate from our stockpile this week.
- soup vegetables (soup)
- arugula (soup)
- red and green peppers (soup)
- salsa soup stock (soup)
- beans
- several butternut squashes
- asparagus
- sauerkraut (yes, we make it ourselves, and it’s so easy)
- elderberries (in a delicious crumble and in a fruit salad)
- raspberries (fruit salad)
- rhubarb (with buckwheat porridge)
- honey (last year we got none; this year we have lots)
- carrots
- salsa
- and we finished this year’s tiny sage crop, as well as enjoying various other dried herbs.
Recent visitors told us we are locovores. I suppose that is true. In the process of trying to feed my family healthy food, I have become part of some interesting movements.
The latest one we’re getting back into is sprouting. In the winter, fresh vegetables are expensive and of poor quality, so we’re planning to grow mung bean sprouts again. They’re healthy and tasty, and growing them is an educational experience as well. Besides, you can’t get much more local than your own kitchen counter!
Thanks to Jessica for inspiring a January Pantry Challenge. This post is linked to the Homestead Barn Hop.
That pantry challenge is a great idea! I’m always on the brink of running out of room in my freezer. Your recipe for salsa stock would be an awesome addition to chili! I’ll have to try it next year when the garden is full of tomatoes.
Glad it’s going so well for you.