USDA proposal on leafy greens

I've received many emails on this issue as well as a comment from Erikka. The USDA is considering a proposal to regulate the growing of leafy greens. The regulations make no sense and will harm small, sustainable farmers. To read more information about this proposal, go here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,229965.shtml

The USDA has open comments right now through December 3 on this proposal. You can go here: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main to make your comments. The comments can be made online, it is quick and easy to do. Click on the 3rd docket from the top.

If anyone knows anything about the top one concerning dairy products I'd be interested in hearing about it.

DDW - Week 7

This week we made use of our turkey carcass and made turkey noodle soup and ate it with sweet potato bread.

The breakdown:

Soup:
Turkey - Locust Point Farm, 7 miles
Carrots, rutabaga, parsnip, celery - Calvert Farm CSA, 15 miles
Noodles - not local

Bread:

Flour - Daisy Flour, 50 miles
Sweet Potato - Calvert Farm CSA
Butter - Lancaster, PA, 50 miles
Yeast - Not local

Socks

OK, I made the socks using this pattern: http://yarngear.com/looms/projects1.htm They were pretty quick and easy to make, taking less than an hour per sock. I made them very loose because my plan was to felt them. It I had used thicker yarn they would have turned out perfect. These socks even have a turned heel! No tube socks here.

Here they are prior to felting, you can tell they are a loose knit and pretty big, this is on purpose since felting shrinks things up.


And boy does felting shrink things up!! This was my first time felting and I over did it. The socks are now tiny! But felting is so cool, I loved watching the process.



So I learned making socks on the Knifty Knitter, pretty easy. Felting socks, maybe not the best idea. I'm now working on a purse I will felt and I'll make socks again with a thicker yarn and not felt them.

I'm loving this Knifty Knitter thing so much! I made another hat that I donated to a hat drive at my work and I have plans for a number of other projects.

Check it out

I decided if I'm going to raise sheep I should learn to knit. However, I am terrible at keeping the tension even so I decided to try one of those Knifty Knitter looms. It is so easy and quick! In less than 2 hours I made this:

A hat! I'm so jazzed about this. I'm working on socks now that I'm going to felt, I've never done felting either so it should be an adventure.

Local Thanksgiving and DDW Week 6

We managed to have a mostly local Thanksgiving! All the main ingredients were local with most of the support ingredients being not local. I'm counting it as our week 6 meal since we will be eating it for the next 3 days and nothing else is going to get cooked.



We started with butternut squash soup for lunch. The butternut and bacon were local. The onion and thyme weren't. I haven't been able to find local onions anywhere, the drought really knocked them out. This soup was glorious, even Mark who claims to not like butternut squash soup loved it!







For dinner, we had a local turkey from Locust Point Farm. We had to wait in line for over 30 minutes to pick it up. I was thrilled to see so many people eating a local turkey this year!

Everything on this plate is local. The corn was frozen back in August. The sweet potatoes were given to us by the CSA. And we already talked about the turkey. Not local is all the herbs and spices except the rosemary, which came from my backyard.

I also made whole wheat rolls using Farm mom's recipe using local Daisy flour and a local egg. The yeast and sugar were not local.

For dessert we had blackberry crisp with blackberries Logan and I picked and froze in July. The flour in the crisp was local, but the sugar and oats were not. I failed to get a picture of this, it was gone too fast!



I would put this meal at 75% local, maybe higher depending on if you do it by volume of the ingredients or just number of ingredients. We had quite a few non-local ingredients but they were all the spices, herbs and back up stuff, all used in small amounts. All the main ingredients were local.

Sewing triumph

I made a vest for Logan, which isn't hard in itself, but I added pockets and a zipper! This is the first time I've done pockets or zippers. It doesn't look great but I'm proud of myself! This opens up so many more options now.

I also made a hat for Logan. Again it didn't turn out great but it fits and he likes it. Mark actually thought I had bought the hat which was so cool! The way I ended up cutting the fabric none of the designs ended up in the hat. Duh.

Today was a big sewing day, I finally finished the last 2 pairs of pants I've been needing to make for Logan. He finally has some pants that fit! He is at an in between size where 6/7 is too small and 8/10 is WAY too big. So he will be wearing handmade pants all winter. I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to sew, but that will be another day. Right now, I'm hungry.

DDW - Week 5

This week we had salad, barbeque chicken breast, and roasted winter veggies.

The breakdown:

Salad Mix, red cabbage - CSA, Calvert Farm, 15 miles
Chicken Breast - Locust Point Farm, 7 miles
Roasted Winter Veggies - Rutabaga, Carrots, Eggplant - CSA, Calvert Farm

Not Local:
Barbeque Sauce
Herbs on veggies