Independence Days challenge, week 8

Week 8 for me of Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. Still puttering away, just doing a tiny bit at a time.

1. Plant something: Provider beans (raised bed with trellis below the clothesline), Kentucky Wonder beans (beside the compost bin and behind the fence), Laxton's Progress peas (forest garden), Mammoth Melting peas (behind the compost bin), swiss chard (planter in herb garden).

2. Harvest something: Lavender.

Mulberries. (The area where we live used to be the home of a utopian community which ran a silk mill. There's a lone mulberry tree at the end of our block, a relic of that time. It drops its berries all over a parking lot there. Last year, I decided that if no one else was going to pick them, I would.)
3. Preserve something: Lavender oil.
4. Waste not: Nothing in particular.
5. Preparation and storage: Not this week.
6. Build community food systems: Well, we participated, anyway. We went to the Tuesday farmer's market for the first time this year (we have three in our town, aren't we lucky?) and got tons of great produce, bread, and maple syrup (didn't make our own this year, as Lucy was born right during syrup season so we had our hands full). And I guess maybe I gave some people a lesson in foraging, being the crazy lady picking the mulberries, as neighbors passed by on their evening walks. And, as always, I involved the kids in planting.
7. Eat the food: We've been terrible about cooking since Lucy was born, and especially since the elimination diet Andi's been on has taken all the fun out of it. I cook all day for the kids, but by dinnertime, we're wiped out. So we've been eating out way too often. I decided it was time to try something "new" (really an old idea, just new to us). I wondered if we planned a meal for each day of the week--the same each week--if we'd find it easier to cook. The hardest part for us seems to be thinking about what to make. It worked pretty well. We cooked three actual sit-down, eat-the-same-thing-together type meals this week (sad that that's good for us, huh?). We'll try again in the coming week. The best was Tuesday night: bread and chop-chop salad. Perfect for the night of the farmer's market. This week's salad had baby carrots, spinach, scallions, almonds (from storage), radishes, turnips. Next week's will have whatever looks best at that market. I know we'll stick to that menu.