Challenge updates: first days of spring

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. I've decided to combine these Monday posts with updates for the Growing Challenge.


1. Plant something: Golden Chard, Green Arrow Peas, Chioggia Beets. (From seed, so these apply to the Growing Challenge, too.)

2. Harvest something: Eggs. Maple sap.

3. Preserve something: 3 quarts maple syrup.

4. Waste not: I made 2 new pairs of longies and a dress from felted wool sweaters this week. (Need to blog those soon; it's almost too warm to wear them!)

5. Preparation and storage: I spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard and gardens this week (and obsessively checking to see if anything is coming up yet). I began digging out the (still mostly frozen) compost, and used it to replenish planting boxes. I also added another bottle of water to storage (am slowly working on this, as we empty suitably-sized glass bottles).

6. Build community food systems: We attended a fundraiser for the Survival Center and donated more than we'd expected we would.

7. Eat the food: Oh, my gosh! In the midst of this week's lovely spring weather, I gave myself the most delicious welcome-spring treat--Strawberry Lemonade from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It was perfect!! We almost missed strawberry season last year, and picked very few. I'm so glad we used some of them for this! We've been eating a TON of dried fruit this week, and I made a pretty good cream-of-broccoli soup using frozen broccoli. And I've done a good bit of baking (tried a new quick bread recipe which I liked a lot: "Whole Wheat Muffins" from The Tassajara Bread Book, using crabapple jelly as the sweetner).