Homesteaders Food Challenge- Week 1

It has been quite a week.

• My brother called me a fake and said he wasn’t buying my book.  No, I don’t have a book, No, I haven’t written a book and No, I am not writing a book.
• One of our freezers died.  We had a party and ate approximately 80 pounds of pork.  OK, we didn’t eat 80 pounds of pork, but we cooked 80 pounds and will be eating it forever.
• I started starving myself.

Not really.  I am eating all sorts of wonderful, healthy food.

The kicker is that I am only eating food that I grew, picked, raised, killed or otherwise obtained around these parts for 101 days.

What?!!??

Welcome to the Homesteaders Food Challenge where we starve ourselves “Eat the fruit of our Labor.”

To get all the details on the plan go to the Homesteaders Food Challenge page here.  It will explain what I am & am not eating, how it works, who else is doing this with me and some other things you may be curious about.

Why am I doing this?

1. It’s healthy
2. It’s local
3. It’s sustainable
4. It’s fun & causes culinary creativity
5. I want to see if I can live on only what I have grown myself for 101 days

Joy!

Although the Food Challenge just lunched yesterday, the actual eating on the plan has been underway for a week here at our homestead.  We are currently on day 9 and no one has died (yet).  I wanted to get a few days under my belt to solidify the rules before unveiling it to the world.  Which is probably a good thing since my brother is a pain and made me change them.

Thoughts on the Food Challenge after week one:

1. My 16 year old son is a weenie.  He lasted exactly 4 hours before he drove his 4-wheeler up to the roadside market and blew the diet.
2. Guess who I hate?  Yup, you Turnip.  I’ve decided that not only do turnips taste horrible, they give me headaches and I would rather go hungry than eat them. I am pretty sure I have a turnip allergy.  I thought Kale’s superpower was tasting bad, but I decided that Turnips are better at it.  Furthermore, radishes taste like filet mignon in comparison.  I have cooked and eaten turnips 5 ways and there is no way to make them taste good.  I hear some people like them, I think they should have their taste buds checked.  
3. My garden isn’t big enough.  We are expanding and planting like mad.  Succession planting is going to keep me from having to live on eggs for the next 3 months.  Knowing that I’m producing all the food I eat for the next 101 days has put an new perspective on the garden.  I need to get things out of the garden, into storage and get new seeds sown…. like, yesterday.
4. I also have a new perspective on everything growing around here.  I am eating things I’ve never eaten before, because…… it’s food.  Radish tops have always been thrown to the chickens or rabbits – not anymore.  If I am going to grow everything I eat, I need to eat everything I grow.  Nothing wasted.  If it’s food, I’m eating it.
5. Things are also starting to look like “food” that were not “food” last week.  Dandelions, weeds and baby rabbits are all becoming dinner options to me right now.
6. This is my first experience with “seasonal eating.”  I know it is good to eat foods local and when they are in season.  Here in America we can get oranges, strawberries and eggs year round at the store and don’t think too much about it.  When you are eating only what you grow there is a huge awareness to the limited variety.  There is also a mammoth appreciation when something new comes into season.  Strawberry season has ended and we are missing it terribly.  After 8 days of eating turnips, asparagus and radishes you can only imagine my reaction to finding ripe blackberries yesterday.  We picked and ate blackberries from our bushes and you would have thought that someone just handed me a box of Kripsy Kreme Doughnuts.  Glory! Glory!  Blackberry you are my new BFF.
7. If you are crazy enough to try this I should warn you that there may will be a headache for the first 4 days.  I don’t know if this is because I am addicted to sugar or because I am going through Nutella withdrawals or if my stomach is upset because it is not getting 2 avocados a day.  My body was definitely rebelling against my eating prohibition and consequently trying to make my head explode.  Day 5 the headache was gone.  Praise the Lord.

Don’t forget to follow along by email (here)- So, if you want to know what I’m eating, hear me complain, or just hear my Kentucky Accent – this is your chance.

Love,

Candi