For the last meal of the Home Grown September Challenge we had roast lamb slathered in a yogurt, lavender and garlic paste. Roasted baby pumpkin, roasted beets, roasted shallots tossed in rosemary and hot butter and a huge green salad with an olive oil, cider vinegar and fresh rosemary dressing. All home grown.
Today the last of the lamb will be ground up and made into Lamb rissoles served with a green salad. So October 1st will be all home grown as well.
In fact I could go on eating straight from the farm and will. If I had to eat only what I can grow I would not be hungry. But there were some things I missed.
This is the sun rising over the corn this morning. Into the fog.
I longed for nuts, seeds, oats, lemons, avocadoes, oranges, bought cheeses (though I made fresh cheese) , chick peas, deep red kidney beans, fish, cured meats (something we are going to learn this winter) , the store bought organic greek yoghurt with honey (my weakness) and store bought spaghetti (I can make pasta for just about everything except spaghetti).
Tui flying out of the barn yesterday morning.
And really that is about all. Oh and frozen peas. I love frozen peas. So on my shopping list this week is nothing. Because I have most of these things in my pantry and freezer anyway and piles of all the usual in the garden. We are having a lovely long summer – food is still growing.
Mostly I have learnt how little we actually do need. Plus if I really have to try and use what we have on hand and not waste any of it, I find I am a better cook. Though my list of ingredients was shorter, my list of meals was much more diverse and interesting. I did go through periods of frustration but by the end of the month I was just rocking along. Of course I ate out with the family when they went out. And I would stare longingly at the frozen peas in the freezer wishing to cheat. But all in all the month of eating only what I can grow was remarkably satisfying. Now if I had said I will only DRINK what I can grow there may have been trouble.
Daisy scratching an itch on her favourite scratching post.
The greatest lesson is to stop being fancy in the garden and to grow the staples. Lots of them. Potatoes, garlic, cabbages and onions particularly. Just get down and do the work, early in the season. Plant ’til it hurts.
And I know for sure now, that there is very little that I need from the supermarket. Though there are some things that I want. But you can’t always get what you want!
Mouse told me yesterday that when she was small her Dad hung sacks out for the cows to wipe their faces through, dislodging flies. After all they cannot reach their faces with their tails. She described this as like hanging washing on a line. Maybe I was going at it wrong, I thought and rehung my burlap coffee sacks in the tree like tea towels, then dropped a little DE into the base.
When I came back from the feed store – look who I found enjoying the sacks. And not a fly on her face. Just before this Daisy had been standing with her head on the sack just to the left of Queenie. Voila!
What an outstanding idea. Thank you Mouse. I will be doing this for years to come. Just as long as Sheila does not find them!
Good morning. I hope we get clear skies this October, I am looking forward to some star gazing shots and the Night Sky Challenge. I hope you can take some too, or draw them, or make poems and stories about them or simply say “The stars were beautiful last night.” We will all be looking at the same moon. What a lovely thought. Our sky. No rules though. I had enough rules in September!
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
90 responses to “The Last of September – What I learnt from the Challenge.”
Good for you! This would be a challenge, but I can see how things would get easier as you got the hang of it. I wonder.. did you feel physically healthier this month? It might be subtle after only a month, but I can’t help thinking you would feel so much better with only homegrown food in your body. xx
Because I have been eating off the farm all summer I have not felt a change. What I did was take OUT the things that i added to my own food, like nuts and seeds and beans and store bought vegetables and fruit and so forth. No farmers market for me. So because my diet was so limited it is possible I am less healthy, though i don’t feel that either. Good question though.. c
That shot of Queenie parked between the sacks is priceless. If you TRIED to get her posed it would be impossible, no? Such a fantastic idea and both cows caught on right away. Amazing. Not to mention that wild shot of Tui.
I am very lucky that the peahens honk warnings before they fly out of the barn, so I was able to turn and focus before she appeared in the air in front of me. c
The month is over already.??? How time flies… talking of flies I think the sack hanging thing is brilliant, wish I’d known about that so many years ago… would have saved my cows suffering the grease and coopex mix being smeared all over their ears…
grease! I cannot even get near to Daisy’s face with a wet rag, I would have to tie her up. But you do what you have to, it is good to finally hit upon something that enables them to get more comfortable. Winter helps!! c
I live in an area of Northern California where it’s not impossible to grow avocadoes. I planted a tree several years ago, and it has produced fruit, but what a mess! The avocadoes seem to grow at the top of the tree. The tree is 30 feet tall. It’s ready to pick in the winter, but usually I only notice it’s there when I’m standing under the tree in a windstorm and almost get bombed. I actually harvested 12 avocadoes one year, my best harvest. That year the same type were less than a dollar each in the store. I have kept the tree because it’s beautiful. It freezes once every 5 years to so, that keeps it from getting even taller, but it always comes back. Please don’t deny yourself avocadoes just because you can’t grow them yourself. I feel the same way about pineapple.
Morning Jan, we had a tree like that once but luckily it grew very close to the house and so we could pick from the second story windows, we used to lean out with sticks and puch the fruit off and the kids below would catch them. Hilarious really. That house was on a hill right by the sea, perfect growing. They are beautiful trees too. When I go out to california to see my son I will be stuffing myself with avocadoes and walnuts. Then bringing some back in my luggage, that and lemons. Oh I miss having a lemon tree. c
The bulls loved our FLY Bags…and would spend hours batting them around until the dust flew here and there all over their faces and backs. By the time they were done we had to go back out and refill just so the cows and calves would be able to have some!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Well i never! I look forward to seeing that!
Congratulations on meeting your food challenge for September. We can all learn from you. I mean we are. Daily.
Morning Audrey, your wedding photos are wonderful.. c
Congratulations on completing that challenge! It certainly doesn’t seem to have caused any serious deprivation.
No. it was not a deprivation at all, we lived well.. if I had not had flour or milk we may have had some trouble though.. c
Hi Celi. Surely you could eat peas that you have grown and frozen. I would think you could grow chickpeas, which are delicious when they are green. I have no idea how much work it is to grow oats for food — not that you need more work. What I have found is that whatever I dry or freeze for the winter is never enough: I always run out of dried tomatoes before fresh ones come in. This year I have a lot of apples and citrus peel, but not a lot else (and I’m still typing with one hand)
Goo morning, Your poor hand. It makes life so difficult. I tried to grow chickpeas one year and got about three cups full, I just don’t have enough land to do full sized crops like that or oats.. I wuld be growing oats for the cows and pigs too if I could. Peas, I ate them all fresh! Bad Mama! But they are so nice fresh. But we do what we can and that is the most important thing isn’t it. I envy you your citrus peel.. c
Well done! Can’t believe the month went that quickly though. Do you grow peas? We grow a bunch then freeze them. They make a great snack in the hot summer and we use them in our risottos.
I did grow peas, but i ate them. they did well though so next year we will grow more! c
I love growing peas. Such a lovely flower. They give back nitrogen instead of taking it from the soil. And they freeze well. 🙂 A win-win all round!
I was drooling while reading about your roast dinner. I love the photo of the sunrise. My house faces the wrong way to see it but I do manage to see the sun set from March to September. I always feel refreshed after my daily visit to the farmy!
I’m with you on the staples, I’ve had my allotment for 5 ish years and this year I stopped the fancy schmancy because of time constraints and concentrated on what we love. Onions aren’t included cos of space restrictions etc. SO that means more peas 🙂
Hooray you made it!! We’ve pared down what we grow as well – we now plant what we know works and grows abundantly, and eat it. The problem is that some things just won’t grow well here – we don’t have luck with potatoes, tomatoes (although that’s getting better) or onions (although we do always have leeks as a sub). Beans are a good item, as are curcubits. A question though – how would you do growing what you need in the colder months? Or would you need to depend on your stores in the cellar? And Celi, we’ve been making our own Greek yoghurt for years now, it’s really easy! Have you ever tried making your own? (I thought I’d seen it on your blog before, actually, but I could be wrong..) xx
Bravo Cinders! If anyone is up to a challenge, it is you! Love your photos today, especially Sunrise and Tui..oh and that last one of adorable Queenie standing in her tent!
PS. we love frozen peas too!!
What a fine farewell meal to September! Do you have a pasta machine that cuts spaghetti? Minemakes really nice thin ones..but I do confess (sorry Chgo John) that I do enjoy durum wheat spaghetti too!
Lovely post Celi and all the comments… like Viv I would love to know what DE is so I can pass this wonderful idea around people I know…just off to get some farm grown organic lamb after reading about your scrumptious dinner… I like the idea of “slathering” us !!!!