the way we eat

I have always admired Jamie Oliver for his contributions, showing how easy it is to cook using fresh ingredients. One does not have to possess a culinary degree to eat healthy. For years we have been heading down the wrong path of nutrition and how our food is grown and processed. I hope he has as much success here as he did in England with his mission to get families to eat better. If even a small percentage of people changed their habits it would send a huge message to the large food corporations who only care about how much money they can make, and feed our addictions with simple sugars, and processed foods


I eat what I want, but try to buy local as much as possible. Just doing that creates a chain reaction of positive events. I support local businesses, there is less fuel used, due to low transportation costs. I know where my food comes from. There is less risk of disease and cross contamination. I know the vendors personally, and I participate in what is becoming a growing trend, getting back to basics. I grow my own vegetables, harvest my own eggs. It is very rewarding to live this way, the way it is intended to be (at least in my view)


http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution

24 savvy

We contribute to this site every month, and it seemed fitting to post this on my blog

http://www.24savvy.com/articles/pennsylvania/03-24-2010/spring-has-sprung

First warm Spring weekend

It arrived with a vengeance, and was received gladly, I am speaking of course about Spring and the incredible weekend we just had. it was such a treat to be able to spend the day outside and start getting things organized for planting. of course the temptation to stick seeds into the ground to soon is ever looming, and it took some major restraint on my part to stop from running to the nearest store to pick up some packets!  Instead I started putting homemade compost on my vegetable beds, they will need to rest a little longer before I can start planting. It is a joy to see how all the waste over this past year has turned into a rich compost.

 I'm sure we will be rewarded greatly as long as all the other elements are balanced.
I just finished ordering my seeds from
http://gurneys.com/default.asp

I've had good luck with them in the past, even when living in high desert areas.

I will be planting peas in the next few days, according to our friend Gina, March 17th is the date for those, I am about a week late, but I figured we live North from her so that should work :)

Probably will be ordering a few more chicks this year to add to our flock, I've narrowed it down to the following varieties. Dominiques

Silver Spangled Hamburgs

or white orpingtons  

We also scored some old windows this weekend, that I going to use to build a greenhouse with.....that's going to be an interesting project. I'm hoping to make the whole thing out of recycled lumber etc. So, many searched on craigslist and driving around building sites looking for scraps!

a great site!

http://www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org/

Spring has Sprung

It's been a while since I posted anything, not because I'm lazy:) But winter seemed to take a toll on me. Combined with my firefighter classes it has not left a lot of time for writing. However, it seems that now the days are getting longer I am finding renewed energy to put fingers on the keypad.






Yes, I am glad winter has come to an end, even though it is a time of rest, I found myself becoming restless! I would visit websites selling seeds to see when they start shipping. Our chickens and ducks too were becoming tired of being cooped up (no pun intended). last week I detected the first signs, the snowdrops I planted last year were peeking through the ground, the daffodils we bought at the Supermarket when we first moved here and I stuck in the ground when they finished blooming also are up. I had forgotten about those, so that was a real nice surprise. The make shift pond for the ducks has defrosted, and they finally got to swim again and clean themselves. They seem so happy now! I did seed some lettuce indoors, and have been harvesting some young leaves, yummy!



This weekend, I plan on throwing some compost on our vegetable beds and layout 2 more boxes. Even though I can’t plant officially until May 15th, it's time to get things started. We are also thinking about getting some more chicks this year, perhaps some unusual varieties. But not more than 4!



It is such a beautiful morning today, the birds are singing, black cat is sitting on my desk, and the sunlight is beaming in.




I'll try to post some pictures today