Backyard Homesteading

This year I am venturing into backyard homesteading. Raising chickens is part of this venture.  I am also adding a couple raised beds for vegetable gardening this year. We've all heard the stories about "pink slime" and "meat glue."  This and other food news really got me thinking about what is in the foods that I eat.  The short version is a lot of sugar, sodium, and chemicals.  I decided to make an effort to eat more naturally made products with fewer ingredients.  Food self-sufficiency is one step towards this goal.

The Backyard Homestead suggests considering the types of food we eat most.  Salsa was the first thing that came to mind.  We go through an unusually large amount of salsa in our house.  I eat a lot of salad.  I added spaghetti sauces to my list, since the same vegetables are used as in the salsa.  My final vegetable list included tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, several varieties of lettuce and various herbs.  For fun, I added a few tea herbs.  This is where I started, with the idea that I would expand a little each year.

So on Tuesday, my husband woke up with a migraine and didn't go to work.  By afternoon, he was feeling much better and I put him to work building the raised beds. And yes, I did help.  :)  Things didn't go as smoothly as we had planned, but then most projects don't.  We did get all the wood cut and the bed partially assembled before we had to quit for the day.  We plan to finish the first bed tonight.