A better life - one step at a time

I realized this week how much more efficient and self-sufficient our family has become in the past year or so. I look around my kitchen, and I see dozens of jars of herbs and spices we've grown ourselves and dried for later use. On my countertop are two large crocks of home-brew vinegar that should provide us with enough yummy marinades and salad dressing for a whole year, plus a little to give away. If my winemaking efforts bear good fruit, I anticipate that we will buy very little wine in the coming year - maybe just a bottle or two of merlot for my hubby. We are beginning to brew our own beer as well. On the counter nearest the stove as I speak are two regular and two small loaves, plus six hoagie style rolls of whole grain homemade bread having its final, slow rise before baking. A jar of very yummy smelling sauerkraut is just about ready to open and taste - probably by this weekend.

We're buying a large part of our food these days in bulk from local sources - we have whole grains, beans, soybeans, rice and dried seasonings and milk in the storage room at all times now. We're using the dried milk to augment our storebought, as well as to make kefir, yogurt, cultured buttermilk and soft cheeses at home. Nearly all of one wall in the storeroom is lined with jars of home-canned fruits, fruit syrups, fruit sauces, condiments, pickles, applesauces and apple butter. I'm making plans right now to learn how to pressure can meats and beans, so we will soon have quick meals that we like ready in just a few minutes on our busier days. I'm about to have a go at learning to make home-made sausages, and I even made some home-made potato chips this weekend!

All of this does entail some extra work - but more than that, it requires a lifestyle and attitude change. I'm finding that the more we buy in bulk and the less time I spend at the grocery stores, the more we save in grocery money AND in time. All those highly processed convenience foods are not so convenient when you check the nutrition you're getting (or rather, not getting) and add in the extra money you have to earn to pay for them and the extra time you have to take to shop and bring them home.

Making things like wine and vinegar and bread doesn't take much real time out of my busy day, and it returns heaps of benefits for the time actually spent. It's also fun to watch them transform from ingredients to finished product. It's good to know that a lot of what we're eating these days didn't have to travel a thousand miles or more to get here. But, we're doing more than just learning to eat locally - we're trading in our high consumption, low quality lifestyle for a higher quality and more sustainable one. I think the key here for us is doing it slowly and deliberately - picking the things we can do or can learn to do and integrating them one at a time into our life and our daily routine before adding more. It's good to take back responsibility and accountability for at least some of what we put into our bodies, and to be able to know that we're getting more from what we do eat, but I definitely don't want to replace one high-stress situation with another!

We definitely still have a long way to go - but looking around me this past week - Thanksgiving week - I can definitely see that we're on the right road. And it feels good!