Challenge Update

I've really sucked at this eat local challenge lately. I didn't do enough research ahead of time and with the hustle and bustle of the holidays on top of a very busy month at work I just havent put together any complete meals with local ingredients. We have been trying to eat local items so now I just need to buckle down and make the effort to get a complete meal done.

My Christmas garden was a success. Even with very cold temperatures and multiple frost/freezes we were able to heat a huge salad with homegrown lettuce and spinach which made me a very happy woman. I did leave some leaves for the next few weeks, but the rest are going to need some time to get big enough for cutting. The lettuce and spinach is growing slowly, but it is growing which proves that with a cheaply built hoop frame you can grow successful year round in Oregon.

I better get back to work. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Years.

See you next year!

Griswold Family Christmas

I have always loved the movieNational Lampoons Christmas Vaction. The first Christmas my husband and I were together he gave it to me as a gift and we started the tradition of watching the movie every Christmas Eve in bed.

Last year we decided at the last minute to come up to Eugene for Thanksgiving weekend on a scouting mission. At this point we were doing everything we could to get up here and we wanted to decide on the area of town that we would want to look for a rental as we knew that we probably would have to do everything remotely when moving became a reality. While we were here we decided to get our Christmas tree. We saw a story on the news about paying 5 bucks for a permit to cut a tree in the National Forest, Griswold Family style. We decided to just cut a tree down at a family farm, by the way the best tree I have ever had. We did vow that if we were able to move up here that we would go into the forest for our tree.

Well, we are here and we made it into the forest for our tree. At 5 bucks a piece I rationalized that we should get three tree's and we would still only be paying half of what one tree from a farm would cost us. The best part about three tree's is that everyone got to pick out the tree they wanted, instead of searching for hours for the best tree that we both liked.



Here is my son posing with the tree that he picked out for his ornaments. He has a pretty big collection of the Dr. Seuss and Scooby Doo ornaments from Hallmark so it will be nice to have them displayed on his own tree.



Here is a picture of the tree I picked out for the front yard, it caught my eye because it has two trunks that connected at the base of the tree. I will post a picture of it when we get it completed, it will have white lights with red and silver ornaments that I have from when I used to have a stair banister to decorate.




This is a picture of the main tree for the house that my husband picked out. As you can see his measuring skills are off and the tree had to be taken back outside to get chopped down a bit. Since Ethan's ornaments were going on his tree and I had a tree to decorate outside I told my husband that he could have his own Star Wars tree. His mom and grandmother have been buying him the Hallmark Star Wars ornaments every year for probably the last 15 years. He has so many that normally he only gets to display half of them, but this year that is changing. And just to be clear, I have never seen any of the Star Wars movies and really don't have any interest to so I'm a pretty good wife to let the main tree be decorated this way.

We had such a fun family day. Ethan and Doja had a blast running in the snow and we just enjoyed a family day that didn't involve chores or errands. This is definately a family tradition that we will continue to do each year.

I Must Be Crazy!

UPDATE: I found a company in our area that is sorta like a CSA. They have a website where you can order all sorts of different products from local farms within 50 miles of here. If I place my order by Monday morning it will be dropped off at the local brewery on Tuesday afternoon's. This is a win-win situation. I can get all of the local products that I need for the Dark Day's Challenge and I can have a beer while I pick up box of goodies. The local farms participating offer: meat, dairy, grains, veggies, fruits, honey, and other non-perishable items. I've placed an order for pickup tomorrow so once I get my box I will post some photo's of the yummy stuff we ordered. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that all of the items that are offered are either cheaper or the same price as what I would pay for it at the farmer's market or the local grocery chain.

I signed up for the Dark Days Challenge over at Not Dabbling in Normal. I always love a challenge but maybe I should have done some research before signing up. I have only lived in this State for 6 months and I have no idea what I am going to be able to come up with for meals with all ingredients from within 100-150 miles of my house.

At first I thought I was set. I have been to Bob's Red Mill in Portland and I knew that was within my mile range so I figured I was set in regards to flour and baking products, WRONG. The mill may be within my mile range, but I never thought about the fact that the grains probably didn't fall into that category. I guess it is time to start investigating because I have recently started making all of our bread products and finding a local source for flour would be nice.

We do have a winter market so I will have to go this week to check out what is available. I don't have a winter vegetable loving family so I am going to have to get creative. I do have three of my garden beds planted in winter lettuce and spinach, but I was really hoping to save most of that for a big home grown salad for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately with the prospect of having to move I delayed putting in the garden beds so the growth is rather slow, but they are growing.

If any of you live in my area and know of local meat and dairy sources please let me know, I would appreciate any help I can get.

Wish me luck. Worst case is we will be eating a plain spinach salad once a week, probably not a bad idea for the waistline that has grown since we got here.