Projects

So, I want to make my own everything. I suspect that this will extend into many parts of my life, but for now the focus is on food. I want to create what I eat from the most basic ingredients possible. If I can grow it, awesome. If not, let me have it whole. If I don't have the tools to process it, give it to me as pure as possible.

Here are some projects I have started:

1. Compost. I live in a studio in a house that is split into five apartments. It is small, but it basically suits my needs and I like the location. This, obviously, makes it a little harder to compost, so I do it under my sink in a big bucket (my parents have a lot of cats, so I took a couple of the tubs that the kitty litter comes in). All I really did was drill holes around the top and bottom. I put in some ripped up brown paper bags and a little dirt. Then I added the worms. Yes, I have worms in my tiny studio. On purpose. I know, gross. A few hundred Red Wigglers from a local bait shop. I put some veggie scraps down in a corner and let them get to work. The first night, a bunch of worms escaped through the holes and I almost lost it. Seriously. I am not squeemish, but they were all over my kitchen floor. So I cut up some old panty hose and covered the holes with it, and they have been contained since. This was about a week ago and... IT IS WORKING. They are eating my old veggies and pooping out dirt! Absolutely amazing. Worth the day or two I was too grossed out to eat anything in my house. And this brings me to my second project because, really, what am I supposed to do with all this dirt when I've got a whole bunch in a few months?

2. A garden. Again, living in a little studio in a very urban area makes doing this traditionally a bit difficult. Not to mention record low temperatures in Florida, lately. So I've planted some lima bean seeds in a tupperware like container. As soon as it warms up, I am going to take over the empty lot next door. Just a little patch. I plan to grow lima beans (I have low potassium and eat limas every day because they are just full of it), tomatoes, carrots and yellow squash to start out. I figure at the Strawberry Festival in a couple of months I'll buy a strawberry plant and transplant it in my garden as well.

The garden is very slow to start, so in the meantime I just buy all of my produce from local, organic sellers. Mostly, anyway. I am having trouble with bananas. I eat at least a banana a day and, wouldn't you believe it? The farmer's market in my city sells Chiquita bananas. The one where my parents live sells Dole. So my plan, this week, is to figure out why this is and if/where I can get locally grown bananas. I have also been trying to figure out my "grain" situation, but that is too much to go into at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to explain it in my next post. It will temporarily suffice to say I have plans to buy a grain mill and I don't understand why whole grain semolina is so hard to find. I will find out, though.