Tuesday, April 8, 2014

april feeding our families (gardening for our families!!!)

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(I had myself some fun making these little collages of past garden photos…)



When I first wrote to my friends with the "feeding our families" idea, I offered the following broad suggestions for possible topics…

I think the topic of "feeding our families" leaves lots of room for interpretation. We could share simply, or we can ramble on about our passions in the kitchen. Ideas I am having include...
a favorite meal,
a menu plan for the week,
seasonal menus,
holiday food traditions,
snacks for our children,
(are your children hungry all day long?)
food sensitivities,
food fears (gmo's!)
food memories,
picky eaters (my girls like almost all vegetables. not so big on fruit. particular about sweets (chloe), don't like chocolate (chloe, and me) (thinks bacon and eggs together sounds like one of the craziest things, and especially would have no interest in eating it for breakfast)
breakfast!
and I imagine as we approach garden season then that might play into how we approach and express food love to our family.
and budget stuff, probably many of us face the challenge of feeding our families well on a limited budget.


Each month now I think to myself that perhaps I will take the easier, simpler approach. Though if you look back at my other posts you will see that I actually kept taking the more random, rambling approach. Hmmm, maybe that is how things will stay. 

I have never felt inadequate or even slightly concerned about my blog posts until starting this project, with such a wonderful group of talented, inspiring women, most of whom are much more prolific with their blog writing than I am. Then I unfortunately had feelings like… oh gosh, what have I gotten myself into, I have nothing to share, there is a reason I never wrote much about food in the past (even if the reason is nothing more than a lacking of time) (and a lacking of photos)…

Neverthless, I really am enjoying this series so, so much (despite my occasional gasps of "oh no!", usually occurring while I am busy in the kitchen and then suddenly realize I am supposed to be photographing and writing about all this food stuff too…)

Back to the simple idea though… 

Were we are at in the kitchen this week…

Shared the results of Saturday's bread baking morning with a kind neighbor. I like the way she held it close, inhaling, before carefully wrapping back up in cloth.

Uhmmm...

I don't think I can get anything else into my head other than thoughts of gardening and food growing!!!

We have trays of spring greens started… just Swiss Chard and kale for now, probably we will direct seed some spinach soon… tomatoes started indoors, a few varieties, some peppers too…

We garden for love, but also out of necessity. If we do not grow enough vegetables then really we do not have enough to eat. So while early spring is all about those good greens, we are also looking forward to getting our storage crops planted… onions, potatoes, cabbage (sauerkraut!), beets, various varieties of winter squash…

We even just had our first little garden harvest of the season! A teeny tiny bundle of chives, snipped from awakening plants, giving us a little taste of fresh green goodness!


I guess I have decided to skip the link gadget thing for now, but if you have a food post of your own to share then please do leave a link in the comments. (Did you all see that Heather from Beauty that Moves is doing a weekly kitchen series? All kinds of gorgeous kitchen inspiration over there!)


Enjoy visiting these lovely friends for more good food stuff...






5 comments:

Tonya Gunn said...

Renee,
I always enjoy the way you write - so real.
Thanks for sharing.
Love,
Tonya

Anonymous said...

As I've noted before, I love this series! Thanks for starting it. I have a hobby garden, but admire those who are able to raise all their own vegetables! We direct seeded some spinach, radishes, and peas already. The spinach and radishes are up, but the peas aren't. I'm wondering what happened to them! Best wishes. :)

Sarah-Our Island Home said...

I love all of your ideas Renee and I love that picture of your sweet baby girl! She is growing! Sarah xx

Emily said...

This is a wonderful series, Renee. Like you, I garden for the love of it as well as the need. I am so looking forward to working that warm soil with my hands. My garden is still under 2 feet of snow, though. I usually start everything from seed in the garden, but I think this year I may be starting a few things in the house as well. Looking forward to that first harvest of chives. :)

Mama Ash Grove said...

Renee, as I said to you in my email you voiced much of how I feel (you kind of always do, actually- just like you always seem to know how I'm feeling).
I love your simple, open posts. They always make me smile, and make me feel as if I am talking with you. I gotta call you soon. This week is less busy for me.
GARDEN! I planted a little bit!
HUGS