Independence Days Challenge..the in between time.

So yup...it is April 4th and if feels like it is March 4th. It is a chilly morning. Friday, we had nearly a foot and a half of snow. But this past weekend was gloriously warm. Rain is predicted for this week, so, fingers-crossed, the garden should be revealed. With the lingering winter it has been hard to even think about the lists of things we need to do this year. However, in the hope of spring, we are getting some things done.

Planted: Cabbage, feverfew, bee balm, celeriac, cat grass.

Harvested: maple sap

Preserve: over 3 gallons of maple syrup, chicken stock. I freeze chicken bones and some veggie scraps. When I have enough, I boil it all down with some sea salt and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. We are moving out of soup season. My hope is to have a good supply of chicken stock for next winter.

Local Foods: Local meats from our local feed store. Local eggs... hopefully soon, we can have some of our own chickens again.

Eat the Food: I am trying to use up some of the crazy amount of chutney I have in my pantry. Tonight we eat local porkchops with cranberry chutney. As we can up the maple syrup any extra that will not fill a complete jar goes into the jar that I am working from. So I have been using maple syrup in the weekly batch of granola that I make. I have been using it as the sweetener in the bread I make. We also have been eating a fair amount of pancakes; using up lat years raspberries.

Waste not: The usual composting, recycling. I have started going through the dresser drawers to thin out outgrown winter clothing, relegate some things to the rag bin. I am also thinning out some books and posting them on Paperback Book Swap.

Want not: I picked up some boxes at the cooperative extension for testing the soil. I put in a wholesale order at Peace Fleece. My big guys have not had a new sweater for a few years. Evan will need a new sweater next fall. So next Christmas they will all have a new warm wool sweater. If I get started now I should be able to have them done by the end of the summer. I made Evan a couple of pairs of pj bottoms. I contacted our local Adult Ed about teaching knitting next fall. They were very interested and I will hear from them in August when they write the new catalog.