Revisiting the Vegetable Challenge?

Last Christmas, supermarkets had a special on certain vegetables, much cheaper than usual;  this has happened for a few years in a row and we knew to stock up.  So for about four days, we went in and bought around 10 kg of various fresh veg;  we froze some, dehydrated some, and kept the rest for fresh eating.  It was mostly carrots, parsnips and swede, but a few kgs each of potatoes, cabbage and Brussels sprouts too.  So obviously, 10 kg a day for four days was about 40 kg in less than a week.  We were in production mode for several weeks afterward, keeping the dehydrator and freezer trays going.

But here's the thing:  we still have nearly all the dehydrated carrots, parsnips and swede in the cupboard.  It's not that it's inconvenient to use;  on the contrary, it's so easy to just tip some into a stew (and we eat plenty of stew!), curry, stir fry, whatever.  And I haven't forgotten it's there either--it's just that this year I've had so much fresh veg from the garden, my dehydrated veg hasn't been needed.

In past years I've done a no-buy vegetable challenge for several months at a time, eating only veg we grew ourselves, were given/traded, or otherwise got for free.  The longest we officially went without eating bought vegetables was seven months (however, I did buy some veg at the six month mark, which officially broke that challenge).  This is something for myself, setting and keeping my own rules;  I stopped doing it after Brexit because of food security worries (luckily unfounded, at least so far).

So this year yet again, no official challenge, yet we really have gone nearly all year without buying much veg;  the only vegetables I've put on the list are onions, something I still haven't succeeded with yet--and one weekly carrot for the small daughter's lunchbox (somehow I didn't buy carrot seed until too late for this spring).  

We really could have gone without these two, although I would have missed onions, as I use them every day (I'm trying again next year).  My freezer is a third full of garden/allotment veg (the other two thirds are meat and berries); I have two shelves in my cupboard full of dried, pickled and preserved fruit and veg;  and my fridge is half full of jars of fermented vegetables/kimchi.  Not to mention the fresh veg still standing, waiting for harvest at both the allotment and garden.

Will I restart the Challenge next year?  Can I officially go the whole year?  I'm not sure!  But maybe 2025 will be the year to try.

Harvesting, cooking and eating; and a goodbye, December 2024

Thanksgiving was a success;  we had a green vegetable medley with fresh cabbage and leek and frozen green beans;  I also made my pumpkin pie recipe with our own eggs and squash, and a cherry tart with the last of the freezer cherries (which were more than a year in the freezer).  Along with our turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes and our friends' three delicious side dishes, we even had a glass of home brewed currant wine.  I ate and ate and ate...

On Sunday (the only day I can usually collar the son) we went up to the allotment to pick all the remaining beets, mostly small but a few big ones left:  about three pounds altogether.  Once home I immediately dumped these into my big slow cooker to cook for later pickling.  I also brought home five or six turnips, another big mini daikon (I need a better name for these--mini implies small, but they aren't small! How about just white radish?) and a nice big leek.  I also cooked and seasoned the turnip greens (the chickens got the frostbitten radish leaves);  the roots are for cooking during the week.

At school the daughter learned a song about Five a Day (she's four years old).  I try to serve her and the son five veg a day, and most if not all is homegrown;  she really enjoys counting out our daily veg, and often it's even more than five.  Sometimes she says she doesn't like something, but almost always eats it anyway.

But on a sad note, we lost one of our rescue hens last week;  we adopted her cohort of four in September of 2023, so she was with us for just over a year.  She and the other three we christened the Specklies, as we gave up individually naming hens many years ago;  we were sorry to say goodbye to this Speckly, and hope the rest of her flock mates will stay with us for a good while longer.