Although I'm posting this on the very last day of the Vegetable Challenge, I hereby declare it finished successfully (at 11.59 tonight). No vegetables were bought (mushrooms were bought by another member of the household which was not against the rules, but it was agreed no more buying fungi until the end of the Challenge)--not even onions, which were allowed per the rules. The Challenge was set for seven months, and the whole target period was achieved.
We almost exclusively ate vegetables that I grew at the allotment and in the kitchen garden. A few vegetables were obtained for free (for example, other allotmenters' excess zuc), and we already had some from before the start date of the Challenge (for instance, vegetables I dehydrated in 2024). But at 578# of veg in 2025, obviously we had plenty to eat.
What next? I'm continuing with the spirit of the Challenge until Easter I think. The husband wants onions badly! So for now we buy onions and nothing else. At Easter there is usually a cheap veg sale at the supermarkets (there was one at Christmas but I wasn't even tempted); I may replenish my frozen and dehydrated veg stores at that time. After this I will consider starting anew, with a target of eight months.
I'm still making kimchi: around 6 L at the beginning of January using turnips, white radishes, leek/garlic, and 7# of Chinese cabbages (I got them all picked before the start of a two week long frost); last week I made another L of water kimchi with my rather small harvest of pink winter radishes along with garlic/leek and chili peppers from my nearly dead plants. Right now I'm eating some fennel kimchi: it originally started as fermented fennel with dill but was rather uninspiring so I poured in a cupful of leftover kimchi brine to make it magical.
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