The Impossible Dream

I frequently have harebrained ideas. This one is no different than the other harebrained ideas, but lets see if I can actually follow through on a crazy idea.

I want to put away food for the entire winter. I want to pretend that I'm a colonist that has limited access to trade goods and has stocked up everything that I need for the harsh, Massachusetts winter. I realize that I'll be using modern technology, in the forms of a freezer and pressure canner, but the idea will be the same...stock up or go without.

I'm a little late in the game. Otherwise I'd already have strawberries canned or frozen, but I'm not too late to try.

I've divided my foods into 4 categories: Frozen, Canned, Dried, and Cellar. In addition I hope to start some salad greens and spinach indoors to add some fresh stuff over the winter. By winter I mean December through March, although it really should be a longer period. I would think there wouldn't really be enough to harvest in March to get you through April, but 4 months of stockpiling is quite enough. I figure I've got 121 breakfasts, 121 lunches, 121 dinner, and 242 snacks to account for, with only 3 1/2 months to start stocking up.

Why, might be a good question.

First, I'm dedicated to the idea of eating locally and environmentally friendly meals. If I buy stuff out of season either I'm getting it from someone far away, somewhere that uses energy for hothouses, or someone else has had the burden of storing my food for me all winter and therefore has probably increased the price to account for energy costs.

I also think it will be a learning experience. Ideally I'd be growing all my own food, but as I noted earlier, my garden hasn't been as supervised as it should have, and definitely wouldn't get me through the seasons. Figuring out what I really need throughout the winter will be help during the planning stages of next year's garden. What I don't grow myself I'll buy locally from farmer's markets or local farms, which will also help me learn more about the local foods community around me.

Finally, I could use a challenge that doesn't involve students, attempts at fertility, or house construction. My acupuncturist told me to do something I love, and I love knowing where my food comes from and feeling like I'm living the way I want to live. I have very little hope that I will actually succeed entirely, considering this is my first time trying this, but I will do my best to do as good a job as I possibly can. If nothing else, it will be an interesting experiment in estimating and storage capacity.