We are suddenly in a bit of a panic as we have just learned that our household income will be cut significantly starting mid-August.

Inspired by The Tightwad Gazette, I have already been working hard to cut costs; little did I know it would become an absolute necessity.

We're cutting out everything that isn't absolutely essential, and my grocery budget has been slashed almost in half.

I remain committed to feed my family only whole, organic and sustainable foods. I'll just have to get more creative and figure out how to stretch everything even further.

Good thing I've been practicing.

Homemade Mint "Iced" Tea

Wash and skim the leaves off of 4-8 stalks of freshly-picked mint (I'm playing with this to see if the level of "minty-ness" changes with the number of stalks).

Gently crumple the leaves to bruise them and put in 2 quart bowl.

Pour 4 cups of boiling water over the leaves and steep for 10 minutes.

Strain leaves out and add 4 cups cool water to hot water in bowl.

Pour into glass container(s) (I use G.T.'s kombucha bottles) with lids and refrigerate.

Note: I don't add ice since I just grab the chilled bottles out of the fridge to drink. If you were to add ice, you would need to experiment with the level of concentration of the tea to allow for the melted ice.

Today the kids and I went in search of some currant bushes at Natura Farms. We were lucky enough to track down the manager and got tons of information and nine awesome berry bushes to plant in our yard--black, red, and white currants; golden raspberries; and gooseberries (at Snacks' request).

For fun we picked a few pick-your-own gooseberries--which Snacks got to sample from the wild at Dodge's "Nature's Playground" camp last week and has declared to be, "better than all the other berries put together!"-- and some black currants.

We had a picnic lunch near the lake where Sissy could watch the horses-- Castle Rock cheese curds, homemade muffins, and fresh-picked gooseberries.

At home tonight we had to dig up what seemed like gazillions of day lilies to make room for the new berry bushes. I wanted them to go to a good home, so I posted them on FreeCycle. Both families who are coming to get them have six-year-olds, which is helping Snacks feel just the tiniest bit better about getting rid of them. He has been trying to replant them almost as fast as I can dig them up.

We managed to use up all of the veggies from the CSA box except one HUGE zucchini and a couple of small pickling cucumbers, all of which will easily keep for at least a few more days.

To use up the veggies, dinner tonight was brown rice with lentils. I mixed in some leftover sausage from the Trad Foods warehouse (which we cannot get enough of--it is so good!) and some sauteed zucchini, steamed and diced beets, and a handful of parsley from the back yard.

New box comes tomorrow.

I am tired. Keeping up with our food is hard work. Trouble is, there's no turning back now. I wouldn't dream of doing anything any differently...except maybe trying to get more sleep.

Last night I was up late in a panic trying to figure out where we are going to get fresh milk come end of summer. We were officially notified last night that our current dairy and egg CSA farmers will be retiring.

Though I can easily get milk through a farmer who is affiliated with the Trad Foods warehouse, I have become very spoiled by the milk we've been getting from Jersey cows--sweeter with a higher fat content than other dairy breeds. After much research, some phone calls, and a flurry of emails, I think I have secured a spot with a farm that at least has Jersey-cross cows. I was thrilled and relieved to find that they are still accepting new customers.

This puts us one step closer to making the decision to get our own laying hens...the only thing holding us back at this point is trying to figure out what we will do with the hens once they are no longer laying. John says we should put them "in the stew pot" as most other folks do (he was inspired by our visit to the Anderson Farm a couple of weeks ago), but I'm not sure I can do that if the kids (and I) have come to know them as pets.

I am getting behind with the veggie CSA box. I pulled out all the veggies that needed to be eaten by tomorrow night so John could figure out what to do with them while I made the spaghetti for dinner tonight. (I decided I can't take the pressure all on my own right now.) We used up some zucchini in muffins and in spaghetti sauce (of course, the children have no idea), and John made a salad with the rest of the lettuce, some dill, steamed beets, and some pickling cucumbers. I still need to make sauerkraut with the red cabbage but I haven't been able to work up to it...or the bread-baking this week, for that matter. (Thankfully, I always make two loaves at a time and had some stashed in the freezer!)

In my own garden, there are so many herbs that I want to harvest and freeze but, somehow, there just aren't enough hours in the day!

Today was the first day since the middle of last week that it was warm enough to eat on the front porch. (Note the mid-summer date!) The kids and I happily returned to enjoying our home-cooked meals and freshly picked berries on the checkered table cloth--it felt like summer again!

I have spent the last couple of days harvesting and preserving some of the herbs from the back yard, and I figured out how to make peppermint tea from the mint in the garden--it is heavenly!

The kids and I worked in the Dowling garden this morning. We dug up all but four of the remaining basil plants to bring home for more full-sun exposure and picked what looks like might be just about the last of the raspberries and black raspberries of the season.

At home this afternoon we repotted the basil, weeded all the gardens, and watered like crazy.

The last couple of days I had been fearing "kitchen burnout"...only I knew I didn't want to do anything any differently so, really, it wasn't an option.

I took last night "off" (AFTER dinner, that is) and just let all the dishes and collateral mess sit while I sat...on the couch.

Though there was still the mess to clean up this morning, it was totally worth it to have at least part of last night off.

With renewed energy this morning I cleaned the kitchen in no time. Then I made zucchini spice muffins for breakfast (the kids' favorite recipe so far...they have no idea there was zucchini involved), pulled all the chicken off the bone (it cooked by itself last night while I sat on the couch), set some chicken aside for dinner and froze the rest, made four quarts of chicken stock, two quarts of beet kvass, one quart of sauerkraut, kefir, and some pesto.

Whew!

I'm back.

Today we drove out to Anderson Farm so the kids could see where a lot of our meat comes from. They got to see chicks, piglets, and cows all on pasture.

We got to sample all kinds of traditional food and brought home a cooler full of pastured meat that lived a happy life.

We are certainly getting our fill of fresh berries these days. Every day we are getting them now from Dowling, or our yard (only a few there), the CSA box, or the neighbors. We are berry-stained and loving it!

On the 4th we had red, white, and blue sundaes with Cedar Summit ice cream, strawberries, and black raspberries (we called those "blue")--delicious! There have been strawberry rhubarb crisps, strawberry pie, and just plain berries to eat with our fingers.

I'm on a hunt to find some fall raspberries to plant in the back yard...

Yum!

The last several days have been filled with gratifying work.

Wednesday was all about strawberries...picking, washing and hulling, baking, freezing, and, of course, eating strawberries. It was fun listening to the kids--as they stuffed themselves full--saying, "I picked this one! Mommy picked this one!"

I was up late working to get as many berries as I could into the freezer while they were still just-picked fresh.

Yesterday Sissy and I picked small handfuls of the first red raspberries and black raspberries at our Dowling garden and ate them right up. We watered and weeded the tomatoes and basil and marigolds.

It was CSA veggie pick-up day and the usual race to get all the veggies in the fridge and figure out what needed to be eaten first (the strawberries, of course!) I made red beans with coconut rice and pastured bacon for dinner and threw together a romaine salad with fennel, garlic scape, green onion, and John's homemade vinaigrette. Sissy begged for her own salad and ate every bite!

This morning we went to Dowling to dig out the unhappy basil (not enough sun!) and stake the tomatoes. We scored a few more raspberries and decided tomatoes cages would work better than stakes, which meant we would have to purchase 16 of them, so Snacks and John ventured off in the Big Rig this afternoon in search of some.

We worked quite a bit in the yard--mowing, weeding, moving plants around, mulching...it was heavenly to see things come together that we've been "meaning to do" for a long time. The kids filled a kiddie pool and splashed around for hours. John and I used the water to water our trees after the kids went to bed.

Dinner tonight was homemade quiche with whole wheat and spelt crust, Sweetland eggs, pastured cheese and bacon, chard and garlic from the CSA box, and chives from the back yard (I made a "plain" version for the kids, but Sissy asked for ours!) Dessert was a homemade strawberry pie. Delicious.

To use up the LAST of the strawberries, I assembled two strawberry rhubarb crisps for the freezer.

I'm exhausted, but life is good.

We left the house before 7 a.m. today to drive out and pick strawberries.

Last year Kristie introduced us to a place with strawberries, raspberries, apples, and pumpkins, all sustainably grown, and we've been faithful customers ever since.

The kids and I picked over twelve pounds ourselves (which doesn't include the tons they ate while picking), and I bought an additional twenty pounds that had been picked earlier in the morning to take home to freeze.

I spent the late morning and early afternoon washing and hulling mounds of strawberries, while Sissy napped and Snacks worked in the back yard turning the giant freezer box into some sort of automobile contraption.

Dinner tonight was brown rice and lentils simmered with fresh green garlic and green onion with some wonderful bits of sausage thrown in. Dessert was a strawberry rhubarb crisp, warm from the oven.