One big part of sustainability (to me) is food.  What you eat, how often you eat it, what your food eats, where it comes from, how it gets to your fridge and so on.  There are so many variables to how your food comes to your plate that affect all of my favorite topics: finances (cost), sustainability (transportation/”food miles”, growing practices/feeding, inputs/fertilizers/hormones/etc) and health (what you eat/how much/how often).  In an effort to lower my own impact, I’ve been focusing on getting my own food – mostly meat, but hopefully next summer I can try my hand at gardening.  When I do go out and get my own food, I like to do a bit of cost/benefit analysis.  Was it worth it for me to get it, or should I just save the time/money and buy it at the store?  If you’re curious you can find part one (halibut) and part two (duck) on the site.

This time, the hunt was for elk.  Here’s what it cost:

• Elk Tag: $52
• Conservation Stamp for 2011:  $12.50  - This is something anyone in wyoming who is hunting or fishing has to purchase.  Usually they use the money for land conservation.  The stamp is good for 1 calendar year.
• Conservation Stamp for 2012: $12.50 – Unfortunately, these stamps are good for a calendar year, not from year to date purchase.  Since I didnt get an elk in 2011, I had to buy a new one.  Feeling like I was buying these things all the time annoyed me (and I didnt want to forget), so I bought a lifetime conservation stamp for $180.50.  I just used the yearly cost here though.  If the price stays the same, I’ll be money ahead in 15 years, and sooner if the price goes up.
• Gun/Ammo: Borrowed/given to me – but this will be an expense in the future.  Obviously the gun will be a 1 time expense, but not the ammo.
• Gas: $200 – This area isn’t really close to my house at all and I’d guesstimate I used 3 tanks of gas I wouldn’t have used otherwise.  I went up a total of 5 times and I took my truck 2 of those times, using a full tank both times.  The third was for meeting the rest of my group.
• Foil/Saran Wrap: $8 – Yes, even though I bought some in Alaska, I needed more to process my elk meat.
• 750 mL of whiskey: $11 – Needed.
• Grinding: Free – Usually I pay to have the tougher cuts ground into burger meat, but a co-worker has a grinder that she is willing to let me use, which is a huge score!

Obviously, that’s quite a long list, and the total is $297, which is about what I spent on the halibut (go figure) but  is still a whole slew of money.

Before I went out last Saturday, I was pretty pessimistic about the whole thing, figuring that I’d thrown all that cash down the drain and not gotten anything from it (for the second year in a row)!  Even after I ate my lunch on Saturday, and we had finished our loop and were headed back to the truck, I was ready to go home and had made the decision to give it up for the season.  Thankfully, we stumbled upon some tracks and I was able to bring one down after some stalking.  So once I drug the thing back to the truck (2 miles!) and went home, I had to get to work processing and weighing. After everything was deboned, I had 58 lbs of meat.  This is meat of all different grades and qualities, from things that need to be slow cooked or ground because they aren’t tender to things that are very, very tender and tasty.  (Pictures: Pre deboned meat from 1 rear leg, and a de-boned rear leg [pic1, pic2]).  I basically spent most everyday from Saturday to Thursday trimming the silver off, and spent about 3 hours last this Saturday wrapping everything up.  Obviously, it doesn’t end once you’re out of the field.

I had to cut all of the silver off so the meat wouldnt taste gamey, and I’m guessing that was about 5 pounds, leaving me with about 53 pounds of useable meat.  This puts my total cost per pound at $5.12, which I think is pretty good.  While not all of what I got is “steak” quality, it is all organic, grass fed, pasture raised, etc.  Overall, that’s a pretty cheap price per pound for meat like that – I’ve done the math on buying a side of beef and it comes out somewhere between 6 and 7 bucks a pound (at least around here).  I figure this is a pretty good comparison, so I’m happy with the results.

I also don’t think I’ll need to do this again next year.  H is a vegetarian, so I’ve got all of this to eat myself or give away.  I’ve already given some away  and will probably give away more. I’ll save some for my bachelor party this summer and probably keep the rest (shockingly, I had enough freezer room after my quest to eat freezer stuff).  The unfortunate thing about this is that I could have spent all of that money and came up with nothing, but that is just how it all works.  Buying a tag isnt like buying the meat off the carcass – it does take a considerable amount of time and effort, but to me it’s worth it.

Some thoughts on the cost: I try not to put a price on the time I spend outdoors in some gorgeous country (if you want to know what the area looks like, check my facebook picture) because that is subjective, and I could derive more value from it than others (or less).  I also don’t count the benefit of the workout I get, but I do count it towards my workout total for the month – it’s a lot of walking.

Readers: Do you hunt, or are you interested in it?  Are you lucky enough to have a friend that just gives you meat instead of you having to go get it yourself?  Have you ever considered hunting as a (long-term) strategy to save money and increase the quality of your food?

So, as many of you know, H and I signed up for a CSA last summer/fall.  I wrote about what I got and what I did with it on the site on a monthly basis (our ‘shares’ were delivered weekly).  Of course, we got inundated with fruit at certain times of the year (peaches in july, pears in august, and apples in november and december).  Being the value centered personal finance geek that I am, I wanted to see if using this saved us any money on our food bill.  Unfortunately, I wasnt able to track how many pounds of what fruit we got per week, and the cost of something similar at the store because I didnt think of the idea soon enough.  I still wanted to keep track of the cost, so I figured that the next best way to do it would be to compare this years food spending with last years food spending for the same time period, and see where I spent more.

This of course is far from rigorous – I was traveling a lot this summer, meaning I was eating out a bit more than usual, and not eating at home as much.  Since I’ll only be tracking grocery expenses, this could skew them a bit low.  Not only that, but H and I try to split the groceries – one week I pay, one week she pays.  However if we need to go the store and the person who should be paying is busy/out of town/not feeling like going to the store, the other one pays.  I’m sure over time we are probably pretty close to even, but there could be some seasonal fluctuation in there.

So in 2011, I recorded 25 transactions on groceries from the months of August through November (I dropped off both the two weeks in july and the two weeks at the beginning of december to make records keeping easier).  There were 25 transactions, totaling $650.  This amounted to approximately 40% of what I spent for my “food and dining” category in 2010.  While there was a few things that should probably be thrown out (there was a purchase of some vitamin water and gummie bears (yes, I remember what I bought 6 months ago – but only because this is one of about 2 times I’ve purchased something at this place in my life).  Thankfully, this category was the largest of my food expenses (beating out hooch, and eating out).  One thing to note is that I cant break out fruit from the totals here, and that the of the fruit that was bought, none was organic, which our CSA is.  That of course would have increased the price.

In 2010, I logged 33 transactions at the grocery store that cost a total of $470.  This also amounted to 40% of my total expenses in the “food and dining” category.  Most of these, however, were for distinctly non meal related items.  There were 20 (!!!) transactions from whole foods, most of which were things for my lunches on that day.  There also were some times in there where I had to pick up something specific (like a duck) that I couldn’t get where I live, but most of those 20 transactions where for lunch.  There was also 1 transaction for the meat processor – from when I went hunting antelope and had the meat ground up to sausages and burger.  Less those two places, there was 12 transactions at the grocery store for me in 2010.

Clearly, this was not exactly what I expected to find.  Not only was I shocked at how much more I spent in 2011 than in 2010, I’m surprised at the amount of times I bought stuff at whole foods (though this was noted about a year ago in Trending Up).  I had expected the numbers to come out roughly even or with me spending more in 2010 – what I did notice was that while I was having fewer transactions, the average went up from about 4 a transaction to 10 a swipe.  Now that I’ve noticed this, it looks like I’ll need to do a better job avoiding the grocery store, and better record keeping for a more apt comparison next year.  I’ll also need to do a better job meal planning (which I’ve been working on) and considering cost when doing so (also, working on it).  Finding this out leaves me with plenty of areas to improve on, obviously.

Readers: Are you ever suprised by what you find when you’re digging through your accounts?  How have you been able to change and reverse course so that you can do better in the future?  Any specific tricks for my case of spending too much

Now that me having two jobs and walking to work, I’ve been able to read substantially more than I have in the most recent years (not counting school books, of course).  I’ve subscribed to a few new magazines, both of which I have to say that I really enjoy.  Those magazines are Mother Earth News and Countryside Living and Small Stock Journal.  I’ve been waiting to try out ideas in most of the issues i’ve gotten because they require more land than I currently have, or are not relevant to my current situation (like a wood stove).  Once I found an article on how to make homemade hard apple cider from Mother Earth News (here), I knew I had to give it a whirl.   Here’s how it’s done:

First, you’ll need two categories of things – some food items for the cider, and some homebrewing items for the processing and storage of your cider (unless you try to drink it all at once, which for the record is something I suggest you do not attempt).

For the food ingredients, you’ll need:

• Apple cider with out preservatives (If it has sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate, it wont work)
• Brown Sugar or Honey – Optional, to increase alcohol content
• Wine Yeast (I used a dry wine yeast recommended by the guy at my local homebrew shop)

I didnt have the yeast at the time, but this is all you really need (though you’ll need more than 1/2 gallon of cider)

• Large cooking pot (this recipe produces 5 gallons – I had to use my 3 gallon pot and heat 2 portions)
• Carboy – basically a large glass or plastic jug to store the cider in while it’s fermenting (I borrowed this)
• Bubbler – I borrowed this from a friend too
• Bottles or some other storage container
• Bottle capper – borrowed from a friend
• Caps – if you’re using bottles
• Corn sugar/honey – not necessary, but is if you want your cider carbonated
• Bottle filler/siphon - clear plastic tubing will work

Empty Bottles and Caps

For most of the non food ingredients, I spoke to a friend who home-brews a lot (something I’m rapidly careening towards) and he had a lot of the stuff I needed to bottle and store the cider, which was nice I could borrow it.

To get yourself started, you’ll need your large cooking pot and your cider.  What you’ll need to do is put all of your cider into the pot (or as much as can fit) and heat.  If you’re adding brown sugar or honey for extra alcohol content at the end, this is the time to do it.  It’s about .4 lb of sugar or honey per gallon.   I made 5 gallons of cider, so I put 2 lbs of sugar in.  Of course, the pot I was using at the time was too small, so I had to heat in 2 batches of about 2.5 gallons each time.  You warm up your cider on the oven for about 45 minutes, then put it in the carboy.  You’ll need to do this twice if your pot isnt big enough for all 5 gallons like I did.  You can get some pretty large pots for cheap these days – I wont be using this method next time as I now am the proud owner of a turkey deep fryer kit, which is what i’ll be using for this (and brewing) from here on out.

Fermentation

Once you’ve got the cider into the car boy, you’ll need to bring the temperature down so that you dont kill the yeast.  Once the cider is cool to room temperature, you can go ahead and “pitch” your yeast (this means toss it in the carboy).  Stir your mixture a bit and then put the airlock on.  Once this is done, the first part of the cider making is done.  After this, let it sit in a temperature controlled room out of the light.  The yeast will get to work, and you’ll start to see bubbles leaving the airlock (this is the yeast eating the sugars, making alcohol).  Below is a picture of the fermenting process.

Bottling

After a few weeks, the yeast will have run out of sugars to eat and start to sink to the bottom.  Once this happens you can let the cider sit for a while for the yeast to continue to settle so that you dont get a bunch of yeast into your bottles.

Sanitize your bottles and cover the tops with a bit of foil so nothing falls into them [you can get sanitizer at a brew shop,

Box of Full Bottles

or just use a bit of bleach].  As you’re ready to start bottling, you pour in 3/4 cup of corn sugar for carbonation [put this in your fermentation pail, before bottling] (this is optional), and if you dont do it the cider will still taste just fine. Swirl the corn sugar around, and then you’re ready to bottle.  Id suggest putting down a towel to absorb the spills that will happen.  Start your syphon, and fill each bottle, cap it, and move on to the next one.  I got 22 ounce bottles (bombers) and filled 24 completely and had about 3 pints left over, which I drank that night.  Once the bottling is done, let the corn sugar  and the last bits of yeast do their work and carbonate the bottles.  They should be ready after about 2 weeks.  I left mine for around a month because of the holidays.

Once you’ve got all this done you can enjoy your cider!  Dont toss those bottles in the recycling bin though, you can reuse them for you next brewing project.

Readers: Do you brew beer or cider at home?  Are you interested in it at all, or is this something that’s not really for you?  It honestly really wasnt as difficult as I thought it’d be, but you do need to make sure you have all the equipment.

Since it’s the first week of 2012, I figured that I’d share my goals for 2012 with all of you.  I don’t list every goal in every category, but I do put the ones that I feel relate to the things we talk about on the blog.

Every year for the past 6 or so years, I’ve tried to set some yearly goals for myself.  I have found that instead of writing them all down on a piece of paper and trying to go after all of them at the same time, it was easier for me to break them down into categories.  That way, they didnt get to be too large, and by defining the large categories, I was also able to make sure that I was doing things that I truly find important, such as staying healthy, getting my finances in order and trying to live a more sustainable life all around.   I usually share those 3 categories on the blog, and on my goals sheet that I write everything down on, I have a few other categories, like personal and a grab bag category of sorts.  Last year, I didnt really set any sustainability goals specifically, but getting a job in the city where I lived definitely helped me be more sustainable because I was driving less.

This year though, I thought i’d come up with a few sustainable goals, which are heavily subject to change, mainly because I dont own my own place (yet).  I’ve thought about a few and if I cant do all of them, I’ll still give some of them a try.  Here’s what they are.

1. Plant a freaking garden.  This, unfortunately, is subject to landlord approval.  I’ve already talked to him about it, but I’m not sure if he’s going to go for it.  It’s kind of in a dead patch in the yard, so all I’d really have to do is get some lumber (was hoping to use railroad ties, but the creosote kinda spooked me).  I really want to try this next year because I even wrote about how having a garden would green your summer.  Even though I’m sure I’ll be busy with wedding stuff most of the summer, I’ll still want to give this one a go.  It shouldnt cost that much either, because I can get a truck bed full of composted soil for about 20 bucks from the city.  If I dont get approval from my landlord, I’ll try to get something going in some pots – probably commonly used herbs around my house like basil and mint.
2. Make some papercrete.  I really think this stuff is cool, and I’ve been saving paper at my office to bring home (dont tell H) and make some at some point.  I think this stuff would be perfect to use instead of lumber for raised garden beds, and I’m sure I could find some other uses for it.  Hopefully this stuff wont be too easy to make.  (If you’re curious about what it is, check out my guest post on sustainable personal finance)
3. Continue using human power for most traveling.  Most of the places I go are nearby my home and office, so I’ve been walking or biking there recently.  This is not only good for my health, but it keeps the miles off of the truck and keeps the environment healthier, all while saving me some gas money.  The only places that I do drive are to the grocery store and to target when shopping needs to be done.  There have also been times when I’ve needed to go multiple places and pick something up, or it has been really cold when I’ve driven somewhere I’d usually walk.  I’d like to keep that up for 2012.  More walking and biking, less driving!

I’ve been trying to keep everyone up with our CSA since I first wrote about it for the the Green Your Summer series, but I’ve decided to give some updates on the service every once in a while with my thoughts, etc.  This is the fourth update, and if you’re interested, the first update is here, and the second is here, the third is here and the fourth is here.

As I expected at the beginning of the summer, the end of this would be mostly apples, and that’s all it has been.  I dont really mind because I enjoy apples and apple cider.  Unfortunately I havent been in the mood to make much more applesauce, so we are now sitting on quite a bit of apples with not to much to do with them and a holiday trip on the horizon.  I’m going to bring some apples to my aunt and hopefully they will get eaten around thanksgiving.

This was H and my first year for doing a CSA, and I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical about getting what I paid for.  Would I just be paying a premium on food to support local farmers (not that I’m against that per-say, but most of this money doesnt stay in my state).  Or would I be getting a bounty for a relatively cheap price?  Would it be a pain in the ass, or would I enjoy it?  I’m happy to say that I think this was worth the money.  They didnt always give me what I wanted or hoped for in terms of fruit, but that’s the way life is on a farm.  So, there wasn’t really much room for griping on that front.  It has also been an enjoyable friday at lunch ritual where I load the dog up into the truck and we take a ride over to the farm store to pick up our fruit for the week.  It’s also handy having it come in a day before we go to the grocery store, but we weren’t very diligent on incorporating that into our menus for the week.

All of that being said, after talking about it with H for a bit, I think we will take advantage of the 10% discount they are offering to sign up for next year, and we may even expand our offering to get  veggies as well.  Since we eat veggies for most meals every week, I think this makes a lot of sense – and 10% off is nothing to scoff at.

Readers: Do you plan on looking into a CSA for next year?

A while back, I wrote a post on the costs I incurred while going halibut fishing in Alaska.  When I wrote the post, I was relatively unsure of the street value of the fish, and was pretty sure that I was getting soaked in the deal.  Even though I used a pretty high price point, it looked like I came close to breaking even in the end, and I have some great memories from the trip to boot.

After I wrote that post, I figure it would be interesting to do this with all of my adventures getting my own food, so here’s the next chapter.

A while a go, my fiancee’s friend mentioned that he wanted to come up to Wyoming and hunt antelope and I offered to take him with my future father in law.  Unfortunately, the dates didnt work out and I was at fincon during the only weekend available, so I was unable to go.  After he got back (he was successful) he invited me to go duck hunting with him.  I’ll be the first to admit that I know nothing about ducks, duck hunting or anything like that.  Along with that, I’ve only even eaten duck once in my life.  Even so, I decided I’d go.

I already had a shotgun, so I didnt need to buy one of those.  What I did need was ammo, license, a state duck stamp and a federal duck stamp.  Most of the stuff I still have left and can be used again within a certain time frame.  I believe the federal duck stamp is good for the season, and the state duck stamp is good for 45 days.  Here was what I paid

• 2 boxes ammo ~$22.  I can use this again, because I think I shot 3/50 shells.
• Federal Duck Stamp/State Duck Stamp (State good for 45 days, federal for a year): $20
• 1 Day waterfowl hunting license , non resident. $11
• 1 Tank gas ~55

Unfortunately, this was a bit of a slow day out on the pond.  Of course, I’ve never been before so I didnt know, but the guy I went with said that usually he bags out and gets 6 ducks.  Unfortunately, we only shot two.  He was nice enough to let me take home both ducks as I assume his freezer is already full of them.  As I found out when I was processing the animal at home, there’s really not much to a duck.  You basically just want the breasts to eat, and some people save feathers if the make files for fly fishing (I don’t, and the guy I offered them to at work didn’t want them).  I didnt really know what to do with the rest, so I just got rid of them.  I’d like to find something to use what’s left of the animal for, but I dont know anything.  If you’ve got ideas, leave them in the comments

I havent mentioned much about our CSA since the Green Your Summer series, but I’ve decided to give some updates on the service every once in a while with my thoughts, etc.  This is the fourth update, and if you’re interested, the first update is here, and the second is here, the third is here.

I feel like I just wrote the last csa update because I’ve been gone so often.  In fact, last weeks was the first one I myself had picked up in quite a while.  H and I have been traveling a lot in october, so we had been having friends of ours pick up stuff for us, and unfortunately we were unable to find anyone for last week, so we had to abandon it.  I hate throwing away something I paid for, but I know that it got donated or taken home by one of the people who works at our drop off location – but it still feels like a waste of money.  Oh well – sometimes that happens.

Like the last one, this one has been mostly apples.  They are in season now and are great – we’ve been getting tons of different kinds of apples.  Along with the constant stream of apples, we’ve gotten another peck (for those unfamiliar, a peck is about 10 lbs) of pears and a tub of pitted pie cherries, similar to the one we got at the beginning of the program.

Now with the fruit, im trying to get as much as I “can” (haha!) canned and put up for the winter.  That has been going well so far, and as of this morning, I’ve got 7 pints of applesauce, though 4 of those 7 pints weren’t the greatest applesauce as I got a little overzealous with the cloves.  In my own defense, it’s tough to tell when you’re working with 4 quarts how much is too much.  Along with that, I’ve got 3 quarts of pears and 1 pint of pears.  Last update, I had grand plans to go to a pick your own and unfortunately I got snowed out.  I did get 10 lbs of tomatoes from the store for pretty cheap that I plan to turn into tomato sauce and salsa tomorrow, and I’ve got a bag of chilies and some chili powder that I won from Mike and Molly’s Giveaway that I’ve got to get a plan for as well.

They are also doing a winter CSA that delivers monthly that H and I might do, though it will be only veggies and no fruits.  I think at this point after our first full season, I’d say it was worth it and we will probably do it again next year – and we may even expand our participation and get veggies next summer as well.  If we do, I promise to keep better cost records to see if its fiscally sound or if it would be cheaper buying it from the store.  At this point, I think it is, but there’s no way to be sure.

Readers – are you considering doing a csa next summer?  Why or why not?

For the last few years, I’ve made it a point to try and obtain some of my own food.  For a lot of people this means a garden.  Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to do that quite yet because I’m afraid the dog will tear it up, and along with that, I dont want to do anything to the back yard (I rent).  So this leaves me to trying other ways to get my own food.  I’ve done some of this (though I’m not sure if it would count) by canning apples, and I’ve also done some elk hunting and antelope hunting.  Unfortunately I havent gotten an elk yet, but antelope are plentiful here to the point of becoming a huge nuisance, so I’ve gotten one of those two years in a row.  One thing that I’ve been wanting to do more of is fish.  Usually it’s pretty cheap, and there’s good fishing close to where I live (mostly trout).  So I decided to book a charter fishing trip when I was in Alaska - it was one of two “big” (read: spendy) things that I decided to do while there.  Here’s what it cost – and I’ll leave out the flight and the room and food, I would have needed those anyway.

• Charter trip (Late season) $220
• Out of State fishing license $20 (1 day)
•  Safeway $15 – Ziplock bags, foil and saran wrap.  There were no processors of fish left open in town ( I probably wouldnt have used one anyway) so that I could portion, pack and freeze my catch.
• Cooler $23 I needed something to take the fish home with me so that they wouldn’t de-thaw on the plane.  This worked really, really well, but it was because the cooler was packed very, very full.  It also didnt fit everything in it – 1 serving had to be packed alone.  I’ll have to see how this one fared.
• Check bag fee $20 – to check the cooler to take home.

Fish Caught by Everyone in the Boat – We each got 2.

All in all, I got less than $90 dollars worth of fish from the fishing trip, bringing my cost per pound of halibut to a level that I dont even care to calculate.  However, the trip wasnt just about taking home enough fish to feel me and H for the winter.  I wanted to experience something new (I’d never been halibut fishing, or on a boat that small in the open ocean), and I wanted to have fun.  Both of those things I accomplished, and like I’ve been learning quite a bit lately, it’s not always going to be about the money.

Readers: Do you ever get your own meat, or do you stick to gardening?  If you do get your own meat, have you thought about cost effectiveness, or are you just interested in where you food comes from and going out and having some fun?

As you all know, this blog is devoted to living a sustainable life.  To me, this includes your finances, your health, and your interactions with the environment.  Doing all of this requires a different way of looking at things in your life and how they work, and probably more importantly, how they work together (or how they dont work together). For me, re-examining all of these things usually takes a big change in my life (specifically, moving is when it has happened in the past).  Things are different, location is different, space and layout are different and you’ve got no ‘strings’ from your previous situation or way of doing things to worry about.  You’ve got a new situation that comes with new challenges and requires (or should at least merit consideration of) a new way of doing things.  At this point, you can take note of your situation, your circumstances and decide what you like to do from your current situation, what you don’t like about your situation, and what you could change to make easier for you, or more sustainable for your health, your finances, your environment or some combination of the three. When you’re changing locations or lifestyles, this can be very easy (as it was when I changed jobs).  However, if you are in the same situation for a long time, changes can be difficult.

Changing when in the same situation requires overcoming quite a bit of inertia. First, you’ve got to find something you want to change, then figure out what ways you want it to change, with the end product in mind. After that, you’ve got to change the things then get used to your changes to the point where they become routine. You could do this, or you can do the alternative, which could be to:

1. do nothing
2. do something else
3. put it off until the desired change you’re seeking will come (regardless of how far off it may be)

Lately, I’ve been choosing that third option when it comes to many things around my house. Instead of trying to get things cleaned and try to declutter with H, I just tell myself that we will be moving (eventually) and I’ll just do it all then. So I don’t have to move any junk twice. While this happens though, the house continues to take longer to clean than it used to, and seems to get to a level of “dirty” that even starts to make me (the guy who eats off the same plate for a week) feel like it needs cleaning.

Part of this could be the fact that cleaning it easily the first thing that gets neglected when travel happens, but it can’t be all of it. Due to all of this, I feel like I’m in a holding pattern with my sustainability efforts around the house.

This same thing has spilled over into my finances as well. I’ve got a lot of things on the horizon, but I can’t actively start talking about them until things are finalized.  One of these was a wedding, but that’s out in the open now that I got engaged.  These things have the potential to significantly re-order my priorities, finances and just about anything that I currently do on a day to day basis.  Of course, I’m excited for these challenges and interested in getting them underway, but slightly cautious as well.  Will I make the right decisions?  Will I keep my focus evenly split between the present and the future so I don’t cause too many problems in either time frame?  Will I make my life more sustainable as a whole, or will things just change on the margin?

I’m hoping that each of these changes presents an opportunity for me to become more sustainable.  To use less resources, to do more things myself, and to make both of those things easier than they currently are.  I’ll let you know about each decision as they come along, and the path that I think is the most sustainable.   I hope to have your help in deciding – you readers always seem to think of something I forget or havent considered for one reason or another.

Readers: How is your life changing in the future?  How do you plan to react to those changes?  Or do you want things to stay the way they are?

I havent mentioned much about our CSA since the Green Your Summer series, but I’ve decided to give some updates on the service every once in a while with my thoughts, etc.  This is the third update, and if you’re interested, the first update is here, and the second is here.

The first one I was pretty unhappy with the progress, the second one was basically all peaches, and this last month has been a little better variety.  We’ve gotten pears, watermelons, apples, peaches, a few plums and nectarines.  It has been quite the haul.

Each of the last 4 weeks, we’ve been given 10+ pounds of fruit.  We try to eat it all, but that doesnt always happen.  I did have to toss out 2 or so peaches that went bad on me, but I’ve been able to preserve the rest.  The time we got 12 pounds of pears I spent one week night canning about half of them and ended up with 2 quarts of pears in sauce, and I got a pint of a low sugar recipe of pears in apple juice with a cinnamon stick for what was left over and wouldn’t fit in a quart.

Last weeks share was quite awesome - nectarines and about 6 lbs of apples.  Unfortunately, all I got to do with it was pick it up, then toss my stuff into the car for fincon11.  I think there has been about 4 apples eaten all week, so I’m going to try my hand at some applesauce this weekend.  I dont know yet how much I’m going to get, but hopefully 2 pints.  I got another 5 lbs of apples and 7 lbs of pears today, so I may be back slaving over the canning stove next weekend as well.

This is everything that has been preserved from the CSA.  2 Quarts of pears, 1 pint of pears in cinnamon sauce, and 3 jars of applesauce.  I’m expecting to be getting nothing but apples from here on out, so there will probably be a lot more applesauce.

I plan on trying to add to this stash of preserving this weekend by trying my hand at some pick your own farms in my area.  I’m hoping to come back with tomatoes and possibly something else rather high dollar.  The farm told me that I could have anything I wanted for $1/lb, so I’d like to get quite a bit that way.  The tomatoes will get turned into sauce for pizza night, which is every Tuesday!

Even though at this point I’ve got 0 numbers to back up my claim, I’d say that H and I are pretty close to break even on this CSA for the year – and we’ve still got 2 months to go.  I’m pretty satisfied for the year, and would consider signing up for the veggie share for next year (in addition to this) if a garden doesn’t get started at the house (which it very well may not).