reverse shopping list

I like to make lists.  After a bout of purging it's good to take inventory.  Here we have our pantry cupboard.  I decided to clean it out and take stock before we went out shopping.  For someone new to the whole-food plant-based lifestyle it may seem like there is not a lot to eat.  After I delivered my son, the one of the midwives went looking for a snack.  She couldn't find anything!  Eventually she settled on an apple which was located in the fridge.

A few notes on the inventory: We don't cook with oil anymore.  We don't even eat much oil really.  I just use the oils to season our cast iron frying pan.  Some of the sugars and the all-purpose flour are a rare treat, just for birthdays, etc.  They are vegan, but not wfpb.  My source of shame, in the vegan community is at the bottom right.  Honey isn't vegan; technically I'm a mel-vegetarian.

food forest and family

I'm back!  There comes a point when a person has minimized too much. So before I find myself alone in a white room with no furniture or clothes I'd like to slow things down a bit.  What's the point of getting rid of almost everything if not to focus on the important things?  For my family, what's important (besides family, which includes family-like friends) is:

1. Our health
2. Our home
3. The food forest

These things all tie together.  In our yard we have a 3.5 year old food forest which surrounds our home and supports our health.  I remember now that I started blogging to document the process of our lives, paring things down, and growing vegetables.  I had a second child and found myself too tired or busy to blog.  But when I look back at old posts I feel so overwhelmed with joyful gardening memories (even though it's my husband that does most of the work).

A garden is a creative outlet, but it's a little bit four dimensional in that it changes over time.  Every day is a little different and every season is a lot different.  It changes so much that it's rewarding to capture it in photos or writing.

So what's new in the food forest?  The temperature dropped to -15 and we got a late season dump of snow.  A herd of deer have penetrated the makeshift fence and I made three separate attempts to chase them out.  They keep sneaking back. They knocked some branches off our still-small fruit trees, fertilized the soil, and for now have moved on.  Luckily everything else is under a blanket of snow and hopefully safe for now.