Locavore In Training

I recently stumbled upon a great post from what looks like a great blog, Kitchen Stewardship. It's a recap of her journey, of the last year of working to cook "real, traditional food." I haven't spent much time on her site, and I'm not sure I'll agree with everything (politics/religion..) but it's still a great blog. She likens her sustainable food journey to running a marathon, and I love the comparison. Even though I think her list is way, way more than "baby steps," I'm really liking the concept of tracking each minor step. I'm much better off than I was a year ago, and in a year, I'll be much better off than I am now. So what if I slipped and had 'cheese product' nachos yesterday.

I thought I'd made a little list of things I'd like to have on my list of eco-friendly sustainable food and lifestyle things completed next year:

• Learn to make homemade cheese
• Learn to can, several things
• Replace all (or most) household cleaners with earth-friendly options
• Try out better dryer/anti-static options (this is for you, Jay)
• Start composting (worms will be here next week!)
• Start my chicken flock (Backyard Chicken Keeping Class on Saturday)
• Try raised bed gardening
• Convert to 100% responsibly-raised meats (we're most of the way there already)
• Homemade butter
• Homemade ice cream (Need an ice cream maker for this)
• Try more natural beauty/skin products
• Attempt sourdough, again

Wheew! I'm tired already