Food from Farm & Forest: February 2016

The root of our homesteading lifestyle has always been a dream of self sufficiency or at least as close as possible to it.  We dream of an off grid home, a pantry full of home canned food, and clothing made from handspun yarn, just to name a few of our goals. As we try to work towards these goals one thing that has been the easiest to work on no matter where we lived and even when we were still in college is providing our own food.

To keep us motivated and on track I've decided to track the products that were wholly sourced from our farm and forest each month and their value. I won't be including that were preserved in previous months. February may seem like an odd month to start but as I thought about it I was presently surprised.

Eggs

First on the list is eggs. They come every morning without fail. Our flock of ducks and chickens keep us well stocked in fresh eggs year round but as the daylight begins to increase in February so does our flock's production. This month we been getting around 5 eggs per day. For this I used a value of $3.50 a dozen. 

Estimated Value: $40

Wild Onions

I was first introduced to wild onions while hiking the Appalachian Trail and have loved them ever since. They are super easy to locate and identify, perfect for the beginning forager. Plus they have a garlicky onion flavor that's an excellent addition to almost any meal. As they don't sell wild onions in the supermarket I used scallions which sell for $1.50 a bunch to estimate their value. I think we harvested between 3 and 4 bunches. You can read more about how we harvest wild onions here.

Estimated Value: $5

Pine Needle Tea

If you're feeling a cold coming on or you just need a pick me up pine needle tea is loaded with vitamin C. Check out my previous post, Foraging: Pine Needle Tea for details on harvesting and brewing it. I drank quite a bit this month and estimated its value by looking at a box of herbal tea.

Value: $4

Sprouts

Sprouts are a delicious winter savior. They can be grown anytime of year in mason jars on your kitchen counter. It's sad because they take so little effort but we only grew one container this month. I checked our local grocery store selection of fresh sprouts for a value and I might say they're pretty overpriced!

Value: $3

Maple Syrup

If you read our post about tapping trees for syrup you know that we are sugaring for the first time this year. While our sycamore's haven't done that well the Maples have started to flow the past few days. So far we've produced 2 pints of Maple syrup (with more to come). It doesn't sound like much but it's a big step for us and we couldn't be happier!

Value: $14

That's it, everything we've grown or foraged this month. The estimated total value for February 2016 is $66. That's actually more than I'd thought it would be! I look forward to seeing this number increase as we get farther into summer and hopefully increase year after year.

Goals for February 2017

• Grow more sprouts for ourselves and the animals
• Tap more trees (weather provided)
• Have hardy greens overwintered in cold frames

This post has been shared on Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop.