As of this week, there are enough leafy greens growing in the garden to support our family.  This is a big deal.  It means that — if I have the pantry stocked with good grains, beans, olive oil — I don’t have to go to the store.  It’s a relief to just keep working outside and know that dinner is covered by what we have. 

Come August, we’ll have eggs and a much wider variety of vegetables available to us (and to you!), but I’m happy to have turned this corner finally (later this year than in other years because of the weather and because we’ve been so busy building up other parts of the farm). 

So the big grocery shopping shut down begins now.  Our goal is to grow 90% of our own vegetables this year and to keep that going for as long as possible by extending and preserving our harvests.  If we sell a little surplus this year, I will count the year as a huge success. 

And we already are planning new systems so that we can have more greens available in our garden earlier next year.  We’ve had some stuff growing all year — but not enough to support us.  Now we do!  Yay!