Getting to know your food chain. The past six months have been an experiment of sorts ... one that has exchanged random shopping at the big box sprawlmart for planned trips with well thought out shopping lists. We've tried to eliminate as many boxed .. ready-made off the self items as possible. Slow at first. Now 90% of our store bought goods are in a somewhat pure unadulterated state. I.E. .. organic, single items ... brought home and fashioned into meals. Shopping in this manner takes many months of practice. Strategy is involved. Care, love, and thought put into each dinner, lunch and breakfast. Learning to enjoy simple basic food. Practice, practice, practice until new patterns are established. Rediscovering the time and commitment involved in cooking at home. Not eating out. Making a little extra dinner to have for lunch the following day. Having a well stocked pantry and freezer affords us to make just about any meal without a trip to the store. Making do with what is on hand. Re-thinking recipes to fit what is on the pantry shelf or in the freezer. Making use of the produce we froze last fall, herbs we dried, local honey from the nearby farm .. each a treasure to use in the dead of winter.

This coming year skills will be fine tuned to become second nature. The garden will be planted with better purpose and use of space. More attention to the number of jars of pesto, salsa, beans, pickles, stewed tomatoes, etc. to tide our family from one harvest to another. Getting up front and personal with our food chain.

Do you have any goals with your food chain?

Photos: Popcorn picked last fall ... from a local u-pick farm ... eliminating the middleman and preserving quality control is a by-product of knowing your food chain.