The One-Block Diet

You won’t get rich this way …

on salt, I’ve found that even though I do bake sometimes, the amount of salt I use in a year is TINY; we had one box of kosher salt that lasted us more than a decade. Of course, if we were preserving food we would need more salt, but most of the time we just don’t use it: maybe a tiny sprinkle on an egg or french fries, but still, I’m not sure how other people go through as much salt as they do.

That is a great project. My wife and I have been raising chickens for egg production. We have also started a vegetable garden. We have been working on these projects for about 18 months. So far, they have not saved us money. We could have bought eggs and veggies for less than what we have spent.

However, we have found the experience to be very rewarding and well worth the money. Prior to this experiment, we had never produced any of our own food. It has been a lot of work, but the work involved in producing our food is unusually gratifying. An omelet made with your own products just tastes better.

Sounds like neat idea!! I would feel good not to have to rely on uncertain sources or supplies of food. Self sustainable!!!!

On brewing beer: Some thoughts on how homebrewing does save money in the long run.

I’ve been brewing beer at home for about 8 years now. It is a fun, social hobby, and it saves money in the long run. After initial equipment purchase, it takes about six to eight five gallon batches to “break even”.

A typical batch is five gallons, which yields 640 ounces, which is just under nine six-packs of 12 oz bottles. Most domestic craft beers (microbrews) and imports run between $7-9 per six-pack at my local liquor store, so $63-81 for five gallons. A typical batch’s ingredients cost between $40-45, though prepackaged kits at my local homebrew supply store are as low as $35.

It can take some time, depending how much you drink, to break even, but I’ve paid for my equipment several times over in cost savings from not purchasing in stores. Plus there’s the pride in making great tasting beer.

My girlfriend and I are basically trying this – and I think with the involvement of neighbors and some disciplined preserving that we’ll be able to come close to feeding our family year round, if we work up to it. I’ve provided about 90% of our vegetables in a year in the past, so adding in the extras I really do think it’s possible.

We’re raising rabbits for meat, chickens for eggs and meat, vegetables and fruits (though we’ll have to wait a few years for our fruit trees, shrubs, and vines to mature), getting bees this year, and we’re coordinating our veg gardening efforts with our next door neighbor. We’ll supplement with U-pick as well. We’re on a larger than usual city plot.

So far getting things established has been pretty expensive. (We moved last year.) I lost my job recently but we’ve decided the money was worth it. Then again, we bought some 3 year old fruit trees (will produce fruit sooner), bought a chest freezer (to store home grown meat and veggies), built cedar raised beds (and dug lots of additional beds), and got hutches etc this year. Hopefully these one time expenses will pay off in the long run. Even if they don’t give us an immediate monetary return on investment, the quality and relatively low impact of the food we can produce as well as the lesson in sustainability we give our children is well worth the money!

Someone mentioned it’s cheaper to go mass produced… I don’t think that’s true in the long run monetarily (first year or two, yes), and I certainly don’t think it’s true even immediately if you look at all the externalized costs someone else has to pay to bring you that cheap food. Mass produced products generally include costs like exploited labor, degraded ecosystems, and waste of fossil fuels, just to name a few. These are real costs that we all pay for one way or another, even if you don’t see it when the checker rings up your bill.

I’m glad to see mainstream magazines starting to cover issues like this. If everyone with a sunny window or yard grew some of their own food, I think we’d be a much happier and healthier society as a whole.

I am on a journey of discovery toward local, organic, sustainable living myself. There are certain things that are absolute no-nos that I still do (we use pineapple medicinally here) and others that I’ll never do again (soda.) We started for health reasons, but we are finding green and financial reasons to stick with it.

We can’t plant our small quarter acre plot with edibles due to HOA regulations, but we do CSA our dairy, meat and produce, and I have a container garden on my patio.

We use a lot of salt in lacto-fermenting, a traditional food method that derives better result and nutrition than canning or freezing. But I am very particular about the salt I use. I’m not about to put chemically-treated, bleached, dead salt on my local, organic tomatoes!

We are experimenting with homemade root beer and “small beer,” cheese, and other great local, homemade foods. I highly recommend “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon for anyone interested in recipes or education on their health benefits.

I find this particular Sunset project a great inspiration. However, remember that their garden is in a very temperate location, and they can do/grow many things a lot of us cannot. I wouldn’t recommend that JD try growing olives in the Portland area, for instance.

I live in the desert southwest, and while I can grow many things here, it’s just not sustainable on a large scale.

Being totally self sufficient isn’t my goal. Primarily I garden to have fun, get exercise, work my mind (planning and designing), and receive spiritual and physical sustenance from the earth. OH, AND I LIKE TO EAT BEAUTIFUL, DELICIOUS FOOD! I really enjoy sharing it, too. Saving money? Knowing the origin of my food and what goes into it? Icing on the cake.

I just find that the more time I spend in my garden, the happier I am. That’s it.

PS: Ya wanna get your kids to eat more veggies? Get them hooked on gardening. It worked for me! For kids, check out these websites:

http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/90385/

http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/GP/listpage/weird-veg

@Emmy: While the one-block diet really isn’t an option “for people living in crappy apartments” (like me!), you’d be amazed at how much you can grow in a tiny apartment patio (or, if you’re lucky, in a patch of dirt your landlord lets you dig up)… we’ve been doing it for several years, mostly because it makes me happy (rather than any belief that it actually saves us money).

I can’t wait for the “localvore” fad to pass. It seems that the people who are the biggest proponents live in warm climates, where they can get fresh whatever year-round. For example, Michael Pollan lives in Berkeley, CA. A hundred mile radius gets him into one of the most fertile growing regions in the world, where fresh food comes out by the truckful. Put him in Wisconsin and let’s see how long he enjoys months of root vegetables, canned tomatoes and pickles without anything green crossing his plate.

I live in New England. The ice finally melted in my backyard this weekend, and ski resorts are still open. I like bananas, coffee, wine, grapes, etc. I am not going to subsist on root vegetables, beans and canned foods all winter. I guess I have a bigger carbon footprint. Oh well.

All that said, I do enjoy locally grown food, we are likely joining a CSA this year for produce — but that will only be for a few months due to climate. We do what we can for the environment, but I’m not sacrificing all the good things fresh food does for you in the wintertime. We will also buy our food based on cost, which can be a pretty good tie to the season — although that season may be in New Jersey, where things warm up a few months before we do.

I’d LOVE to move somewhere warmer, but that’s not happening anytime soon. Maybe then I can become a “localvore”.

@E — Yes, we try and do what we can with what we have. I was just trying to provide a counterpoint to the people lucky enough to live somewhere it’s warmer! Too often I get an air of superiority or am told to feel guilty about enjoying a grape in January!

I DO like food made from, well, food. We do generally avoid the “inside” of the supermarket.

Ja,
I am from MA and can sympathize with your feelings. I have been very interested in the locavore movement because I was brought up on a farm where we raised most of our own food before this movement became popular. We didn’t just live on ‘root vegetables, beans and canned foods’ all winter. You might be amazed at the variety of foods we had and the many ways they were preserved. As for myself, I also like bananas, grapes, coffee and wine. New England is home to a good number of vineyards that produce some fine wines…though I DO make some of my own When things are not available ‘locally’ I try to go with organically grown. I can somehow justify the distance thing with the organic criteria. I, too, shop the “edges” of the market! At this time I am blessed with a large yard (over 1/2 acre in total) and am able to raise much of my vegetables and some fruit. Previous to this I did container gardening on a back patio…as somebody else mentioned. I think the project is wonderful, but people should do as much as they are able and interested in doing and feel ok with that. Please don’t let anybody’s superiority attitude discourage you!

“Locavore” eating is a dream when you live in an overly-sprawled urban center (e.g. L.A.) – and the farmers’ markets all happen when you are working – and your apartment patio gets, at most, two hours of direct sun (try growing tomatoes in the shade!). … If we move out of this apartment before we leave town altogether, you can bet I’ll be looking for housing with a southern exposure. … My “retirement” dreams certainly include a garden, and some chickens. … My mom always had a vegetable garden, and I remember having too much food for four during the summer. Mom was working during this time, and didn’t do canning etc., so we always gave stuff away.

Don’t kid yourselves that locavore lifestyles necessarily lower carbon footprints. It may be far more carbon intensive to be eating oranges from 60 miles away in California than shipping them from Spain on a tanker. There are other reasons to eat local and fresh, including some environmental ones, but carbon emmissions isn’t one of them.

@nicole: Check out “The new organic grower : a master’s manual of tools and techniques for the home and market gardener” by Eliot Coleman. He also lives and gardens in Maine.

Living in the desert is also short season growing. We extend our season by using cold frames, hot beds and shade cloth. If I lived in Maine (and I have lived in Minnesota, so I am no stranger to cold winters!) I would build a cold frame on the south side of my house to have salad veggies all winter. Good luck, and don’t despair!