Rebekah Harmon

Hello, skip team! I have another question for yall. Can dry beans count towards my 1 million calories of preservation? For the wood level BB:

https://permies.com/wiki/150417/pep-food-prep-preservation/Preserve-Million-Calories-food-wood

Well, like most permies, my autumn larder is stuffed.

The frost has come, and the trees are bare. The gardens have been chopped and dropped and tucked in for winter sleep.

Most of the produce and animals have been processed. (Still some beans left to go!)

On a normal year, I would rest from garden labors for the year. Not even plan next year's crops til after January.

But. I still have about 100,000 calories left to go. So I'm scrounging for local calories. Im exhausted from hours on my feet in the kitchen. I'll push through another hundred grand. Then find somewhere to put it!!

Putting away jars of food today, I paused to acknowledge the bounty of my overflowing pantry. It brings more peace and security than nearly anything else. Gratitude spreads from satisfying season sunsets to plump, perfect peaches, standing tall in rows on my shelves, to crackling fires keeping my tired toes toasty.

5 lbs. And 5oz more jerky. Hickory seasonings this time.
2,635 calories.

This was supposed to be egg drop soup again, but I stirred it too fast. And used too many eggs I guess. I used a lot of green onions from my herb garden.
A little more than half a gallon is woth 900calories or so. It fed my whole family!

I also made cupcakes for dessert, using local flour, milk and eggs. Not sugar or frosting, tho. And! My kids come in to steal them before I can even get frosting on them! The pirates... 280caloroes each is 1960.
2800caloroes this post is 5 plates.

Another, yummy hot cereal breakfast! Honey feom my own bees and not-local peanut butter to flavor them. As last time, 2500calories

5 Plates.

In my efforts to count calories, I've forgotten about the low-calorie foods I preserve: herbs!
Here are some of the herbs I've grown or foraged and dried recently. (Note that some are in reused jars from previous seasons which have the same label)
Greens: mostly mints like lavender, thyme, sage, and lemon balm. This is 3 lbs. Of dried greens, which google says is 1270caloroes per pound. 3,810calories

Next are flowers. Chamomile, linden, bee balm and gumweed are my family's favorites. Only 200-300caloroes per pound. So 3 pounds would be something like 800calories.

Finally, dried roots. Here are yellow dock, dandelion and marshmallow. Although I've put most of my roots into tinctures already, (teasel and mullein and burdock) this is about 11 cups of chopped, dried roots, or about 2,365, based on about 215calories per cup.
6,975 calories this post.

110,913calories left to preserve!

Breakfast burritos this morning.
2 lbs. Of elk sausage 1,000cal.
4 big locally grown spuds 600cal
Plus tallow for cooking 300cal
3 local eggs 180cal
Not local whole wheat tortillas 1,000cal for 10
About 3,000 calories or 6 plates.

This is a yummy lunch of taco salad. Both chicken and venison, for my picky eaters.
1 lb deer meat is 500cal,
2lbs chicken is 1,090cal,
Sautéed peppers and onions (from my greenhouse, using elk tallow) 300cal
Salad including local lettuce and my garden tomatoes. 500cal.
The seasonings and chips served with the salads were not local.
About 5 plates.

We baked up another batch of pumpkins. Without the crust, a pumpkin pie is called a pumpkin souffle.
12c. Of pie filling is 3,372calories. Or 6 plates of breakfast