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Prepare 800 Plates of Food - food.wood.plates PEP BB

BB Food Prep and Preservation - wood badge
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This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Food Prep and Preservation

For this badge bit, you will prepare 800 plates of food!


(source: Pinterest.com)

Requirements for all Food Prep and Preservation Wood BB's:
- 98% of the food for this badge is “organic or better”
- 75% of the food comes from homesteading, preferably from your own homestead
  - Nearby homestead or wild harvest (forage/hunting/fishing) is ok
      - Their food values need to be “organic or better”
      - Acquired with muscle power (bike/horse/foot/dogsled)
      - Trade, purchase, or gifted is fine

Minimum requirements for this BB:
  - “Plate” means a meal averaging 500 calories
  - Food prep log (your thread at Permies) showing each meal with a description of where the food came from
      - Each post covers at least 3 meals
      - Summarizes the source of the ingredients (store or homestead)
      - Maintain a total count of plates produced

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
   - link to food prep log (meeting the above-stated requirements)
COMMENTS:
 
Apprentice Rocket Scientist
Posts: 1275
Location: 4a, high mountain dessert
607
4
kids foraging rabbit fiber arts medical herbs bee
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Edge case submission
I'm honored to be the first to attempt this HUGE BB, and reach for status of Gert-itude. Serving local food takes more time (especially if raised/grown) to clean, cut, and even cook differently than foods we buy in stores. The savings are worth it!

In the over 800 qualifying plates pictured in this thread: https://permies.com/t/257256/pep-food-prep-preservation/Rebekah-plates-journal, I served both home-raised and foraged meats and eggs for protein.
Turkey 22%,
Chicken 19%
Eggs 18%
Elk 15%
Venison 11%
Legumes 9%
Duck 5%
Trout 3%

I hope that gives everyone a pretty clear picture that eating local food doesn't have to be boring.

Potatoes (31% of carbohydrates servings plated)
And locally-grown-and-milled wheat flour (45%)
Made up the majority of carbs served, although we also ate apples, (5%)
Pumpkin,
Corn,
Squash,
Turnips,
Cherries,
Peaches,
Tomatoes,
Apricots,
Honey from my bees,
And Berries from my gardens.

Most of the fat I used in these meals was tallow or dairy-based. I often used not-local fat for cooking, which is the weak point in the local supply, I suppose. Although, I bought an oil press, and hope to be able to produce sunflower seed, flax, and nut oils in the future!

Please note that in my thread, somewhat like a journal, I made a few mistakes in following all the food -prep-specific BB rules. Most of those are in the first 100 plates pictured, after which I started over. Some of those pictures weren't deleted, but the meal and calorie counts for them were not included in my totals. This was a long (2-year!) journey for me to learn how to feed my family local, organic foods up to BB standards. But I can now say I "walk the walk."

A deep thank-you to the staff at permies.com who helped nudge and guide me towards the most healthy food I can possibly serve my family. Lots of love! 🥰
Staff note (gir bot) :

Someone flagged this submission as an edge case.
BBV price: 1
Note: A team of certifiers reviewed this submission. We were unable to find enough evidence that you met the posted requirements. Some issues were determining 98% of calories organic or better, homestead food (and elk/venison) acquired with muscle power. What does "local" mean in your posts.

 
Rebekah Harmon
Apprentice Rocket Scientist
Posts: 1275
Location: 4a, high mountain dessert
607
4
kids foraging rabbit fiber arts medical herbs bee
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Hello, SkIP team.
I'm not really sure what evidence will prove the food I cooked was local or organic/better. How would it be possible to prove this to your satisfaction?
If it was grown in my own gardens, it was never sprayed. I used mulch, cow and rabbit poo for fertilizer, and no other additives. I used produce, mostly apples, pears, and apricots from other homesteads. I was told they weren't sprayed. I cut open many-a-wormy fruit to prove that to myself, but of course I didn't take a picture of them.
When I say local, I mean grown within southern Idaho. I focused on a range of 70 miles or so, assuming a distance that I could reasonably bike to. The dairy and beans came from that far away. The flour from 18 miles from my house. Its my understanding that purchased food was allowed, and I only bought things for this BB that were within this range, availible at my local greenhouse, which strives for better-than-organic, and from hence I biked food home.
The meat: venison was hunted in the two hunting units which abut my hometown. They were delivered to me after the sportsmen cleaned and gutted the carcasses. I butchered them myself, with all the muscle power I possess!
The trout came from a reservoir 11 miles away. Caught with my family's own poles, my garden's worms, my arm power.
The first elk was shot 8 miles from my house, after being hit by a snow plow. I rescued the meat and butchered it under guidance. It was my first big animal. The second elk was shot by my daughter, 21 miles away on the road (shorter as the crow flies). She, my husband and I "packed it out". He happened to snap a picture! Then I hung it in a friend's freezer, who lives between where the elk was shot and my house, then I butchered it at home. You can see, in my food preservation BB thread, that I used wooden cutting boards, good knives, a metal grinder, and double-wrap freezer paper.
Meat literally doesn't get more local than that, unless a chef raises it themselves. But since the BB requirements stated game meat was OK, I used it in several meals.
IMG_20260105_105917.jpg
Elk meat (hoof attached!) Being packed out of the hills
Elk meat (hoof attached!) Being packed out of the hills
IMG_20260105_112140.jpg
Where the second elk was shot, farthest away of all the game
Where the second elk was shot, farthest away of all the game
 
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