Dear Friends,

     Have you any idea how many gallons of water it takes to produce this plate of food?  Truthfully, I don't know either.  I do remember in college reading a letter from an early California settler woman to her mother, on how precious water was on the frontier and how many times she would use a gallon of the liquid gold. She'd use  it for washing clothes, dishes, the kids, the floor and still kept her roses alive!  It was amazing to see how innovative she was.  

So I challenged myself to see how many time I could use 1 gallon of our precious liquid life.  We love home made egg noodles (thank you chickens and Elsa the goat) so made the dough (Grandma's Egg Noodles) and cooked.  Scooped out the noodles, put the hot water back on the burner (saving electricity) and simmered Yukon potatoes until they were done.  Scooped them out to cool and use for potato salad and cream of potato soup for later.  Then into the hot water went saved vegetable scraps and I mean scraps:  carrot bottoms and tips, celery, bell peppers, zucchini, onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme..things most people put into the disposer.  Simmered this for about 15 minutes until aromatic.  Removed the scraps, saving them for the chickens and the earthworm bins.  Next, while water was still hot, added 3 cups of  pinto beans that had soaked overnight and simmered these until tender, about 2 hours, adding fresh garlic and a little salt, pepper and cumin for seasoning the last 10 minutes or so. Half went into the frig for chili or re-fried beans later in the week and the other half froze for those emergency times of 'what to have for dinner').  I felt pretty good about how to use my gallon of water!

Next week, I'll share how I keep my patio roses and ornamental plants alive and thriving with used water.  Send me your tips and will share those too.  Speaking of sharing, we appreciate referrals and of course social media exposure, of which I'm being dragged screaming and lamenting into but let's face it, it's a whole new world out there.  And this smart phone thing I now have..makes me feel dumb.   I think I'll go back to  harvesting now for your goodies for this week and listen to the bees hum and watch the Monarch's dance through the milkweed.  

*DELIVERY ITEMS FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 8th*