Category: Farm to Fork

Hello Farm Family! Did you ever wonder what happened to this series from December of 2020? Well I started it like a million times, but I just couldn’t get around to finishing it until now. So join me as we go back in time to see what happened with our Farm to Fork Challenge.

For those of you who are new to our farm let me fill you in…..At the end of 2020 we found ourselves with a whole pig (our first one) and a half a cow (purchased) in the freezer, not to mention all the vegetables we grew throughout the year. So as a family we decided to eat solely from the farm. Meaning, if we did not grow it or already have it, the goal was that we would not go out and get it.

I last left you guys on Day 12. For those of you who know me well, you know that I live my life by pictures. Although I still have most of the photos (which is how I am able to detail out what we ate) this is going to be what I like to call the quick and dirty version. After which, I’ll fill you in on if we met our goal. Ready? Let’s do this!

December 13 2020

Breakfast: Cheese grits, pork sausage (thank you Piggy), and eggs

December 14, 2020

Breakfast: Oatmeal/Cereal

Dinner: Beefy Green Beans and Onions over Rice

December 15, 2020

Breakfast: Grits, homemade pancakes (by Johsua), bacon, and eggs with my fancy coffee

Snack: Candied pecan pralines with popcorn

Dinner: Spicy shrimp noodle bowl

December 16, 2020

Dinner: Chicken burritos

December 17, 2020

Breakfast: Oatmeal/Cereal

Lunch: Somebody (Brandon) burned the sausage and bean burritos

Dinner: Pork chops with broccoli and rosemary rice

December 18, 2020

Breakfast: Fancy coffee with sausage/Oatmeal

December 19, 2020

Dinner: Rosemary rice, butternut squash, and cabbage

YES! We went vegan for dinner

December 20, 2020

Lunch: Sausage and greens

Dinner: Salmon, rice and cabbage

December 21, 2020

Breakfast: Salmon with feta and sundried tomatoes along with cheese chips or Cereal

Lunch: Tuna Fish

Dinner Cube steak with spinach and rice

December 22 ,2020

Breakfast: Raisin toast with grapefruit or cereal

Snack: Homemade granola

Dinner: Eggrolls

December 23, 2020

Breakfast: Eggs

Dinner: Roast, broccoli, and mashed potatoes

December 24, 2020

Breakfast: Onion topped salmon and grits

Dinner: Goulash

December 25, 2020

Dinner: Nachos

December 26, 2020

Lunch: Burritos

Dinner: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn

December 27, 2020

Dinner: Pasta Dish (Winter squash, greens, sausage, onions)

December 28, 2020

Dinner: Roast with squash, potatoes, and onions

December 29, 2020

Lunch: Rock and Roll Sushi

So there you have it. We almost made it. At the end of the month we received news that Brandon’s Grandmother was sick and we lost her shortly after. It was a big shock to our system and eating from home went out the window.

All in all, it was a great experience to actually eat from the farm. In 2020, we raised a pig…….a beautiful animal that fed us. We purchased a side of beef from a farmer whose practices we trust. We grew loads of vegetables that allowed us to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Would we try this Farm to Fork Challenge again?!?! 1000 percent YES!!

Ok so by this time, I’ve run out of salad. We still have some arugula in the gardens, but that’s it.

If you ask my husband what my favorite food is, he’ll say salad. I love just about all vegetables, but throwing them all together with a bunch of toppings and a good dressing, is the BEST!

Now that you have that clear picture and knowing that we can’t shop, order any salads, or pick one up, I wasn’t in the best mood at times. My body craves greens and so you’ll see how I made due.

DAY TEN

After realizing that I was moody I decided to take matters into my own hands and eat greens for breakfast. By greens I mean whatever I could harvest and thankfully we had some greens leftover from the CSA deliveries earlier in the week that were in the fridge. I was up early chopping greens and enjoyed a bowl full all before going to work at 9am that morning.

Our lunch was Joshua inspired and really good. As a matter of fact, he made it!

We forgot to take a picture of dinner, but what we ate is listed below.

Breakfast: Sautéed greens with feta

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Lunch: Homemade french fries and tuna patties

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Dinner: Homemade chicken pot pie (not shown)

Snacks: Strawberry Scooter Crunch Bites

DAY ELEVEN

This day was Friday and it was a celery juice and coffee day for me. Brandon had leftovers for breakfast and Joshua ate cereal.

You will see that our dinner was amazing! I was supposed to take a picture of the plate, but that just didn’t happen….

Breakfast: Leftovers or cereal

Lunch: Organic blue corn chips with tuna (I know weird, but it was so good) or ramen

Dinner: Boston butt with green bean sauté

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DAY TWELVE

This too was a celery and coffee day for me, but we did have brunch. It was the weekend and I prepped dinner early which was an awesome curried stew.

Brunch: Boston butt burritos with feta and fermented relish that was beautiful and tasty. (not shown)

Dinner: Curried chicken and potato stew

All in all this was a great couple of days. Be sure to keep a watch for the next few.

Hello again. Thank you for following our Farm to Fork series. Here we’ll talk to you about the next few days and what our meals looked like. Ready? Let’s go!

DAY SEVEN

The next day was Monday and during CSA season, Monday’s are delivery days. I had an alarm set for 6:15 am, but forgetting to charge my phone left me sleep until about 7:30 am.

Of course this caused me to be late, plus with all the weather changes, I was starting to develop a small cold.

I had no time for breakfast and was thankful that by the time I came back home Brandon prepared smoked sausage that we wrapped in a burrito and called it breakfast.

The picture isn’t pretty, but I’m glad I remembered to take one. It was more like brunch though because it was about 11 or so before we ate.

Since we had a late breakfast, some of us skipped lunch and kind of snacked up until dinner.

Here’s what we ate:

Breakfast: Smoked sausage in a spinach burrito

Snacks: Pecans and popcorn….of course Joshua had ramen

Dinner: Beef roast with mushrooms and onions over rice.

DAY EIGHT

Tuesday was a stressful day to say the least. I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t go to work. I needed to rest and just have an easy day. I traded breakfast for celery juice and then coffee later. The guys ate leftovers and cereal.

If we weren’t doing this challenge, today would have been a pizza day for sure. Brandon was looking for comfort food and you know how you’re not feeling well and all you want to do is lay around and eat something good? This was today!

We didn’t eat out, but someone was baking and so we were introduced to Strawberry Scooter Crunch Bites (not shown, but we ate it so I had to list it here)

Breakfast: Leftovers and cereal

Lunch: Pizza burritos (Pay no attention to the fact that it’s half eaten)

Dinner: Spicy chicken and broccoli over rice

DAY NINE

We don’t typically eat sweets for breakfast, but when you wake up to what we did, you just roll with it!

Breakfast: Homemade chocolate chip waffles

Lunch: No lunch for me, but the guys had Ramen or tuna

Dinner: Steak Hoagy Burritos

So we’re still trucking along. Stay tuned for the next few days, coming up soon!

Catching Up

To continue our series we’ll now fill you in on our next few days of meals. The family and I are enjoying eating this way, but we did have a few days when we were out most of the day and had to remind ourselves that we were eating at home. Don’t worry we stuck to it.

In looking back at pictures, I realized that on day 3 we received a beautiful gift!

We’ve been snacking on it ever since……

Day Four

This day fell on Friday and Fridays are notoriously busy for us around here. Brandon was out making deliveries and running errands when it dawned on him that grabbing something while he was out was off the menu. He did make breakfast before leaving home, but being out for so long threw him off.

Here’s what we ate:

Breakfast: “Fancy“ Coffee (made at home) with tuna and eggs.

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Lunch: Oven roasted salmon with spinach, onions, mushroom, and tomatoes or ramen. (Forgot to take the “after” picture because I was so hungry)

Dinner: Blackened cod fish with garlic butter sautéed green beans and potatoes.

Snacks: Organic blue corn chips and Oreos

Day Five

This day was Saturday and it was my turn to be tempted. Up until now, I had barely left the house, but for some reason I wanted to stop and get something while I was out running around before 8am. I guess old habits are hard to break, but I didn’t stop until I was home.

I failed to take a picture of it, but we did also sample some delicious goat cheese that was gifted to us along with the pecans from Day 3.

Brandon also was out for most of the day and I was worried about him! He was out with friends and I guess technically if they got food, but he didn’t pay for it….well nope…..scratch that. Eating at home is just that! Thankfully, he was good too.

Breakfast: Good ole bacon and eggs! I actually had mine with Ezekiel Bread from the freezer.

Lunch: Roasted salmon salad topped with feta.

Dinner: Cheesy ground beef nachos with organic blue corn chips.

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Day Six

Sunday is usually the day where we can lay back and chill, but we we are in CSA season, so that was not the case today! Not only did we have to harvest and package but, we also had made plans to make some farm runs, so busy it was! We still managed to eat at home and we’re feeling pretty good about doing so.

Here’s what we ate:

Breakfast: Oatmeal (shown) for me, cereal for Josh, and just coffee for Brandon. My oatmeal is always busy and this was no different. A mixture of organic oats, frozen bananas, pumpkin seeds, pecans (gift from day 3), and cranberries topped with tupelo honey.

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Lunch: Beefy taco salad topped with organic blue corn chips and feta of course! This one was already started.

Dinner: Sunday dinner was spaghetti, but we were so tired that no pictures were taken.

So there you have it! We’re still doing well and enjoying all that farm to fork is bringing us. We’ll catch you up on the next 3 days soon.

Introduction:

Hello farm family! Thank you for following our farm to fork series. Our family is thrilled to have this opportunity to eat from the farm this month! In making the decision to eat this way we realized that some things would have to be purchased. So as mentioned in our Newsletter, we did have a shopping trip before the month started to ensure we had staples on hand.

Although we grow some staples like onions and potatoes. Those items are seasonal. Then you have items like rice, that we can never grow.

As a small urban farm growing grains is also out of the question and sadly, the one thing we forgot to purchase was bread. Not to worry, though because we do have some bread in the freezer. Although we aren’t sure if it will last the whole month, we will just wait and see. The good news is that I can bake bread and we have plenty of flour.

You will find that there will be some days that will have extra items like snacks. Plus we have a teenager, so he would try to live off cereal and ramen if he could!

Drinks for the month consist of water, coffee, tea, fruit and vegetable juice, nutritional supplements, and Mountain Dew for Brandon.

Some of the biggest blessings we had this year were our animals and a half cow, that was ready right on time. We don’t raise cattle, but we are so happy that we know people who do! All meats are farmed with a few exceptions which will be noted.

This series will document the meals the we had each day. Day one was mentioned in our Newsletter, but it will also be listed below. We’ve been trying to take as many photos as possible, but I have to admit that my name is Rachel and I’m super OCD about the photos so some things you may have to take our word on.

Day One

We were so pumped and hit the ground running on the first day, I have a tendency to overthink and over analyze things, but thankfully Brandon reined me in as I was literally going to plan out every single meal for each of the 31 days of the month. He was like “Rachel, you’re doing too much. We have enough food where we can just decide what we want to eat that day.” He was right!

My “green” personality lives by calendars and schedules, so I needed his “red” to help me out. Of course I still woke up at 5 am and started cooking and meal prepping for the day…..

What we had on day one is below.

Breakfast: Beef bacon and eggs scrambled with green tomatoes, onions, and peppers. (Beef bacon was purchased)

Lunch: Garden salad

Dinner: Baked pork chops, the same garden salad from lunch, along with rosemary and onion rice with broccoli.

Day Two

The second day was Brandon’s day to cook. He and I alternate dinner nights as part of our normal family schedule. When the children were home, they also had one dinner night per week as well. We have always been those parents who believed in teaching them how to be self sufficient and so cooking was a big part of it. Even today, our youngest, Josh will cook sometimes, but he is more of a baker. He sometimes surprises me while I’m working with donuts, cookies, etc, ❤️

Our second day meals are listed below.

Breakfast: Chicken sausage, garden salad, and cereal (not shown)

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Lunch: Same as breakfast except no cereal this time.

Dinner: Sirloin and cubed steak topped with onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Served with rosemary onion rice.

Snacks: The guys had Oreos and I had homemade trial mix.

Day Three

This day I had I had an appointment early in the morning and so I wasn’t able to eat breakfast before going out. Thankfully, I had my celery juice and Brandon heated me up dinner from the previous night before I had to rush for work.

Breakfast: Cubed steak with rosemary onion rice or cereal (not shown)

Lunch: Garden Salad with sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, and topped with feta cheese or ramen (not shown)

Dinner: Pork ribs with our special barbecue sauce and coleslaw. This was the first time we’ve cooked or eaten pork ribs in 20 plus years! Man these were SO good!

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There you have it our first 3 days in the books! Thank you for following our farm to fork series and we’ll see you back here in a few days to see what days 4-6 brought us.