Welcome back!  Sorry I’ve been so busy, but I do have a new installment in the interview with the fabulous Mangochild!  Pull up a chair and sit a spell.  If you missed the first installment, check it out as well!  Below, you can see one of the photos from Living in a Local Zone that compelled me to goggle, then drop Mangochild a line and pry her about her willingness to do an e-mail interview.

Can you see my intrigue?  Let’s get back to the interview, shall we?

So, as the readers can see in the above picture, you have some pretty impressive winter stores!  How on earth did you decide how much and what to store?

How did I decide how much to store… well, I guessed! Wild guesses, and a bit of research on what stores well. I bought a large upright freezer and froze all the summer vegetables I could in there, figuring I would need enough for January through May, at least. I stored all kinds of vegetables, since vegetables are the basis of my diet. As a vegetarian, I need all the vegetables I can get!  I’ve stored almost every type grown in my area in the summer/fall, vacuum sealed and frozen. In addition, I made soups with greens, and I even have some frozen containers with “cooked combined dishes.”

Not everything goes in the freezer.  I had a lot of “cool dark place” items to put away as well: potato, carrot, squash, etc. For those, I read.  I read websites, library books, blogs, everything I could get my hands on. I learned about the effects of different air temperatures, drying, and cross-storage. And I just decided to give it a go. Crazily, my squash store is even larger now than it is in the pictures in the original post.  I just kept loading them in because I know they keep well and they are so abundant (and cheap!) in the fall farmers’ markets - and even in mainstream groceries.

To give you some idea of what I stashed away, I got four twenty-pound bags of potatoes to start and kept adding to those stores whenever I found more local potatoes.  I did the same with carrot, turnip, and parsnip. I was also trying to find a source for local grains and beans, so I factored that in to my planning as well.  I figured that, worse case scenario, I could get meals from that - though they might not be so exciting.

Have you had any particular challenges with your food stores? Freezerburn? Rot? Mice? Space Invaders?

No problems in food storage (good thoughts that it stays that way!) so far. I use vacuum sealed storage bags for the freezer, and the taste-tests I did when choosing that method did very well. I haven’t broken into my freezer store at all yet though, so I’ll see how it goes in March! The winter squash has been doing great; no casualties yet. I do make sure to check them at least 2x/week, rotating them and making sure to eat any ones that seem on-edge that night. But really, that “on-edge” has happened only once. Potato and carrot have been great, even though I was skeptical of how the potatoes would do.  Apples were the real shocker. I went crazy on apple picking in the fall, then continued buying bushels of apples whenever I found them. I left them out in storage bins in my garage, and was terrified when they began to wrinkle and bruise. But they were great inside, even sweeter and cleaner, no problems. They pretty much seem to have “dried” from the outside in naturally, an unexpected twist I wrote about on my blog.  I have also ventured into the dehydrating process (deliberate, this time), though that has been limited: apples mostly, with some pears and vegetables in there to test the waters. All of that seems fine too. I haven’t canned anything, but that is scheduled for later today with a learning batch of apples (water bath to start off). We’ll see how that goes.

So, did you grow any of your food yourself? If so, how did you decide what you should grow yourself and what you should get from other sources?

I moved into my new house on June 20, 2008, so I didn’t have a chance to get into the real planting. But even then, I think I was simmering on the local concept, as I planted what limited seeds I could and got plants from local nurseries. I love seeing things grow, and even though I have struggled with even growing simple potted houseplants in the past, I wanted to pick my own cucumbers in my new house! So this past summer I grew vined cherry tomatos, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, greens, spinach, and herbs to start, and later tried carrots, and broccoli, with bought plants of kale and swiss chard. With no experience, it was a lot of research and learning, just as with the storage. I had my nose in almost all the local/gardening books I could find in the library, and spent hours poking on the internet for more info and people’s experiences. I learned about planting zones, timelines, and what varieties would grow in the amount of space I had. It was not a strong yield by any means, just enough for a few meals at a time, given the late start and my lack of experience, but I did it in my own little way.

Missing the planting season was another push for me to find local sources for my food.  I got most of my food from a farmers market a short distance away from my home, and there I met the farmer whose CSA I later joined (currently signed up through all of 2009). I also learned about local milk.

This year, I have a chance to fully start gardening at the right time. Per suggestions from others in the local blogging community, I have decided to plant only a few types of vegetables so that I have more space for them and can get a solid, satisfying yield. The things that I can get from the CSA or local farmers’ markets, I’ll get from those sources, which means I’m planting more unusual things for Connecticut.  I plan to grow opo squash (called dudhi in India), odd varieties of eggplant, Chinese long beans, and small heirloom tomatoes. This way, I can get the satisfaction of, for example, having my own dudhi every week (and storing it), knowing that I really was able to produce what I needed and wanted!

What are your best resources as a locavore?

I have a page on my blog where I list and explain my best sources, and I updated it this week so I think it is what I most rely on now. As I am venturing into the localvore world, I find that some of my best resources that can’t be “listed” pe se are other bloggers and localvores I meet in person. I learn from them every day as I read - not just on sources for food, but on ways to put those sources to best use. I have learned how to form a relationship with farmers and producers in my area, and I have gained confidence in explaining my choice to live locally and get help. The collection of ideas and knowledge from this community scattered across the States (and other countries too!) is so vast, I know that someone will have experimented with, struggled over, succeeded with, failed miserably, or mastered what I am wondering about.  They all help.

Tune in next time for the wrap-up: the best and worst of being a locavore, unanticipated challenges and benefits!