Farm Dreams

Homesteading, Organic Gardening, How to Farm, Preparedness, Self-Reliance

20 Meals A Week

The Aspiring Farmer Blog

In New York we loved cooking, it was a nice way to relax after a day at work. Frequently, we would cook together. Going out to eat was always a good way to try new foods and drinks, but it was never a pressing desire. It was taken for granted. If I look back at our time in NY I was generally eating about 5-7 meals per week outside of the home, which was FAR lower than 99% of everyone else we knew. Now that we’re a good 20 minutes away from any sort of food option we eat a lot more at the house. Actually, we eat about 20 meals per week at home (if you’re not counting the times I eat four meals a day :). This, of course, was widely expected. The unexpected part was how difficult it would become to plan time for all that cooking and also make sure we’re eating healthfully. It's also an astounding number of dishes for just two people, I can't imagine a big farm family!

So once a week we've been getting out of the house to let someone else do the cooking. It's out of sheer randomness that we end up eating out once a week, but that's been the approximate frequency. On some weeks it can be the only time outside of the farm that I get. The rest of the week is near non-stop planning, building, feeding, fencing, milking and just plain old doing. I love it, but it’s nice to get a few hours to decompress every once in awhile.

It’s also nice to find a small restaurant in town that carries some local micro-brews that you can’t find at the store. One of these days we’ll have to go have a sit-down beer somewhere, it’s been almost three months since we’ve been to a bar! In NY that was unheard of.

Almost a year ago I wrote about maintaining a work-life balance on the farm and how it could be difficult to strike that balance. So far that’s one little thing that we do that helps a lot. Other things include picking flowers, going for walks, and just sitting down to visit with the animals for a bit.

What do you do to maintain a balance in your life?

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Tags: Scrapple, eating in, eating out, work-life balance

1 member likes this

Comment by From City to Farm on May 21, 2012 at 2:18pm: Ah, yes...the dishes!! We've been assembling some good, healthy frozen meals on Sundays that can be popped into the oven when we go out for chores, and then come back in to a yurt smelling heavenly. Those are the days we have our act together. So often, we do not!

We end up averaging about that when we go into town for groceries, and you're absolutely right, the break transcends just eating out. It's a chance to feel "normal" again, and not being inundated with fur, feathers, hay and poop. :)

Sometimes when we can't get away, we each take a glass of wine out, some roasted peanuts to snack on (which everyone loves) and just enjoy watching the goats graze and the chickens scratch....without giving ourselves a hard time for not using the time for cutting down brambles, hauling hay, etc etc.

Comment by Tina on May 21, 2012 at 2:42pm: Cook, Clean, train dogs, walk, yoga, weed, yell at Rabbits! Oh...and enjoy a nice glass of Portuguese Red!

Comment by Jeff Hamons on May 21, 2012 at 11:10pm: Its funny what we consider conveneience food now -- our go to quick meal is a roasted chicken. Put it in the oven right before chores -- throw on a few herbs and some oil and when we get back in -- its done.

 Synergistic Acres - Kansas City Natural Farm

Comment by NHF on May 22, 2012 at 8:14am: Thank you for writing this! It's funny how validated it made me feel. I am constantly in awe of how we have no time or are too tired to cook and how the dishes pile up! I'm always saying, "We're just two people, how can we have so many dishes?" But when you cook EVERY meal at home it's very difficult. One thing that we found to be wonderful is to can chicken and turkey meat. We'll take a weekend and cook a turkey or a few chickens and then can the meat. It's very easy to grab a can for a quick meal of chicken salad for lunch or stir-fried chicken and veggies for dinner. I also love the crockpot because I can put something in before chores in the morning and come in at dark to a meal. It's always ironic to me that we are too busy growing and producing healthy food to actually sit down and eat it!

Comment by Little Seed Farm on May 22, 2012 at 10:06pm: Canning meat is a really interesting idea. Seems so weird when I think about doing it myself, but then I look back on how much 'canned' meat I've eaten in soups and other canned items and then I realize it would be so much better if I did it myself. Just like most things food related...

Taking a drink out to the pasture and watching the animals is definitely high up on the list of enjoyable farm activities!