No more Bisquik

We're trying to be locavores - about 50% most days but maybe reaching up to 75% (ok, I can't give up everything that's not local because we're in zone 4A and we love avocados and other delicious things).  We are also trying to eat only sustainable, real food.  By real, I mean the definition from Michael Pollan's books (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, Food Rules).  This means nothing included in the meal that you wouldn't have in your own pantry and nothing that you can't pronounce.  We were inspired by his books, as well as Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
We like to garden, make use of what we have (including things people commonly consider weeds), and we like to eat really well.  Jaimie likes to do most of the cooking and I like to do meal planning and baking.  We both enjoy harvesting and brewing.  He mostly enjoys brewing beer, while I enjoy brewing mead (a honey-based wine).  Luckily, there's an apiary in our town.

Here's the run-down of our September (I'm sure I'm missing a few things):
*more than a dozen jars of green tomato jam (I had to pull the tomatoes.  It's getting cold out).
*LOTS of salsa
*dehydrated tomatoes (great for tomato risotto or just as a sweet treat).
*dehydrated apple rings
*apple butter
*apple sauce
*pickles - sweet and dill (of cukes, beets, beans and green tomatoes)
*jalapeno jelly and ghost pepper jelly
*mint jelly
*habanero chocolate cake
*dried herbs: oregano, basil, dill, mint, thyme
*freezing of lots of veggies/fruits: carrots, zucchini, apples, various berries (ok, berries weren't in Sept)
*8 jars of mango jam (definitely not local mangoes, but on the clearance rack at the Asian food store).
*key lime pie (key limes also from the Asian food store).
*peach cobbler with matching peach ice cream (the ice cream is the BEST I have ever tasted.  I'm so grateful for the Christmas gift of an ice cream maker last year).
*lots of breads (We haven't bought bread, except for 1 loaf while camping, in a year).

We also made things earlier in the season, including violet jelly and violet syrup, lots of ice cream and sorbets (especially from our home grown watermelon), and various desserts from berry picking.

We've stocked our freezer with local, sustainable meats: chicken, lamb, & soon, beef, all from people we know who raise their animals well.  After 18 years of eating no mammals, I have decided to try to eat some food with meats that are raised well (which basically means not much from the grocery store).

This first post was not so much for bragging purposes, but just a taste of what you'll likely be seeing here.