2009 Year of the Backyard Chicken!

http://www.urbanchickens.net/2009/12/2009-urban-chickens-year-in-review.html

Getting your veggies in the winter:

http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/12/28/eliot-coleman/

White House promotes growing your own...

I'm so excited that the White House is promoting season extension techniques for growing. (Ok the cast of characters is a bit heavy handed, but hooray!)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/16/planting-winter-garden

Self Fed getting off the ground

Armed with tremendous new blog energy, I scrambled frantically to find some eating from your environment content for December on the east coast. Strangely, I did find that there was a wild food foraging event in Central Park NYC last Sunday - alas I had to work, and all of my aquaintences in NYC were otherwise engaged that day - so, reporting on foraging in Central Park will need to wait for spring - but in the meantime, you can check out the website for "Wildman Steve Brill" who conducts the tours:

http://wildmanstevebrill.com/

And here is an excerpt about his tours:

Eating Central Park

By Timothy C. Greenleaf

Passers-by frequently hear the rustle of little feet scurrying through the underbrush as they run, jog, or roller blade past the wooded areas in Central Park. When a closer inspection is made, observant individuals are often treated to a strange sight: nearly 30 enthusiastic first graders, each wearing a pair of latex surgical gloves and clutching a plastic ziploc bag, all flock around a man who easily could be the basis for a cartoon caricature of an explorer of the African jungle-pith helmet, full beard, thick glasses, and soiled pants. As they run amuck, they frequently scream, "WILDMAN! What's this?" continues at: http://www.timgreenleaf.com/writing/wildman.php

Next up I'll be looking at ways to grow and produce food during the wintertime at home, including breadmaking and indoor sprouting and growing. One place to start for now is the new book Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces.

http://www.growgreatgrub.com/

This new book is by Gayla Trail, author of the "You Grow Girl" website, who's a Canadian gardener.

I invite readers to suggest other sites and blogs that support the mission of SelfFed- to improve health, nutrition and the environment by focusing on developing food in our immediate environment.

What can each of us do to feed ourselves, family and neighbors? Grow something, make bread, glean fruits from city streets, share with your community? These are the stories that will show how people grow and prepare foods, save money and save the environment.

Food miles? Forget it. We are going for ZERO miles here folks! How can we not get in the car? Eat food that is as fresh and nutritious as it can be? Even just a little bit, even if you live in a city apartment. I'll be posting stories as I find them. I'd love to hear yours too.

Valerie

Welcome to SelfFed. This blog is dedicated to the idea that once most of us knew how to feed ourselves - how to forage, hunt, grow, collect and prepare food. This meant we and our immediate communities were responsible for our daily bread. No government, organization or corporation was going to feed us. At various times in history, powers learned to exploit our need for food to control us, even an early Chinese emperor said, "he who controls the rice, controls the people." But until very recently, a majority of people still had what it takes to feed themselves, with a little help from their families, their communities, using human power, animal power and the power of the sun. Food didn't travel far and in season, when times were good, people ate fresh food at its peak.

What if each of us began to feed ourselves again? Little by little -doing what we can. Weather you live on land, in an apartment, on a boat... Growing a little something- a garden, a jar of sprouts, bread yeast... and making what we can right at home, for ourselves, our families and our neighbors...not getting in the car, buying only the essential startup supplies. What if everyone did a little something? Would we all be a little better nourished, use less energy, get to know our neighbors? What if we taught our skills to others? What if...