In mid-Spetember 2008 Cincinnatians were without electricity for days or weeks. At that same time, gas was outrageously expensive. Grocery stores were closed. Lives where upheaved and wallets assaulted. What else to do but go out for breakfast, lunch and supper?
What else, indeed.
We plan each week's menu on Sunday morning. From that menu, and given what we have on hand, and what I expect to harvest that week, we make a grocery list and go shopping. Our power didn't go out until after we'd returned from the store that Sunday. This was our menu-- as posted on the fridge door-- for that week.
We have a gas range and several grills and smokers and were well supplied with charcoal and propane. Thanks to a neighbor, we were able to keep the deep freeze and two refrigerators running in the basement. We would have been o.k. anyway because we had a lot of ice on hand.
This was our menu for the week of the "big storm." You'll note that some adjustments were made-- we grilled instead of baking. Except for the potatoes, all of the veggies we ate came from the garden-- and this includes homemade tomato sauce we'd frozen earlier. All of the salad dressings were homemade. The okra & veggie fritters were delicious. We took some over to our neighbor.
The "extras" section on the menu is basically what we put up that week. Pure chili powder was made from hot peppers (Thai and habenero, I believe) from the garden. Chili & tomato sauces. Stewed tomatoes. Pickles. We're still eating these now well into February.
We carried on pretty much as we had planned that week and into the next. The garden and some prior preparations meant we weren't disturbed by Duke Energy's incompetence.
We were free to to about our business.
This, too, is part of Guerilla Farming Philosophy.
